🇫🇷🇦🇲🇦🇿 - French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot:

With regard to Azerbaijan, I am very concerned by the rising tensions at the border. I hope that the European mission deployed there will be able to increase its numbers to observe and contain these tensions. The peace treaty must now be signed, and the arbitrary detainees and prisoners must be released.

🇵🇸🇪🇺 - EU to invest €1.6 billion until 2027 to help stabilize the West Bank and Gaza.

🇱🇧🇸🇾 - Lebanese President Joseph Aoun says the government is actively working to facilitate the return of Syrian refugees to their homeland.

🇮🇶 - Iraqi Parliament passes a bill recognizing Halabja as Iraq's 19th province.

🇱🇧🇸🇾 - Some 30,000 Alawite Syrians have fled to Lebanon over the past month due to targeted killings.

🇺🇸🇸🇾 - Israeli press says the US Army is set to withdraw from Syria within two months.

🇮🇱🇵🇸 - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits northern Gaza.

🇫🇷🇩🇿 - French President Emmanuel Macron recalls French ambassador to Algiers.

🇫🇷🇩🇿 - Paris expels 12 Algerian embassy staff in a retaliatory move after Algiers ousted 12 French diplomats.

🇸🇩🇬🇧 - London conference on Sudan raises €800 million for humanitarian aid.

🇺🇸🇸🇾 - Withdrawal is underway, long military convoys seen departing from major bases across the country.

🇺🇦🇩🇰 - Denmark confirms troop deployment to Ukraine for drone warfare training.

🇷🇸🇷🇺 - Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić confirms he will attend the Victory Day Parade in Moscow on May 9 despite EU pressure.

🇱🇧🇸🇦🇫🇷 Diplomatic sources told Al Jadeed: Paris, in coordination with Saudi Arabia, postponed the conference that was supposed to be held soon to rebuild Lebanon until next fall without setting a firm date, to allow the government to implement reforms according to its priorities.

🇺🇸🇷🇺 - Russia asks to buy Boeing jets with frozen assets in US talks.

🇷🇸🇽🇰 - New Serbian Prime Minister Đuro Macut says "Kosovo remains central to Serbia's national interest".

🇺🇸🇮🇶 - US Vice President JD Vance calls the 2003 American-led invasion of Iraq a "strategic disaster", adding that skeptical Europeans could have spoken up more forcefully against it.

🇷🇺🇩🇪🇺🇦 - Russian Foreign Ministry:

The use of Taurus missiles to strike Russia's critical infrastructure can be regarded as Germany's direct participation in the war on the side of Ukraine.

🇨🇳🇺🇸🇾🇪 - US claims a Chinese company is helping the Houthis target ships in the Red Sea with satellite images it provides.

🇷🇺🇦🇫 - Russia removes the Taliban from its list of terrorist organizations.

🇺🇸🇸🇾 - NYT confirms and says the "US is withdrawing hundreds of troops from Syria", reducing troop levels to about 1,400 from 2,000.