By Phil Stewart, Idrees Ali and Tala Ramadan
WASHINGTON, Feb 12 (Reuters) - The U.S. military said it completed a withdrawal from a strategic base in Syria on Thursday, handing it over to Syrian forces, in the latest sign of strengthening U.S.-Syrian ties that could enable an even larger American drawdown.
The al-Tanf garrison is positioned at the tri-border confluence of Syria, Jordan and Iraq.
JERUSALEM, Feb 12 (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday expressed hope that U.S. President Donald Trump may be creating the conditions to reach a deal with Iran.
Netanyahu, in a statement before leaving Washington for Israel, said he had expressed "general scepticism" during his meeting with Trump and that if an agreement is indeed reached, it must include the elements that are very important to Israel.
They include Iran's nuclear programme, its ballistic missiles and Iran’s proxies, he added.
(Reporting by Steven Scheer)
US President Donald Trump threatened Iran Thursday with "very traumatic" consequences if it fails to make a nuclear deal -- but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was skeptical about the quality of any such agreement.
Speaking a day after he hosted Netanyahu at the White House, Trump said he hoped for a result "over the next month" from Washington's negotiations with Tehran over its nuclear program.
"We have to make a deal, otherwise it's going to be very traumatic, very traumatic. I don't want that to happen, but we have to make a deal," Trump told reporters.
By Johan Ahlander and Terje Solsvik
STOCKHOLM, Feb 12 (Reuters) - Norway has been rocked by the release of millions of documents linked to Jeffrey Epstein and indicating that leading politicians and top diplomats had extensive contact with the U.S. sex offender who died by suicide in 2019.
Norway's parliament has appointed a rare external inquiry into the foreign ministry's link to Epstein and there are police investigations of a diplomat couple and a former prime minister, while the World Economic Forum has started an independent investigation of its Norwegian CEO.
DAMASCUS, Feb 12 (Reuters) - Owning a copy of Sayyid Qutb's "Milestones" could land you in jail or worse in Syria when the Assads ruled. But at a Damascus book fair this month, the title by the radical Islamist ideologue was on prominent display and selling well.
Held for the first time since Bashar al-Assad was ousted, this year's Damascus International Book Fair reflects deep changes in Syria since its nominally secular order was overthrown by Islamist rebels led by President Ahmed al-Sharaa.
ISLAMABAD, Feb 12 (Reuters) - Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will attend the first meeting of U.S. President Donald Trump's "Board of Peace" next week in Washington, the country's foreign office said on Thursday.
Under Trump's Gaza plan, the board was meant to supervise Gaza's temporary governance. Trump thereafter said the board, with him as chair, would be expanded to tackle global conflicts.
The first meeting is scheduled for February 19.
By Miranda Murray
BERLIN, Feb 12 (Reuters) - German director Wim Wenders said on Thursday filmmakers must stay out of politics and focus on changing how people think, at the start of the Berlin Film Festival.
Considered more politically minded than its counterparts in Venice and Cannes, the festival has been repeatedly criticised by pro-Palestinian activists for not taking an overt stance on Gaza, in contrast to the war in Ukraine and the situation in Iran.
HANOI, Feb 12 (Reuters) - Vietnam's top leader, To Lam, plans to travel to the United States next week to attend the inaugural meeting of the Board of Peace, the initiative launched by U.S. President Donald Trump to address global conflicts, according to two people briefed on the matter and a document reviewed by Reuters.
Feb 12 (Reuters) - The United States and Iran are showing flexibility on a nuclear deal, with Washington appearing "willing" to tolerate some nuclear enrichment, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told the Financial Times in an interview published Thursday.
“It is positive that the Americans appear willing to tolerate Iranian enrichment within clearly set boundaries," Fidan, who has been involved in talks with both Washington and Tehran, told the FT.
Antisemitism in Australia is "frightening" but most people want good relations, Israel's President Isaac Herzog said on Thursday as he wrapped up a four-day visit and was met by protests in the city of Melbourne.
Herzog's tightly policed visit to Australia this week was meant to offer consolation to the country's Jewish community following the mass shooting on Bondi Beach that killed 15 people in December.
