Syria

24 Apr 2021; MEMO: Fourteen Syrian candidates have announced their nomination for the presidential elections slated for next month, in addition to current President Bashar Al-Assad, RT reported on Friday.

Until Thursday, the People's Assembly of Syria had received 12 application for the presidency, as well as the application filed by Al-Assad.

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — The Syrian government received a batch of 203,000 COVID-19 vaccines Thursday, the health minister said, in a move aimed at speeding up a sluggish inoculation process in the war-torn country.

The arrival of the United Nations-secured jabs came as a new wave of infections has overwhelmed medical centers around Syria. The AstraZeneca vaccines will be part of a campaign aiming to vaccinate 20% of the country’s population before the end of the year.

DAMASCUS, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Wednesday applied to run for the Syrian presidential elections slated for May, according to the state news agency SANA.

Hamoudeh al-Sabbagh, the Syrian parliament speaker, said that so far, six people, including a woman, have applied to take part in the presidential race, and more people are expected to apply in the coming days.

The election campaign start as of April 19 for 10 days.

IDLIB, Syria (AP) — Syria’s last rebel-held enclave received its first batch of COVID-19 vaccines on Wednesday, with a refrigerated truck offloading over 50,000 of United Nations-secured jabs in the overcrowded province.

The AstraZeneca vaccines were delivered to Idlib province through a border crossing with Turkey, the northwestern territory’s only gateway to the outside world. Idlib health official Yasser Najib said jabs were provided through the UN-led COVAX program for the world’s poorest nations.

18 Apr 2021; MEMO: Syria will hold a presidential election on May 26 that is virtually certain to return President Bashar al-Assad for a third term – an event that Washington and the opposition say is a farce designed to cement his autocratic rule, Reuters reported.

Assad's family and his Baath party have ruled Syria for five decades with the help of the security forces and the army, where his Alawite minority dominate.

(Reuters) --- Syria will hold a presidential election on May 26 that is virtually certain to return President Bashar al-Assad for a third term - an event that Washington and the opposition say is a farce designed to cement his autocratic rule.

Assad's family and his Baath party have ruled Syria for five decades with the help of the security forces and the army, where his Alawite minority dominate.

This year is the 10th anniversary of a bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protesters which triggered a civil war that has left much of Syria in ruins.

DAMASCUS, Apr 13 (NNN-SANA) – The Syrian Foreign Ministry, yesterday demanded compensation from the United States for the “damage” caused by the U.S. actions in Syria.

The ministry demanded compensation for the “heavy damage and heavy losses inflicted by the U.S. aggression and occupation against the Syrian people.”

It further said that Syria holds the U.S. administration responsible for “its criminal policies against the Syrian people.”

DAMASCUS, Apr 10 (NNN-SANA) – Director of “Stone Industry Association” in Russia , Dmitri Mediansev, said, the restoration works for archaeological Arch de Triumph, in the city of Palmyra, will start on Nov 12, 2021.

“ During the past two days, some field actions were done.. we inspected the site and undertook outlining projects, in cooperation with General Directorate of Antiquities and Museums in Syria,” Mediansev said, following a meeting held between Syrian ruin experts and their Russian counterpart, at the National Museum of Damascus.

07 Apr 2021; MEMO: Syria's fuel crisis has deepened in the areas under the regime's control resulting in long queues of vehicles at petrol stations.

Local media yesterday quoted sources as saying the halt of fuel supply from the areas controlled by the Kurdish Peoples' Protection Unit (YPG) to the Syrian regime-controlled areas had "deepened the country's fuel crisis."

DAMASCUS, April 2 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Inside the emergency room of a hospital of the Syrian capital, an elderly woman with Covid-19 waited for a bed at an intensive care unit packed with coronavirus patients.

Sitting on a wheelchair barely an arms-length from another patient, the woman in her seventies tilted her head back as a doctor wedged between them covered her face with an oxygen mask.

“We receive many cases who need a ventilator, and there are many patients who need intensive care,” said the doctor, Asma Sbayni of Mouwasat Hospital, one of the largest in Damascus.