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2023 in review: Syria triumphant in Arab League as Israeli strikes, Iran ties continue

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman greets Syrian President Bashar Assad during the Arab summit in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on Friday. Saudi Press Agency / Saudi Press Agency via AP

UAE’s non-oil trade hits record $340B in first half of 2023

Sheikh Mohammed bin Radhid Al-Maktoum 1

United Arab Emirates

Dubai airport surpasses pre-pandemic passenger traffic in first half of 2023

An aerial view shows Emirates aircraft parked on the tarmac at Dubai International Airport during a government-organized helicopter tour, July 8, 2020.

2023 in review: Israel-Hamas war puts human rights in focus as pattern of double standards persists

University students protesting.

Israel frees hundreds of Palestinian prisoners after body handover

Palestinian prisoners freed by Israel were greeted by loved ones in the West Bank and Gaza after the latest hostage-inmate swap

Agence France-Presse

After 45 years, Palestinian prisoner freed from Israeli jail in latest swap

Graffiti of Nael Barghouti (L) and another long-serving Israeli prisoner Fakhri Barghouti, in the occupied West Bank village of Kubar on October 16, 2011

Agence France-Presse

Israel's Elbit clinches $53M deal to sell mortar systems to Europe

Elbit Systems

Turkey aims for moon by 2023 as UAE reaches Mars

A picture taken on January 31, 2018 shows the moon during a lunar eclipse, referred to as the "super blue blood moon" up in the sky above the Bosphorus straits in Istanbul. - Skywatchers were hoping for a rare lunar eclipse that combines three unusual events -- a blue moon, a super moon and a total eclipse -- which was to make for a large crimson moon viewable in many corners of the globe. (Photo by YASIN AKGUL / AFP) (Photo credit should read YASIN AKGUL/AFP via Getty Images)

Analysis

Hezbollah’s shadow looms over Israel-Lebanon border talks: What to know

Lebanese army soldiers stand behind barbed wire fence demarcating the Blue Line, near the village of Kfar Shuba, southern Lebanon, June 11, 2023.

Rina Bassist

By Rina Bassist

In Paris, reporting on Israeli politics and European affairs

Residents of Israel's north slowly returning home after Hezbollah truce

Builders renovate a house in Israel's northern kibbutz community of Hanita near the border with Lebanon

Agence France-Presse