White House’s Kirby says US would defend Israel in Iranian attack
White House’s Kirby says US would defend Israel in Iranian attack/node/2569070/middle-east
White House’s Kirby says US would defend Israel in Iranian attack
National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby speaks during a daily press briefing at the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House. (File/AFP)
White House’s Kirby says US would defend Israel in Iranian attack
“They are still postured and poised to launch an attack should they want to do that, which is why we have that enhanced force posture in the region”: Kirby
Updated 27 August 2024
Reuters
JERUSALEM: The United States remains committed to defending Israel in the event of an Iranian attack, White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said on Tuesday.
Kirby told Israel’s Channel 12 that it was tough to predict the chances of an attack but the White House takes Iranian rhetoric seriously.
“We believe that they are still postured and poised to launch an attack should they want to do that, which is why we have that enhanced force posture in the region,” he said.
“Our messaging to Iran is consistent, has been and will stay consistent. One, don’t do it. There’s no reason to escalate this. There’s no reason to potentially start some sort of all out regional war. And number two, we are going to be prepared to defend Israel if it comes to that.”
How Syria’s sectarian violence spread to capital, terrorizing Alawites
Updated 10 sec ago
According to accounts from 13 witnesses in Damascus, however, the sectarian violence spread to the southern edges of Syria’s capital A spokesperson for the interior ministry, under which the GSS operates, told Reuters the force “did not target Alawites directly”
DAMASCUS: Close to midnight on Mar. 6, as a wave of sectarian killings began in western Syria, masked men stormed the homes of Alawite families in the capital Damascus and detained more than two dozen unarmed men, witnesses said. Those taken from the neighborhood of Al-Qadam included a retired teacher, an engineering student and a mechanic, all of them Alawite — the minority sect of toppled leader Bashar Assad. A group of Alawites loyal to Assad had launched a fledgling insurgency hours earlier in coastal areas, some 200 miles (320 km) to the northwest. That unleashed a spree of revenge killings there that left hundreds of Alawites dead. Syria’s interim president Ahmed Al-Sharaa told Reuters he dispatched his forces the next day to halt the violence on the coast but that some fighters who flooded the region to crush the uprising did so without defense ministry authorization. Amid fears of wider sectarian conflict across Syria, Sharaa’s government took pains to emphasize in the wake of the violence that the killings were geographically limited. It named a fact-finding committee to investigate “the events on the coast.” According to accounts from 13 witnesses in Damascus, however, the sectarian violence spread to the southern edges of Syria’s capital, a few kilometers from the presidential palace. The details of the alleged raids, kidnappings and killings have not been previously reported. “Any Alawite home, they knocked the door down and took the men from inside,” said one resident, whose relative, 48-year-old telecoms engineer Ihsan Zeidan, was taken by masked men in the early hours of March 7. “They took him purely because he’s Alawite.” All the witnesses who spoke to Reuters requested anonymity out of fear of reprisals. The neighborhood of Al-Qadam is well-known to be home to many Alawite families. In total, the witnesses said, at least 25 men were taken. At least 12 of them were later confirmed dead, according to relatives and neighbors, who said they either saw photographs of the bodies or found them dead nearby. The rest of the men have not been heard from. Four of the witnesses said some of the armed men who came to Al-Qadam identified themselves as members of General Security Service (GSS), a new Syrian agency comprising former rebels. A spokesperson for the interior ministry, under which the GSS operates, told Reuters the force “did not target Alawites directly. The security forces are confiscating weapons from all sects.” The spokesperson did not respond to further questions, including why unarmed men were allegedly taken in these operations. Yasser Farhan, spokesman for the committee investigating the sectarian violence, said its work has been geographically limited to the coast, so it had not investigated cases in Al-Qadam. “But there may be deliberations within the committee at a later time to expand our work,” he told Reuters. Alawites comprise around 10 percent of Syria’s population, concentrated in the coastal heartlands of Latakia and Tartus. Thousands of Alawite families have also lived in Damascus for decades, and in provincial cities such as Homs and Hama.
