Syria urges UN to stop Israeli aggression against neighbors

Syria urges UN to stop Israeli aggression against neighbors
Syrian Foreign and Expatriates Minister Bassam Al-Sabbagh addresses the 79th United Nations General Assembly at UN headquarters in New York, US, Sept. 30, 2024. (Reuters)
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Updated 30 September 2024
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Syria urges UN to stop Israeli aggression against neighbors

Syria urges UN to stop Israeli aggression against neighbors
  • Foreign Minister Bassam Al-Sabbagh blames US for allowing Israel to operate with impunity
  • Demands return of occupied Golan Heights, warns states to stop interfering in his country’s domestic affairs

LONDON: Syria’s foreign minister on Monday urged the world to do more to end Israeli aggression towards its neighbors, blaming the US for hindering international peace and security.

Bassam Al-Sabbagh made the comments to the UN General Assembly in a wide-ranging address in which he also defended his government’s record during Syria’s civil war, hit out at interference in its domestic affairs by foreign states, and demanded the return of Syrian territory occupied by Israel.

“For more than a decade, Syria has experienced unparalleled suffering,” he said. “It fell victim to a fierce terrorist war, direct attacks on its territories that continue to this day, a multifaceted and stifling economic blockade, and … unprecedented political and media incitement campaigns. 

“Billions of dollars were spent to erode the development progress that Syria has worked over decades to achieve.

“Billions more were spent to spread chaos and undermine security and stability, and to force millions of Syrians to leave their homes only to become internally displaced or refugees in other countries.

“Despite everything, we’ve remained faithful to our strong beliefs, our firm positions and to the choices we made as a nation.

“Syria never hesitated to protect and defend its people, and never faltered in its war on terrorism.”

He said the way his government was treated on the international stage “revealed the true intentions of the collective West, which completely contradict the principles and purposes that form the pillars and foundation and function of (the UN).”

Al-Sabbagh was unequivocal in his condemnation of Israel’s “expansionist and racist occupation and ongoing aggression,” blaming the US for preventing the UN Security Council “from fulfilling its responsibility to confront threats to international peace and security.”

He told the UNGA: “The ongoing Israeli occupation of Arab territory since 1967, including the Syrian Arab Golan (Heights) and the genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity it commits, are a glaring example of the failure of this organization.”

Al-Sabbagh added: “Since Oct. 7, 2023, the Israeli occupation has continued to commit bloody and terrorist crimes, adding another chapter to its seven decade-long criminal record over the past months.

“The occupying forces and settler gangs have been carrying out savage aggression on the Palestinian people and committing a genocide before the eyes of the whole world, which has claimed the lives of more than 42,000 Palestinians, most of whom are children and women.

“The Syrian Arab Republic strongly condemns the Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people, and renews its solidarity with a legitimate struggle to liberate their occupied land and establish an independent state on their entire national territory with Jerusalem as its capital, while ensuring the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homeland in line with international law and relevant UN resolutions.

“The Israeli occupying forces … have chosen to drag the region into a serious escalation while benefiting from the immunity, impunity and unlimited support provided by certain countries, in particular the US.

“In a clear case of hypocrisy and double standards, Israeli forces have scaled up their attacks on countries in the region, including my country, Syria, targeting vital civilian facilities, residential buildings and even diplomatic premises, resulting in the death of dozens of civilians, significant material damage and hindering the delivery of humanitarian aid to Syrians.”

Al-Sabbagh also touched upon developments in Lebanon, saying: “Two weeks ago, the Israeli occupation authorities committed an unprecedented crime against Lebanese by using the means of communication as a tool to kill unarmed civilians in a collective manner. 

“A few days ago, the Israeli occupation authorities targeted the southern suburb of Beirut with a treacherous and cowardly (act of) aggression, destroying an entire residential block using tons of explosives … to assassinate Hezbollah Secretary-General Sayed Hassan Nasrallah.”

Al-Sabbagh added: “This large-scale Israeli aggression … is pushing the region to the brink of a dangerous escalation and confrontation whose consequences can’t be predicted, and causing disastrous effects on peace and security, not only in our region but also beyond it. 

“The Syrian Arab Republic calls on all member states of the UN to work towards ending the Israeli aggression against Palestine, Syria and Lebanon, and hold the occupation authorities accountable for their crimes, as well as prevent impunity.

“The Syrian Republic reiterates that the Golan is an occupied Syrian territory and that its inhabitants are Syrian Arab citizens who are, and will always be, an integral part of the people of Syria.”

Al-Sabbagh condemned foreign interference in Syria, demanding that other states take steps to repatriate their citizens currently imprisoned in the country for affiliation with terrorist organizations.

“The crimes and attacks of the Israeli occupying forces against Syria can’t be seen in separation from the subversive role played by certain Western countries, especially the US,” he said. 

“These countries have continued to violate Syria’s sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity by illegally deploying their military forces inside Syria’s territory, allowing their officials to sneak into Syria and supporting separatist militia and terrorist groups.

