By Olena Harmash
KYIV, Jan 30 (Reuters) - Russia has agreed to a request from U.S. President Donald Trump to halt airstrikes on Kyiv until February 1 amid harsh winter temperatures, and Ukraine said it was ready to reciprocate as Washington pushes for a diplomatic solution to end the war.
ISTANBUL, Jan 30 (Reuters) - Iran is prepared for the resumption of talks with the United States, but they should be fair and not include Iran's defence capabilities, Iran's chief diplomat said on Friday, as regional powers work to prevent military conflict between the two foes.
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday he planned to speak with Iran, even as the U.S. sent another warship to the Middle East and the Pentagon chief said the military would be ready to carry out whatever the president decided.
When Hani Massalkhi went to pay his electricity bill in Damascus this week, he discovered that, under the new tariffs, the amount due was higher than his monthly income.
Massalkhi, a retired agricultural engineer who lives on a $70-a-month pension, left without paying.
"My bill used to vary between 15,000 and 20,000 pounds (less than $2). Now, it has surpassed 800,000 pounds", or $72, he told AFP.
In October, Syria's energy ministry hiked prices by up to 6,000 percent, sending shockwaves through a population already reeling from more than 13 years of war.
Jan 30 (Reuters) - Iran plans to designate the armed forces of European Union countries that have blacklisted the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as "terrorists", according to a post by top Iranian security official Ali Larijani on X.
"Therefore, the consequences will fall on the European countries that undertook such an action," Larijani said.
(Reporting by Dubai Newsroom;Editing by Alison Williams)
JERUSALEM, Jan 30 (Reuters) - Israel will reopen the Rafah border crossing on Sunday for people to travel between Gaza and Egypt, the Israeli government agency that coordinates civilian policy in Gaza, COGAT, said on Friday.
"The return of residents from Egypt to the Gaza Strip will be permitted, in coordination with Egypt, for residents who left Gaza during the course of the war only, and only after prior security clearance by Israel," COGAT said.
Jan 30 (Reuters) - The United States is considering new military strikes against the Islamic Republic of Iran over its deadly suppression of protests this month.
The complexities of Iran's ruling system, the ideological nature of its support base, and the power of its Revolutionary Guards make it hard to predict its resilience or vulnerability in the face of external attack, or what might come next.
The following explains how the system operates and who the main figures are in today's Iran:
WHY DOES IRAN HAVE A 'SUPREME LEADER'?
Syria's government and Kurdish forces reached a comprehensive deal on Friday to gradually integrate the Kurds' military and civilian institutions into the state, a step Washington described as a "historic milestone".
In recent weeks, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have ceded vast areas of Arab-majority land to government forces.
It was territory they held for years, having seized it in fierce battles against the Islamic State jihadist group during a campaign backed by a US-led coalition.
JERUSALEM, Jan 30 (Reuters) - Israel's military has accepted that around 70,000 Palestinians were killed during the war in Gaza, after having earlier cast doubt on death tolls reported by the enclave's health officials, Israeli media reported on Friday citing senior military officials.
The United Nations has long accepted death tolls recorded by health authorities in Gaza as accurate. Israel has cast doubt on the figures, arguing that the health ministry in the enclave was run by Hamas and could not be trusted.
President Donald Trump predicted on Friday that Iran would seek to negotiate a deal rather than face American military action, despite Tehran warning that its arsenal of missiles would never be up for discussion.
"I can say this, they do want to make a deal," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
Asked if he had given Iran a deadline to enter talks on its nuclear and missile programs, Trump said "yeah, I have," but refused to say what it was.
By Alexander Cornwell
JERUSALEM, Jan 30 (Reuters) - The U.S. military and civilian leaders of Washington's flagship mission for Gaza are stepping aside and their replacements have yet to be made public, diplomats said, as European countries rethink their presence in the initiative to shape post-war Gaza.
The top military officer at the Civil-Military Command Center, a three-star lieutenant general, is expected to be replaced by a U.S. commander of a lower rank, while the top civilian has returned to his job as U.S. ambassador to Yemen.