CYCLE OF IMPUNITY Human Rights Watch researcher Hiba Zayadin called for a thorough investigation of the alleged raids, in response to Reuters’ reporting. “Families deserve answers, and the authorities must ensure that those responsible are held accountable, no matter their affiliation,” she said. “Until that happens, the cycle of violence and impunity will continue.” Four of the men confirmed dead in Damascus were from the same extended family, according to a relative who escaped the raid by hiding on an upper floor with the family’s young children. They were Mohsen Mahmoud Badran, 77, Fadi Mohsen Badran, 41, Ayham Hussein Badran, a 40-year-old born with two fingers on his right hand, a birth defect that disqualified him from army service, and their brother-in-law Firas Mohammad Maarouf, 45. Relatives visited the Mujtahid Hospital in central Damascus in search of their bodies but staff denied them access to the morgue and referred them to the GSS branch in Al-Qadam, the witness said. An official there showed them photographs on a phone of all four men, dead. No cause of death was given and none could be ascertained from the images, the relative said. The official told the family to collect the bodies from the Mujtahid hospital but staff there denied they had them. “We haven’t been able to find them, and we’re too scared to ask anyone,” the relative told Reuters. Mohammad Halbouni, Mujtahid Hospital’s director, told Reuters that any bodies from Al-Qadam were taken directly to the forensic medicine department next door. Staff there said they had no information to share. The interior ministry spokesperson did not respond to questions about whether the forces at Al-Qadam station were linked to the deaths. Sharaa has announced the dissolution of all rebel groups and their planned integration into Syria’s restructured defense ministry. But full command-and-control over the various, sometimes rival, factions remains elusive. Four other men seized the same night were found in an orchard near Al-Qadam, with gunshot wounds indicating they were killed “execution-style,” according to a second resident, who told Reuters the family swiftly buried the bodies. Reuters was unable to confirm independently the details of her account. Another set of four men were confirmed dead by their relatives, who received photographs of the bodies on messaging platform WhatsApp on Thursday, nearly three weeks after they were taken. The pictures, reviewed by Reuters, depicted four men on the ground with blood and bruises on their faces. One of them was identified by the relative as Samer Asaad, a 45-year-old with a mental handicap who was taken on the night of March 6. Most of those seized remain missing. They include university student Ali Rustom, 25, and his father Tamim Rustom, a 65-year-old retired maths teacher, two relatives told Reuters. “We have no proof, no bodies, no information,” one said.
’ALL I WANT IS TO LEAVE’ A relative of Rabih Aqel, a mechanic, said his family had inquired at the local police station and other security agencies but were told they had no information on Aqel’s whereabouts. She drew parallels with forced disappearances under Assad, when thousands vanished into a labyrinthine prison system. In many cases, families would learn years later their relatives had died in detention. She and the other witnesses said they have not been approached by the fact-finding committee. Farhan, the committee spokesman, told reporters on Tuesday its members had interviewed witnesses in several coastal districts and had two more cities there to visit. All the witnesses said they felt under pressure to leave Al-Qadam specifically because they were Alawite. Some already had. One young resident said armed men had come to his home several times in the weeks after Assad’s ouster, demanding proof the family owned the house and had not been affiliated to the ousted Assad family. He and his family have since fled, asking Sunni Muslim neighbors to look after their home. Others said they had stopped going to work or were only moving around in the daytime to avoid possible arrest. Another woman in her sixties said she was looking to sell her house in Al-Qadam because of the risks her husband or sons would be taken. “After what happened, all I want is to leave the area.”
Palestinian Red Crescent staff members missing in Rafah during Israeli onslaught
International community urged to intervene and allow rescue crews to access the Tel Sultan area
Updated 19 min 11 sec ago
Arab News
LONDON: The Palestinian Red Crescent Society on Thursday said that several of its staff members had been missing for almost five days in the southern Gaza Strip during the Israeli onslaught.
The Red Crescent urged the international community to intervene and allow rescue crews access to the Tel Sultan area in the city of Rafah to determine the fate of the missing paramedics.
It expressed concern for the safety of its nine staff members in Rafah over the past five days and held the Israeli authorities fully responsible for their fate.
Israel resumed its military campaign in the Gaza Strip last week after the collapse of the ceasefire agreement with Hamas. In the past 24 hours, at least 25 Palestinians were killed and 82 injured in the coastal enclave as the Israeli attacks continued, the WAFA agency reported.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health has reported 50,208 fatalities and 113,910 injuries since late 2023, with the majority of victims being women and children, according to WAFA.
Queen Rania of Jordan hosts iftar banquet for women in armed forces
Efforts of military, security personnel ‘make us proud,’ she says
Monarch conveys King Abdullah II’s greetings to guests at Ramadan meal
Updated 27 March 2025
Arab News
LONDON: Queen Rania of Jordan on Wednesday evening hosted an iftar banquet at Al-Husseiniya Palace in Amman for women serving in the country’s armed forces and security services.
She conveyed King Abdullah II’s greetings to the guests and praised them as “an example of dedication and service to the nation,” the Petra agency reported.
“Your stances, whether inside or outside Jordan, make us proud,” she said.
The queen said a unique bond between citizens and the military had developed over the years.
“It’s a natural relationship based on trust, love and respect for the military’s motto. Most of our homes have either a military person or someone related to the army or security,” she said.
The queen spoke directly to several of the guests about their lives and families.
“May God protect you as a source of strength for the nation and support for your colleagues in serving this country,” she said.