“These countries have also worked to exacerbate the humanitarian situation of the Syrian people by depriving them of the benefit of their resources as a result of their systematic looting of Syria’s national riches and by imposing inhumane, unilateral coercive measures.”

He added: “Syria is healing from the wounds of what it has been exposed and subjected to — it looks to the future with a sense of hope and optimism.

“However, the success of its efforts necessarily requires the collective West to stop politicizing humanitarian work and linking it to political conditionality.

“Donors need to fulfill their pledges in humanitarian funding and provide sustainable solutions for livelihoods and supporting resilience.”

Al-Sabbagh concluded: “My country reiterates its call for the immediate, full and unconditional lifting of unilateral coercive measures as they amount to collective punishment … and the flagrant violation of the UN Charter.”


Egypt is developing a plan to rebuild Gaza, countering Trump’s call to depopulate the territory

Egypt is developing a plan to rebuild Gaza, countering Trump’s call to depopulate the territory
Updated 4 sec ago
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Egypt is developing a plan to rebuild Gaza, countering Trump’s call to depopulate the territory

Egypt is developing a plan to rebuild Gaza, countering Trump’s call to depopulate the territory
  • The proposal comes after an international uproar over Trump’s call for the removal of Gaza’s population of some 2 million Palestinians
  • Egyptian officials have been discussing the plan with European diplomats as well as with Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates
CAIRO: Egypt is developing a plan to rebuild Gaza without forcing Palestinians out of the strip in a counter to President Donald Trump’s proposal to depopulate the territory so the US can take it over.
Egypt’s state-run Al-Ahram newspaper said the proposal calls for establishing “secure areas” within Gaza where Palestinians can live initially while Egyptian and international construction firms remove and rehabilitate the strip’s infrastructure.
Egyptian officials have been discussing the plan with European diplomats as well as with Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, according to two Egyptian officials and Arab and Western diplomats. They are also discussing ways to fund the reconstruction, including an international conference on Gaza reconstruction, said one of the Egyptian officials and an Arab diplomat.
The officials and diplomats spoke on condition of anonymity because the proposal is still being negotiated.
The proposal comes after an international uproar over Trump’s call for the removal of Gaza’s population of some 2 million Palestinians. Trump said the United States would take over the Gaza Strip and rebuild it into a “Riviera of the Middle East,” though Palestinians would not be allowed back.
Palestinians have widely said they will not leave their homeland, while Egypt, Jordan – backed by Saudi Arabia – have refused Trump’s calls for them to take in Gaza’s population. Rights groups have widely said the plan amounts to forced expulsion, a potential war crime. European countries have also largely denounced Trump’s plan. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has praised the idea and says Israel is preparing to implement it.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who was in Saudi Arabia on Monday in a tour of the region, has said the United States was up to hearing alternative proposals. “If the Arab countries have a better plan, then that’s great,” Rubio said Thursday on the US radio program “Clay and Buck Show.”
Egypt’s Al-Ahram newspaper said the proposal is designed to “refute American President Trump’s logic” and counter “any other visions or plans that aim to change the geographic and demographic structure of Gaza Strip.”
Gaza is nearing a critical juncture with the first phase of a ceasefire due to run out in early March. Israel and Hamas must still negotiate a second phase meant to bring a release of all remaining hostages held by the militants, a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and a long-term halt to the war.
Any reconstruction plan will be impossible to implement without a deal on the second phase, including an agreement on who will govern Gaza in the long term. Israel demands the elimination of Hamas as a political or military force in the territory, and international donors are unlikely to contribute to any rebuilding if Hamas is in charge.
Central in Egypt’s proposal is the establishment of a Palestinian administration that is not aligned with either Hamas or the Palestinian Authority to run the strip and oversee the reconstruction efforts, according to the two Egyptian officials involved in the efforts.
It also calls for a Palestinian police force mainly made up of former Palestinian Authority policemen who remained in Gaza after Hamas took over the enclave in 2007, with reinforcement from Egyptian- and Western-trained forces.
Asked about the possibility of deploying an Arab force in Gaza one Egyptian official and the Arab diplomat said Arab countries would only agree if there were a “clear path” for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected any Palestinian state as well as any role for Hamas or the Western-backed Palestinian Authority in governing Gaza, though he has not put forward any clear alternative.
Hamas has said it is willing to give up power in Gaza. Hamas spokesman Abdul Latif Al-Qanou told The Associated Press on Sunday that the group has accepted either a Palestinian unity government without Hamas’ participation or a committee of technocrats to run the territory. The Palestinian Authority, which governs pockets of the West Bank, has so far opposed any plans for Gaza that exclude it.
The Western diplomat said France and Germany have backed the idea of Arab countries developing a counterproposal to Trump’s plan, and that Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi discussed his government’s efforts with the French president in a phone call earlier this month.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty also briefed the German foreign minister and other EU officials on the sidelines of last week’s Munich security conference, one of the Egyptian officials said.
Officials from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan will discuss Egypt’s proposal at a gathering in Riyadh this week, before introducing it to the Arab summit later this month, according to the two Egyptian officials and the Arab diplomat.
Isarel’s 16-month campaign in Gaza, triggered by Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack, devastated the territory. Around a quarter million housing units have been destroyed or damaged, according to UN estimates. More than 90 percent of the roads and more than 80 percent of health facilities have been damaged or destroyed. Damage to infrastructure has been estimated at some $30 billion, along with an estimated $16 billion in damaged to housing.
Egypt’s plan calls for a three-phase reconstruction process that will take up to five years without removing Palestinians from Gaza, the Egyptian officials said.
It designates three “safe zones” within Gaza to relocate Palestinians during an initial six-month “early recovery period.” The zones will be equipped with mobile houses and shelters, with humanitarian aid streaming in.
More than two dozen Egyptian and international firms would take part in removing the rubble and rebuilding the strip’s infrastructure. The reconstruction would provide tens of thousands of jobs to Gaza’s population, the officials said.

