NEW YORK CITY: The tragedy unfolding in Turkiye and Syria this week is “a moment in which we all must be together to support the people” affected by it, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told Arab News on Thursday as he called for political differences to be set aside.
“People who have been so generous supporting others, as both Syrians and Turkish have been in the past with refugees from Syria, in Turkiye, and from Iraq, in Syria,” he added.

LONDON: British volunteer rescuers have saved a mother and her 5-year-old child who were trapped for 68 hours under a collapsed building in the Turkish city of Kahramanmaras, the Daily Mail reported.  

The home of 33-year-old Serap Topal and her son Mehmet was reduced to rubble when the 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck on Monday.

RIYADH/QAMISHLI: Saudi Arabia’s King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center, also known as KSrelief, has launched a fundraising campaign through the “Sahem” platform to help those affected by the massive earthquake in Syria and Turkiye, the center announced on Wednesday.

Even before KSrelief announced its official fundraiser, Saudi donations to the aid effort had already exceeded SR13 million ($3.5 million), Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al-Rabeeah, KSrelief’s supervisor general, told Arab News.

CHICAGO: The US House of Representatives on Wednesday introduced a resolution expressing support for the people of Iran and denouncing the “monarchic dictatorship and religious tyranny” of the governing regime in Tehran.

Although the resolution has no legal authority, it reinforces American support for the Iranian people and condemnation of the ongoing violations of human rights by the country’s government. More than 165 members of Congress, from both main parties, co-sponsored the resolution, which is expected to easily pass when it comes up for a final vote.

PANAMA CITY: Iranian naval ships will be allowed to sail through the Panama Canal as long as they abide by international norms, Panamanian authorities said Tuesday following reports that Tehran was sending vessels to the strategic waterway.

An Iranian military presence in the Canal would anger the US, which built the channel linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans at the beginning of the 20th century, and Washington has warned that it is closely monitoring Tehran’s activity in the Western Hemisphere.