By Joby Warrick, Washington Post

He was known to the CIA's clandestine service as "the chemist," and few at headquarters would ever know his real name. A professor and a gifted scientist, he had been perfectly positioned for spy work, with a job that entitled him to privileges not accorded to ordinary Syrians, including a broad latitude to travel and to meet with foreigners in the crowded souks and smoke-filled cafes of the old city.

The UK's envoy to Syria, Jonathan Hargreaves, has underlined the British government’s support for a permanent and real ceasefire in Syria, strongly condemning the Assad regime and its Russian backers.

In a statement released today (February 19), Hargreaves said, "Justice and accountability are the key to the urgently needed negotiated settlement to end the conflict."

In an official sense, at least, the situation on Syria’s borders has hardly changed at all over the past couple years. The Western agenda still excluded any international solution comparable to what the Dayton Accords established in the former Yugoslavia. Russia and its partners in the “Astana process,” Iran and Turkey, oppose any formal efforts to partition the country or cement the existence of a separate Kurdish entity in the north. Moreover, the problems that followed the partition of Sudan have given Western policymakers serious doubts about the viability of such a solution for Syria.

Russian forces stationed at the Hmeimim airbase in Latakia governorate held a ceremony on Friday (February 5) to unveil a bust of Russian pilot, Roman Filippov, who the Russian government posthumously awarded the title of ‘Hero of Russia’ after his death in Syria.

The commander of the Russian Forces Group in Syria, Major General Alexander Chaiko, claimed at the statue's inauguration ceremony that Major Filippov had “devoted his whole life to the defence of our homeland, performed his military duty and spent his life fighting against terrorists.”

As we approach the tenth anniversary of the Syrian uprising, the conflict rages on with no apparent end in sight. The role of the United Nations, the international organisation created to keep the peace and promote human rights in the world, has clearly been a dismal failure. Whilst no one claims that the Syrian conflict is the death knell for the UN, it is becoming increasingly difficult to imagine how the organisation can move forward from here. A litany of failures by the organisation has resulted in the Syrian people feeling abandoned by the international community.

Ali Saleh Al Wakaa from Abu Hamam city in eastern Deir Ez-Zour governorate became the latest media activist to be arrested by the PKK-affiliated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) when he was detained on Thursday (February 4) in Hajin Hospital in the eastern suburbs of the governorate, and taken to an undisclosed location.

Al-Wakka (pictured) was arrested during a visit by a delegation of officials from the International Coalition to inspect the rehabilitation operations in the hospital.

Political sources in Beirut said the assassination of Lebanese Shia political activist and prominent Hezbollah critic Lokman Slim in southern Lebanon on Thursday (February 4), in an area under direct Hezbollah control, was intended to intimidate the Lebanese people, especially the Shia community, and send a message from Iran’s regime to the new US administration.

An Iranian diplomat who masterminded a failed bomb attack at a rally outside Paris was sentenced to 20 years in jail by a Belgian court on Thursday (February 4) for attempted murder and involvement in terrorism.

Assadollah Assadi, 49, had been attached to the Iranian mission in Vienna when he supplied explosives for the intended atrocity at an Iranian opposition rally in France in 2018. He was denied diplomatic immunity because he was on holiday in Germany when he was arrested.

Dignitaries and leading sheikhs in the predominantly Druze governorate of As-Suwayda in southern Syria have reportedly rejected a proposal to support the head of the Syrian regime, Bashar al-Assad, in the upcoming presidential elections.

Al-Araby Al-Jadeed newspaper quoted a source, identified as a member of Al-Khas family, who said that Sheikh Nawaf Trad Al-Melhem, recently held a meeting with dignitaries and sheikhs from As-Suwayda governorate, including Sheikh Al-Aql Yusef Al-Jarbu`, representatives of leading families and social figures.

Germany intends to deport Assad propagandist, AfD employee Kevork Almassian back to Syria: report

Several media and human rights activists have confirmed a report from Germany’s Die Welt newspaper that the German Federal Ministry of Immigration and Refugees intends to withdraw asylum from Kevork Almassian, an Assad propagandist from Aleppo, now employed an MP of the Assad-allied neo-nazi AfD (Alternative für Deutschland) party.