Syria’s President Ahmed al-Sharaa and Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman witnessed the signing of several agreements, including a defense cooperation deal and more than US$ 403 million in loans for Syria’s energy, housing, health and infrastructure sectors. The two countries’ defense ministries signed the agreement on Wednesday, according to the official Saudi agency. The Saudi Fund for Development loans include US$ 100 million to rebuild and equip damaged healthcare facilities, US$ 60 million to repair damaged housing, US$ 105 million to strengthen civil defense, US$ 90 million to rehabilitate the Aleppo thermal power plant and US$ 30 million for drinking water systems in Damascus and Idlib. The defense agreement came days after Syria’s Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani said his government was weighing whether to join a mutual defense pact among Saudi Arabia, Turkiye and Pakistan.
Theme: Syria
Articles and notes about Syria.
Syrian President Ahmad Al Shara arrived in Riyadh on Wednesday with a delegation including the foreign, defense, finance and industry ministers and the head of the General Intelligence Directorate, on his second visit to the kingdom in weeks, after a trip to Riyadh on October 6. He and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman witnessed the signing of agreements covering military cooperation, energy and infrastructure, and the Syrian Foreign Ministry said the defense agreement was the most notable but gave no details. The package included a cooperation agreement between the two countries’ defense ministries. Syria is in negotiations to join the Makkah defense pact, and Foreign Minister Asaad Al Shibani said at the Manama Dialogue in Bahrain that Damascus considers “security in the Gulf as part of its own.”
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa arrived in Riyadh on an official visit on Wednesday and met with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at Al-Yamamah Palace, according to the Saudi Press Agency (SPA). Ministers and senior officials from both countries attended the meeting. It is al-Sharaa’s sixth visit to Saudi Arabia since taking office in January 2025. The talks addressed bilateral relations and ways to develop and strengthen cooperation between the two countries in various fields.
A poll by the Doha-based Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies and the Arab Center for Contemporary Syria Studies found that 61 percent of respondents named Israel as the main threat to Syria, against 20 percent who named Iran, 6 percent Turkey and 5 percent the United States; the results were published on Monday. Some 97 percent said Israel threatens the security and stability of the Middle East, up from 78 percent a year earlier. Almost 80 percent oppose recognizing Israel, up from 74 percent in 2025, and 74 percent oppose any agreement that does not return the occupied Golan Heights. On the US-Israel war on Iran, 80 percent said Iranian missile strikes on Israel were justified, and three-quarters said Washington had waged the war on Israel's behalf.
Syrian authorities said they arrested two members of a Hezbollah cell and seized explosives allegedly intended for use on the Homs refinery, the last facility operational after the civil war. The state agency SANA reported the foiled plot on Sunday, and in early October Damascus had reported sabotage attacks first against an oil pipeline and then a gas one.
Lebanon's Labor Minister Mohammad Haidar, who was appointed by Hezbollah, visited Syria on Monday with three other Lebanese ministers, the first time a member of the group has been formally welcomed in Damascus since the fall of the Assad regime. The delegation, led by Deputy Prime Minister Tarek Mitri, discussed refugee returns, border security, education and bilateral cooperation. Haidar said the trip is ministerial work with no partisan link.
Israeli forces advanced into the village of al-Asbah in rural southern Quneitra with five military vehicles, according to a Syria TV report published by Middle East Eye. According to Sijil, a Syrian initiative tracking Israeli violations in the country, Israeli forces committed seven violations on Monday before the latest incursion, including other incursions, checkpoints and aircraft overflights.
Syria's Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani said on Saturday, during a session on regional security at the Manama Dialogue in Bahrain, that Damascus is considering joining the Mecca alliance, a mutual defense pact between Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan. Under the agreement, signed on August 7 in Mecca, an attack on one signatory is treated as an attack on all three, an arrangement similar in principle to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which has 32 member states. Samy Akil, an analyst at Syria Report, told Middle East Eye the talks are at an early stage and that Syria is unlikely to become the pact's fourth member in the near term.
Syria's special services said they exposed a terrorist plot against an oil refinery in the city of Homs, according to the TASS news agency. Suicide vests, makeshift explosive devices, electronic equipment for remote detonation and detailed maps of the facility were seized from the detainees.
