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Added on the 03/05/2023 15:52:31 - Copyright : AFPTV - First images
The United States criticizes the top diplomat of ally the United Arab Emirates for meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, denouncing efforts to rehabilitate a "brutal dictator." "We are concerned by reports of this meeting and the signal it sends," State Department spokesman Ned Price tells reporters. SOUNDBITE
Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Moscow to discuss what the Russian leader described as an "escalation" in the Middle East. The meeting late Wednesday comes at a time when Russia, which saved Assad's government through its military intervention in 2015 during a civil war, could mediate to defuse tensions between Syria and Turkey. IMAGES
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad casts his vote in Syria's fourth parliamentary election since the civil war erupted in 2011, a poll expected to keep his ruling Baath party in power. More than 1,500 people are standing for 250 seats in the largely rubber-stamp parliament, after some 7,400 candidates withdrew in recent days, according to Syria's Supreme Judicial Elections Committee. IMAGES
Iran asked arch-enemy the United States for assistance after a helicopter crash that killed president Ebrahim Raisi, the US State Department says, without providing further details. SOUNDBITE
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has asked China's foreign minister and other counterparts to use their influence to dissuade Iran from striking Israel, the State Department says. Blinken spoke by telephone to his Chinese, Turkish, Saudi and European counterparts "to make clear that escalation is not in anyone's interest and that countries should urge Iran not to escalate," State Department spokesman Matthew Miller tells reporters. SOUNDBITE