Your regional news round-up

• Syria today marks a year since the fall of the former regime - a moment that created a geopolitical shift across the region and beyond. The National’s correspondents are on the ground covering developments, offering analysis on what this turning point meant, what comes next, and producing dispatches from across the country on Syrians’ biggest concerns, from still searching for their missing loved ones to rebuilding a shattered economy.
• Ahead of the anniversary, Syrian President Ahmad Al Shara was forced to defend his past on stage at the Doha Forum, after being introduced as a former terrorist, insisting he has “never harmed a civilian” during more than two decades of fighting.
• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would not retire from political life in exchange for a pardon for his long-running corruption trial - the latest twist in a saga gripping Israeli politics after US President Donald Trump intervened on his behalf.
• The US, Israel and Qatar were expected to hold a meeting in New York on Sunday, Axios reported, months after an Israeli strike on Hamas officials in Doha.
• Egypt’s Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty said the US will “announce the establishment of a Board of Peace in the coming period”. Speaking to The National on the sidelines of the Doha Forum in Qatar, Mr Abdelatty outlined the next steps for Gaza’s administration. He said an immediate priority is the establishment of a Palestinian Administrative Committee.
• The GCC condemned comments made by Iranian officials that undermine the sovereignty of Bahrain, the UAE’s rights over its three islands, and the sovereignty of the Durra offshore oil field, jointly owned by Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

Other developments

• At least 50 people were killed, including 33 children, when a drone bomb hit a kindergarten in the south-central region of Sudan, a doctors’ group said. The African Union stated that as many as 100 people were killed in the attack.
• Israeli soldiers shot and killed a teenage Palestinian driver and a bystander in the occupied West Bank, an Israeli security official said. He said the motorist "accelerated" towards soldiers at a checkpoint, resulting in an "uninvolved person" being hit.
• Tens of thousands of people in the occupied West Bank are being barred from returning to their homes, almost one year since Israel launched a large-scale military operation in the territory, Roland Friedrich, director of UNRWA affairs in the West Bank, told The National.
• US envoy Tom Barrack said, in an interview with The National, that he is confident Israel and Syria can strike a deal on the border and security.
• Israel poses a greater threat than Iran to regional stability, Saudi former diplomat Prince Turki Al Faisal told the Milken Institute's Middle East and Africa Summit in Abu Dhabi.

More goings-on

• Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, met Ecuador President Daniel Noboa who was visiting the UAE on Sunday. Earlier, Mr Noboa inaugurated his country's embassy in Abu Dhabi.
• Payments company Visa is set to restart operations in Syria after more than a decade, after signing an agreement with the country’s central bank.
• Wizz Air said it has avoided raising ticket prices for Tel Aviv flights, against a backdrop of Israel's sky-high fares after foreign carriers suspended services during the Gaza war and left local airlines with little competition.

Happening today

• BRIDGE Summit in Abu Dhabi begins
• First day of Abu Dhabi Finance Week

Top picks from The National

Editorial: ‘Syria must stay the course for a better future

Interview: Bill Gates renews call to eradicate polio and malaria with UAE as key partner

Buzz of Gaza's beehives silenced by Israel's war

This newsletter was compiled by Mohamad Ali Harisi, Foreign Editor.

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