Syria’s Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani said on Saturday at the Manama Dialogue in Bahrain that discussions are under way to evaluate Syria’s entry into the Mecca alliance, according to Al Jazeera. The Mecca Joint Defense Agreement was signed by Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan in the Saudi city of Mecca in August and states that an attack on one country is to be considered an attack on all three. Arab News also heard from the Syrian foreign minister that Damascus was considering whether to join the defense alliance binding Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.
Jordanian border guards stopped 14 armed individuals trying to cross into northern Jordan from Syria, the armed forces said in a statement on Saturday. The group tried to infiltrate on Friday under heavy fire and direct engagement, causing numerous casualties among the armed group, while the remaining members fled back into Syria, according to the armed forces, in a Reuters text republished by Arab News.
Syria’s Foreign Minister, Asaad al-Shaibani, said on Saturday that Israel had carried out more than 1,000 attacks on his country in less than two years, killing dozens of people, according to Anadolu. His remarks came during a session on regional security at the Manama Dialogue 2026, according to the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA). He called for a return to the lines in place before Dec. 8, 2024, and for the implementation of the 1974 Disengagement Agreement.
Syria’s Foreign Minister, Asaad al-Shaibani, said on Saturday that Damascus is weighing whether to join the Makkah defense pact, which binds Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Türkiye, according to Dawn; TRT World also reported his remarks. At the Manama Dialogue in Bahrain, he said: “Discussions are currently underway to evaluate Syria’s entry into the Makkah alliance.” The Makkah Joint Defense Agreement, signed on Aug. 7, empowers the three members to consider an armed attack on one of them an attack on all.
Syria said on Wednesday that a French jihadist was killed in a shootout with security forces in the country's northwest, the latest violence involving foreign fighters since Syria's new authorities took power, according to The Hindu.
Jordan and Syria agreed on Tuesday to set up a joint security committee to investigate Jordanian airstrikes in southern Syria and step up coordination, according to TRT World. Seven people were killed and three injured in Monday’s strikes, according to Al Ekhbariya TV citing Daraa’s health directorate, and Jordan’s army said the targets belonged to groups tied to Friday’s attack on worshippers at a church in Hamoud, in Karak province.
Jordan’s air force struck targets in southern Syria it describes as terrorist hideouts, tied to the attack on a Greek Orthodox church in Karak, according to Arab News. Damascus says civilians were killed. In Jordan, seven people were killed in an attack on a funeral, according to the BBC.
Syria closed its Nasib border crossing with Jordan on Tuesday, suspending passenger and commercial traffic in both directions, according to Anadolu. Syria's Civil Defence said its crews had recovered the bodies of seven people — three men, a woman and three children, according to Al Jazeera. The Jordanian military said the strikes on Syria were launched “in coordination with the Syrian government”, which Syria denied.
New rules announced earlier in October by Syria's education ministry restrict certain courses at the two new defense and security colleges exclusively to men, and almost all of them at the security university, according to DW. The colleges are the National University of Defense Sciences and the Syrian University for Security Sciences. The decision has caused controversy inside and outside the country.
Jordan said on Monday that its air force struck what it described as militant hideouts in southern Syria, after determining that the attackers behind last week's deadly church attack were linked to terrorist groups operating there, according to the Jerusalem Post. There was no immediate comment from Syrian authorities, and it was not clear whether the strikes were carried out in coordination with Damascus. The Xinhua news agency also reported Jordan's airstrikes on those behind the church attack.
Israeli forces killed a man with a disability during a raid into southern Syria on Thursday, Syrian authorities said, according to the Middle East Eye.
Israeli forces shot dead a man with a disability in the village of Jamla, in Daraa’s western countryside, where they had deployed snipers on rooftops, early on Thursday, according to Syria’s state news agency Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA), cited by Al Jazeera. The victim’s body was taken to Daraa National Hospital, the agency added. The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the report. In a raid on Thursday in the village of Turnejeh, in the Quneitra countryside, Israeli forces searched homes and detained one person, according to SANA.