Lebanese president heading to France on first Europe visit since election
“This visit to France is symbolically important” because Paris stood alongside Washington and Riyadh in pushing hardest for Aoun’s election, said Karim Bitar
The trip also aims to restore France’s “traditional role” in mobilizing “countries friendly to Lebanon” for their support at donor conferences, he added
Updated 27 March 2025
AFP
BEIRUT: Lebanese President Joseph Aoun visits France on Friday, his first trip to a European country since his January election and as Paris pushes Beirut for long-demanded political and economic reforms.
He is due to meet President Emmanuel Macron, who on a visit to Beirut days after Aoun’s appointment said France would hold an international aid conference to support Lebanon’s reconstruction after a devastating war between Israel and Hezbollah.
No date for the conference has been announced.
Aoun was elected president after the position had been vacant for more than two years, under international pressure, including from former colonial power France.
His election, along with the formation of a new government in February led by reformist premier Nawaf Salam, ended a prolonged political impasse.
The breakthroughs came after the Iran-backed Hezbollah group, long a powerful player in Lebanese politics, was left heavily weakened in the war.
Lebanon’s new leaders now face the arduous task of reconstructing swathes of the country, and overseeing the disarmament of Hezbollah, beginning in south Lebanon.
They must also carry out reforms demanded by the international community to unlock bailout funds amid a five-year economic collapse widely blamed on official mismanagement and corruption.
“This visit to France is symbolically important” because Paris stood alongside Washington and Riyadh in pushing hardest for Aoun’s election, said Karim Bitar, lecturer in Middle East studies at Sciences-Po university in Paris.
The trip also aims to restore France’s “traditional role” in mobilizing “countries friendly to Lebanon” for their support at donor conferences, he added.
On Wednesday, Aoun told visiting French envoy Jean-Yves Le Drian that he and the new government were “determined to overcome the difficulties that the reform process may face in the economic, banking, finance and judicial areas.”
Bitar said that despite recent optimism, “there are still reasons to fear the new leaders’ task will not be so simple.”
He accused “private interests” intrinsically linked to political, economic and media powers of seeking to “defend the system that has endured” since Lebanon’s 1975-1990 civil war.
Such interests also seek to “prevent any economic or social reform, any state-building,” or agreement with the International Monetary Fund, he charged.
Bitar also warned that Hezbollah was “not yet ready to hand over its weapons to the Lebanese state.”
Under the November 27 ceasefire, Hezbollah was to withdraw its forces north of the Litani River, about 30 kilometers (18 miles) from the Israeli border.
The Lebanese army was to deploy in the area, and any remaining Hezbollah military infrastructure there was to be dismantled.
The ceasefire, which France helps monitor, is based on United Nations Security Council resolutions calling for the disarmament of all non-state armed groups.
Israel still regularly strikes what it says are Hezbollah targets and occupies five border points it considers strategic.
UN agency says has ‘two weeks’ left of food supplies in Gaza
Israel resumed military operations in enclave just over a week ago, shattering fragile ceasefire
WFP reducing individual rations so agency can feed more people overall
Updated 27 March 2025
AFP
GAZA: The UN’s World Food Programme warned Thursday it had only two weeks’ worth of food left in Gaza, where “hundreds of thousands of people” are at risk of severe hunger and malnutrition.
“WFP has approximately 5,700 tons of food stocks left in Gaza — enough to support WFP operations for a maximum of two weeks,” the Rome-based agency said in a statement.
Israel resumed military operations in the Palestinian territory just over a week ago, shattering weeks of relative calm brought by a fragile ceasefire.
The United Nations said on Wednesday that the renewed Israeli operations had displaced 142,000 people in just seven days, and warned of dwindling supplies after Israel resumed a block on humanitarian aid entering Gaza.
WFP said Thursday that it and others in the food security sector had been “unable to bring new food supplies into Gaza for more than three weeks.”
“Hundreds of thousands of people in Gaza are again at risk of severe hunger and malnutrition as humanitarian food stocks in the Strip dwindle and borders remain closed to aid,” it said.
“Meanwhile, the expansion of military activity in Gaza is severely disrupting food assistance operations and putting the lives of aid workers at risk every day,” WFP added.
The agency said that due to the deteriorating security situation and rapid displacement of people, it will “distribute as much food as possible, as quickly as possible.”
It is reducing individual rations so the agency can feed more people overall. It plans to distribute food parcels to half a million people, meaning the packages will feed a family for roughly one week, it said.
Israeli officials say the new operations are meant to pressure Hamas, which controls Gaza, into releasing the remaining hostages following a stalemate in talks with mediators on extending the truce.
Of the 251 hostages seized during the Islamist group’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which triggered the war, 58 are still held in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.
The attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 50,208 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the health ministry.
