Middle East live: Syria denounces Israeli strike as 'flagrant violation of sovereignty'
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By: FRANCE 24 An Israeli tank stands in position near the ceasefire line between the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and Syria, on its Israeli side August 20, 2026. © Ayal Margolin, Reuters Syria on Saturday condemned an Israeli strike southwest of Damascus that wounded one person as a “flagrant violation of sovereignty”. The attack followed a similar strike on Tuesday, which was criticised by US ambassador to Turkey and envoy for Syria Tom Barrack. Since Bashar al-Assad’s ouster in 2024, Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in Syria and sent troops into a UN-patrolled buffer zone that for decades separated Israeli and Syrian forces on the Golan. Follow our liveblog for the latest updates.
An explosive device detonated on a bus carrying security forces near the Syrian capital on Saturday, resulting in injuries among the passengers, state media reported.
"An explosive device targeted a bus carrying Internal Security Forces personnel on the Maarounah-al-Tal road in Damascus countryside, leaving several personnel injured," state news agency SANA reported, adding that the attack was under investigation.
Former British and French diplomats are urging action over what they say is Israel’s "erasure"of Palestine. More than 100 of those diplomats have penned a letter to the French President and the British Prime Minister calling for a ban on trade and arms sales to press Israel to accept a Palestinian state.
FRANCE 24 speaks to one of the signatories – Sir Vincent Fean, British former Consul-General Jerusalem and current trustee of the Britain Palestine Project to understand what does he hope the letter will achieve?
An Iranian military official called on Qatar on Saturday to transfer detained Iranian pilots to a hospital on land, saying they were being held on water and were in "poor physical condition", Tasnim news agency reported.
Mohammad Baqerzadeh, commander of the Committee for the Search for Missing Persons of Iran's Armed Forces General Staff, said the location where the pilots were being held was unsuitable and requested that the International Committee of the Red Cross send an air ambulance to Qatar to expedite the return of injured and sick detainees to Iran.
The repair of Iran's South Pars Phase 14 gas refinery, hit during an Israeli attack in June last year, is 70% complete, the Pars Oil and Gas Company's chief executive said, according to Iran's oil ministry news agency SHANA.
The refinery would be fully restored by the end of the year, CEO Touraj Dehqani said, and the damaged section will be fully integrated into the production cycle, he added.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz on Saturday condemned US ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack, who is also Washington's point man on Syria, after he criticised an Israeli strike on a Syrian military base near Turkey.
Katz wrote on X that Israel had passed on "intelligence information to the authorised parties in the United States" before the strike, and that Barrack's comment was "full of inaccuracies and positions that contradict the stance of US President (Donald) Trump himself regarding the Golan Heights".
Syria condemned an Israeli strike southwest of Damascus that wounded one person on Saturday, the second such attack in a week.
"This attack constitutes a flagrant violation of the sovereignty of the Syrian Arab Republic and the integrity of its territory, and a blatant breach of international law, and comes in the context of repeated Israeli attacks on Syrian territory," the foreign ministry said in a statement.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz on Saturday condemned US ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack, who is also Washington's point man on Syria, after he criticised an Israeli strike on a Syrian military base near Turkey.
Katz wrote on X that Israel had passed on "intelligence information to the authorised parties in the United States" before the strike, and that Barrack's comment was "full of inaccuracies and positions "contradict the stance of US President (Donald) Trump himself regarding the Golan Heights".
On Tuesday, Israel bombed the disused Abu Duhur base in northwestern Syria, which was damaged during the country's civil war and has been out of service since 2012, claiming it wanted to avert Turkish troops deploying to the facility.
Shortly after the strike, Barrack wrote on X that the US was "deeply concerned" that the strikes constitued an "unnecessary escalation".
Turkey and Israel traded insults on Friday, after Ankara announced it was seeking an international arrest warrant for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, accusing him of "genocide" because of the interception of an aid flotilla bound for Gaza. Netanyahu's office accused Turkey of hypocrisy. Our correspondent in Turkey Jasper Mortimer analyses the situation.
The repair of Iran's South Pars Phase 14 gas refinery, hit during an Israeli attack in June last year, is 70% complete, the Pars Oil and Gas Company's chief executive said, according to Iran's oil ministry news agency SHANA.
The refinery would be fully restored by the end of the year, CEO Touraj Dehqani said, and the damaged section will be fully integrated into the production cycle, he added.
The United States and Iran exchanged defiant messages ahead of Monday's scheduled announcement of new US economic sanctions that could impact the Islamic Republic and Tehran's most important trading partners including China.
Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said on Saturday that the imminent US announcement of new economic sanctions on Iran was an "assertion of extraterritorial sovereignty over every independent member state of the United Nations."
US President Donald Trump, who has warned of economic consequences against any country that provides "any type of lifeline to Iran," said on Friday that Washington was observing "what happens" in the conflict.
An Iranian military official called on Qatar on Saturday to…
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