"Foreign troops entering Syria would return in coffins"

Here is a round-up of global news developments:

• Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem has warned against any foreign aggression against his country. Earlier, Saudi Arabia said it’s ready to send ground troops to Syria. Muallem also blamed the Saudi-backed opposition for the suspension of the peace talks in Geneva.
   
• Russia has called for tighter control on the Turkish-Syrian border in the fight against terrorism. Russia’s UN ambassador Vitaly Churkin says it’s hard to talk about ceasefire while the border is repeatedly crossed by terrorists groups. He also criticized the exclusion of Kurdish groups from the Syria talks in Geneva.
   
• The commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps says the IRGC is not planning to deploy ground forces to Syria on a large scale. Major General Mohammad Ali Ja’afari says Iranian armed forces are eager to fight the terrorists in Syria, but a large ground deployment is not on the agenda.
   
• Saudi warplanes strike residential areas in southwestern Yemen. Six people including four women have been killed and three wounded in the air raids in Ta’izz Province. In the meantime, Yemeni forces have launched more retaliatory attacks against Saudi Arabia, killing a number of soldiers in the kingdom’s Jizan province.
   
• Participants in the Afghanistan peace talks are working hard to agree on a road map to end 15 years of violence in the country. Representatives from Pakistan, Afghanistan, China and the US are holding discussions on how to initiate direct dialog between the Afghan government and the Taliban.
   
• The Palestinian government has established its embassy in Brazil. The Palestinian envoy expressed hope that Brazil will also open its embassy in the Palestinian land in the near future. Brazil rejected Israel’s appointment of its envoy saying he is a leading figure in settlement activities in the West Bank.
   
• Three Zika patients have died In Colombia from a rare neurological disorder as the virus continues to spread rapidly across the world. The patients died after developing a syndrome in which the immune system attacks the nervous system. The syndrome is suspected of being a complication of the Zika.
   
• In Taiwan, a magnitude 6.4 earthquake has toppled a number of buildings in the city of Tainan leaving at least seven people dead. At least 230 people have been pulled out of the debris and nearly 380 are injured. Search operations are underway.

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