Israeli troops entered the village of Jamlah, in the western countryside of Daraa, with snipers on rooftops and house searches, according to Anadolu, a day after Israeli tanks shelled the outskirts of Abidin village in western Daraa, also according to Anadolu. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights recorded an Israeli patrol of two vehicles in the Wadi al-Raqad area of western Daraa, according to the Middle East Eye.
A high-ranking Syrian government official told the Jerusalem Post that Damascus fears Druze armed groups will launch an offensive against government forces in the southern province of Sweida in the coming days, with Israel encouraging and supporting the operation. The official said Israeli aerial reconnaissance over Sweida and surrounding areas had intensified, along with more reconnaissance flights over Damascus and southern Syria.
Syria and the World Bank Group have agreed to establish a multi-donor fund to support the country’s recovery and reconstruction, the SANA news agency reported, citing the parties’ joint statement. The fund is intended to provide concessional financing, investment guarantees and technical support, as well as strengthen the country’s institutional capacity.
Al Jazeera has ascertained that at least 51 Syrians are still detained inside Israel, many of them first at the Sde Teiman military prison and later transferred to facilities run by the Israel Prison Service. In September, the Syrian Sijil Center, which monitors Israeli activity, documented 280 Israeli violations of the 1974 agreement between the two countries, including incursions, raids and arrests, as well as artillery and machine-gun fire, according to Al Jazeera.
An explosion struck the Jbessa gas pipeline in southern Hasakah province in the late afternoon, hours after damage to a pipeline carrying oil products from the coastal city of Baniyas to Homs caused a fuel leak, Al Jazeera reported, citing SANA. The state-run Syrian Petroleum Company said the gas pipeline had been targeted in a “sabotage attack”, according to SANA.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed on Thursday that he spoke with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa and claimed he stopped last year’s massacres of Druze in Syria. According to Netanyahu, the conversation was very short and very sharp, and the massacre stopped.
The Israeli army has arrested more than 200 people in southern Syria since the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in December 2024, according to the Sijil Centre, which tracks Israeli activity in Syria, in a France 24 Observers report. Witnesses have denounced the arbitrary arrests, and former detainees and their loved ones have raised concerns over detention conditions.
Syria’s central bank said on Sunday that it issued its first letter of credit in 14 years to facilitate a petroleum products supply deal between the Syrian Petroleum Company and Saudi Aramco, according to the Jerusalem Post. The bank said the transaction was arranged in coordination with a major US bank, which it did not name, opening a channel to finance oil imports and settle payments through the formal banking system.
The Council for a Secure America ranked Kuwait as the Middle Eastern country most likely to join the Abraham Accords, followed by Lebanon and Syria, according to the Jerusalem Post, in a Media Line text. The “Expansion Opportunities: Middle East Analysis” report of October 8 assessed nine Muslim-majority countries without formal diplomatic relations with Israel. Lebanon placed second after signing a US-brokered “Trilateral Framework” in June; Syria placed third after talks accelerated post-Assad.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, expressed concern over the continuing impact of Israeli military operations on civilians in southern Syria, including raids on homes, restrictions on movement, harassment, arbitrary detention and destruction of livelihoods. The UN office continues to document the detention of Syrians by Israeli forces and said 49 Syrians remain in Israeli custody, a total it has not independently and comprehensively verified. According to Middle East Eye, Israel carried out 280 armed incursions into Syria in September, the highest monthly number of the year.
Syria’s Islamist government barred women from several university and technical programs, excluding them from military engineering, legal and social sciences, management and economics at the National University for Defense Sciences, a move high-school graduate Israa Salloum rejected by telling AFP that no one has the right to force her to choose a field of study or exclude her from another, according to RT.
Reuters reported that Syria is considering providing military assistance to Saudi Arabia, including defensive aid or sending forces to fight the Houthis alongside Riyadh-backed Yemeni troops. Ahmad Zaidan, media adviser to Syrian President Ahmad Al Shara, denied the reports and called any Saudi request for Syrian forces in Saudi Arabia or Yemen “lies”. Syria’s foreign ministry condemned Houthi attacks on Saudi civilian installations, including Abha International Airport and King Khalid International Airport, which killed three people and injured 36.
