BEIRUT: UNRWA Advisory Commission meetings commenced in Beirut on Tuesday, with Arab countries hosting Palestinian refugees insisting that the agency remain in control of its mandate under Resolution 302 (1949).

The agency provides services to over 5.8 million Palestinian refugees in Arab host countries, namely Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Egypt, as well as the West Bank, which believe these services provide “a stability factor in the region.”

AL-MUKALLA: The Iran-backed Houthi militia in Yemen have launched coordinated attacks on the besieged city of Taiz, threatening to undermine a fragile UN-brokered truce.

The Houthis bombarded government troops with artillery fire, heavy weapons and explosive drones on the northwestern, northeastern and northern sides of the city before launching three simultaneous ground attacks in a bid to seize control of new areas. “The Houthi attacks sparked heavy clashes with the national army troops that ended early on Tuesday,” Col. Abdul Basit Al-Baher told Arab News.

WASHINGTON: The United States said on Tuesday it awaits a constructive response from Iran on reviving the 2015 nuclear deal that excludes “extraneous” issues, a possible reference to Iran’s demand that its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) be dropped from a US terrorism list.
“We await a constructive response from the Iranians, a response that leaves behind issues that are extraneous to the JCPOA,” State Department spokesperson Ned Price said, referring to the deal formally called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

BEIRUT: Israel marked a major escalation in its years-long campaign of airstrikes in Syria, carrying out an attack last week that shut down the country’s main civilian airport in Damascus as Israel steps up efforts to stop Iranian weapons shipments to Hezbollah.
Commercial flights were still halted at Damascus International Airport five days after Friday’s pre-dawn airstrikes smashed into its runways, leaving multiple craters, and damaged the air control tower and other buildings.

LONDON: A newly inked cooperation deal between Iran and Venezuela will see the two pariah states further integrate their economies, but one oil-rich and legitimacy-poor state cannot fix the woes of another, according to experts.

On Saturday embattled Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro appeared on Iranian state media in north Tehran to sign a 20-year “cooperation agreement” with his Iranian counterpart, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi.