Lebanon’s Prime Minister Meets With Syrian Leader
The visit by Prime Minister Najib Mikati was the first official trip by the Lebanese leader to meet with the new government of Syria.
The visit by Prime Minister Najib Mikati was the first official trip by the Lebanese leader to meet with the new government of Syria.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s order for Israeli troops to “take over” a buffer zone with Syria upended decades of relative calm along the de facto border between the two countries.
The country’s new leaders are pushing to restore a sense of normalcy. But Syria remains under a host of international sanctions imposed during the Assad regime.
Residents of Syria’s capital are picnicking on a once-forbidden mountaintop and trading openly in dollars and imported Nescafe. They say the city seems theirs again.
Tensions are high on Syria’s border with Lebanon. The ouster of President Bashar al-Assad led to worry that violence could spill over into neighboring countries.
Top diplomats from Germany and France went to Damascus on behalf of the European Union. It’s the first such trip in years, part of a flurry of Western outreach.
In a matter of days, Syria’s capital — once the stronghold of Bashar al-Assad’s government — became the epicenter of a new chapter in the country’s history after opposition forces…