Syrian general Bassam al-Hassan, who ran Syria’s chemical weapons programme and was a senior advisor to former President Bashar al-Assad, has been living in Lebanon under US protection since Assad’s government was toppled in late 2024, according to a joint NPR and BBC investigation released on Thursday, because he has provided information about the abduction of American journalist Austin Tice.
Syria has called for an “independent and transparent” investigation into the sinking of the Alfa Watan cargo ship, demanding answers over the fate of its 10 crew members — nine Syrians and an Egyptian —, who remain unaccounted for, Al Jazeera reported. The Togolese-flagged vessel went down in Bulgaria’s exclusive economic zone early on Tuesday.
Syria is considering giving military assistance to Saudi Arabia in the war against the Houthis — with options including defensive aid or deploying forces in support of Saudi-backed Yemeni troops — although the Syrian president's media adviser denies that Riyadh requested Syrian forces, according to The Jerusalem Post.
Bassam al-Hassan is being bankrolled and protected by American and Lebanese authorities, according to a BBC investigation. He was offered residency, protection and help securing his living needs in return for information, primarily about journalist Austin Tice. Officials from two branches of Syria’s new government told the BBC they want Hassan back to face trial — but that the American authorities want him kept in Lebanon.
Israeli troops shelled late on Wednesday the outskirts of a village in Syria’s southern Quneitra province, according to the Sana news agency — two artillery rounds landed in agricultural areas surrounding Al-Samdaniya Al-Sharqiya, causing no injuries.
Syrian state media reported an explosion in Beit Jinn, west of Damascus, according to Mehr News in English.
The Israeli army killed a man in southern Syria early on Monday, as it continues to carry out raids in the country, according to Middle East Eye. The army claimed the man attempted to enter one of its military posts when troops opened fire and killed him, according to Middle East Eye.
Syria’s Al-Ikhbariah TV reported that Israeli forces shelled farmland between Buraiqa and Kodana in southern Quneitra, according to the Middle East Eye. Syria, Qatar and Jordan denounced Israel’s resumed excavation work on the “Sofa 53” project in Syria’s Quneitra province. Syria’s Foreign Ministry said the resumption of excavation work near the separation line with the occupied Syrian Golan Heights was a “flagrant breach” of the 1974 deal.
Israeli forces opened artillery fire on a demilitarized zone in Quneitra Governorate in southern Syria, according to TASS, which cited Al Mayadeen TV channel. Shell impacts were recorded in the countryside near the Al-Mantara dam, with no civilian casualties reported, according to TASS. Israeli forces also shelled an area southeast of the town of Al-Rafid in the southern Quneitra countryside in southwestern Syria, according to Anadolu Agency.
Israel’s army fired three shells at the Al-Mantara Dam area in Quneitra, in southern Syria, on Wednesday, with no immediate reports of casualties or damage, according to Syrian media cited by Anadolu Ajansı.
The Deir Ali, Nasiriyah and Tishreen power plants went out of service after an explosion on a gas line at the Tishreen thermal power plant, according to the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA). The shutdown of the three plants will temporarily reduce electricity generation and increase power rationing hours. A gas pipeline in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor, which borders Iraq, exploded and caught fire after an isolation valve blast, interrupting gas flows to power stations, in an incident Syrian authorities attribute to sabotage, according to The National.
At least seven people were killed and four were wounded, two of them critically, after unknown assailants opened fire on a vehicle near the Masyaf Bridge in Homs, according to the Homs Media Directorate, cited by Middle East Eye.
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa said he cannot entertain diplomatic relations with Israel while the rights of Syrians are usurped, citing as core concerns the territories Israel has occupied since December 2024 and the Golan Heights, speaking at a panel hosted by the Washington-based think tank Atlantic Council on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, according to Middle East Eye. He said talks with Israel reached ‘almost 90 per cent’ agreement before Israeli pullbacks and that Damascus regards the Golan as Syrian territory whose sovereignty is not open to negotiation, according to the Jerusalem Post. Al-Sharaa also said Russia kept 170 bases in Syria and now operates two, both for training Syrian forces, according to Middle East Eye.