Russia To Modernize Syria Port, Build Railway Across Syria And Iraq

Russia to modernize Syria port, build railway across Syria and Iraq

The Times of Israel is liveblogging Tuesday’s developments as they unfold.

Russia to modernize Syria port, build railway across Syria and Iraq

Russia is considering a slew of major commercial projects in Syria, a senior Russian official says.

Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Borisov says after meeting with Syrian President Bashar Assad in Damascus that Russia will spend $500 million to modernize Syria’s commercial port of Tartus.

Borisov says in remarks carried by Russian news agencies that the four-year modernization program envisages an overhaul of the old port in Tartus and the construction of a new one.

He adds that there is also a plan to build a railway across Syria and Iraq that will link Syria’s Mediterranean coast with the Persian Gulf.

Russia has a Soviet-era naval base in Tartus, the only such facility outside the former Soviet Union.

In 2017, Moscow struck a deal with Assad’s government to extend its lease on Tartus for 49 years. The agreement allows Russia to keep up to 11 warships there, including nuclear-powered ones.

Hezbollah supporters attack several protest camps in Lebanon

Assailants attack several protest camps in north and south Lebanon early on Tuesday, according to state-run media, demolishing and burning tents as anger boils over in the capital following a video deemed offensive to the country’s Shiites.

The violence — some of it apparently carried out by Hezbollah supporters and their allies — threatened to plunge Lebanon further into chaos amid two months of anti-government protests and a spiraling financial crisis.

In Beirut, charred remains of several torched cars are scattered on a main highway while faint smoke smolders from a fire set in a building overlooking the epicenter of protests after a night of rage by supporters of Lebanon’s two main Shiite groups, Hezbollah and Amal.

It was the third consecutive night of violence in Lebanon, coming after the Lebanese president on Monday postponed talks on naming a new prime minister, further prolonging the unrest in the Mediterranean country.

The violence was fueled by an undated video circulating online of a man, said to be living somewhere in Europe but otherwise from Lebanon’s majority Sunni city of Tripoli, railing against Shiite politicians, religious figures and others. It was unclear what the link was between the video and the attacks on the protest camps.

Italy cartoon depicting EU as Nazi camp sparks outcry

A cartoonist in Rome sparks a heated controversy in Italy and abroad after depicting the European Union as the Nazi death camp of Auschwitz and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson as an escaping prisoner.

Artist Mario Improta posted the cartoon on his Twitter account Saturday, after Johnson’s Conservatives won a majority in the UK election. Johnson ran on a platform of “get Brexit done,” vowing to take Britain out of the European Union by the scheduled deadline of January 31.

The cartoon features Johnson waving a British flag as he flees a concentration camp with the inscription “European Union” in the same position as the words “Arbeit macht frei” (“Work sets you free”) are at the entrance of the Nazi camp.

The comparison between the EU and a concentration camp immediately prompted a wave of criticism from politicians, Rome’s Jewish community and even some of the artist’s followers on Twitter.

The Auschwitz Memorial tweets in Italian, noting that “‘Arbeit macht frei’ was a cynical illusion that the SS gave to prisoners of Auschwitz. Those words have become one of the icons of human hatred. It is painful for the memory of Auschwitz and its victims to see this symbol used and shamefully abused.”

After the widespread criticism, Improta on Monday modified the cartoon, replacing the image of the Nazi camp with a toilet and saying it wasn’t correct to “identify the EU with a concentration camp.”