Families yearn for an end to PKK-Turkiye war

Families yearn for an end to PKK-Turkiye war
Updated 18 February 2025
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Families yearn for an end to PKK-Turkiye war

Families yearn for an end to PKK-Turkiye war
  • The PKK’s jailed founder Abdullah Ocalan is widely expected to urge followers to lay down their arms in the coming weeks
  • The new peace efforts are backed by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government, and families on both sides of the divide want it to succeed

DIYARBAKIR, Turkiye: A mother weeping for a teenaged daughter shot dead by a Turkish sniper and a father mourning a son killed by PKK militants are among countless families hoping that a new peace drive can end Turkiye’s four-decade-old Kurdish conflict.
Both live in the Kurdish-majority southeast, where tens of thousands of lives have been lost in violence between the Turkish state and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
The new peace efforts are backed by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government, and families on both sides of the divide want it to succeed.

Fahriye Cukur (L) and Mustafa Cukur hold a portrait of their daughter Rozerin, who was killed in 2016 during fierce clashes between militants and security forces in January 2016, during an interview in Diyarbakir, southeastern Turkey, on February 14, 2025. (AFP)

At her home in the city of Diyarbakir, Fahriye Cukur, 63, cannot take her eyes off a picture on the wall of her daughter Rozerin in school uniform. She was killed during clashes between militants and security forces in January 2016.
The collapse of a truce in 2015 sparked a new round of the conflict when many government curfews were imposed, including in the city’s Sur district.
Cukur said her daughter — who was passionate about photography — had gone to Sur during a break in a curfew to collect exam papers from friends. But the authorities suddenly reduced the break from five hours to three and the fighting reignited.
“People were stuck there, including my daughter. She took refuge at the home of an elderly couple, but when she tried to leave, she was shot by a sniper,” her mother told AFP.
The family found out about the death through a news bulletin.

It took five months, several protests and a hunger strike for the grieving parents to get her body back.

A women walks next to the Four-Legged Minaret Mosque where Kurdish lawyer Tahir Elci was shot dead at the historical Sur district in Diyarbakir, southeastern Turkey, on February 14, 2025. (AFP)

Cukur said the authorities had mixed up their teenage daughter with a female PKK fighter, codenamed Roza, who had been hiding in the same district.
They claimed she had been trained in the mountains, but her mother told AFP: “My daughter was never engaged in political activism.
“She loved school, she wanted to become a psychiatrist and help her people,” she added, indicating the “TC” insignia — meaning “republic of Turkiye” — on her school uniform.
The PKK’s jailed founder Abdullah Ocalan is widely expected to urge followers to lay down their arms in the coming weeks.
Many families hope this will end the conflict and spare other families from the pain they live with.
“We can’t forget what happened but we have to hope. I have two more kids: how do I know the same thing won’t happen to them tomorrow?” she said.
Last month, the International Crisis Group said clashes between the militants and Turkish troops were largely confined to northern parts of Iraq and Syria, with violence on Turkish soil at its lowest level since 2015.
“At least we can breathe a bit now,” she said.
“I want the bloodshed to stop. I want a ceasefire. And I am not alone.”

In the nearby province of Mardin, Sehmuz Kaya, a 67-year-old Kurd, recalled how his son Vedat, a police officer, was kidnapped by PKK militants in eastern Turkiye in July 2015.
Vedat Kaya, wearing civilian clothes, was in a car with his brother and four others when militants blocked the road.
“They only kidnapped Vedat,” he told AFP, saying it was months before the family saw a PKK video of him in the Kandil mountains of northern Iraq.
The family tried every possible channel, through the state and the main pro-Kurdish party, to secure his release.
But after six years, they received a devastating call from the authorities, who said he was one of the 13 “Gara martyrs.” The 13, all but one of whom were soldiers or police, had been killed by the PKK in the Gara region of northern Iraq.
“I was devastated,” he said, struggling for words, saying his son had been tortured before his death.
“They have no faith nor conscience. My son was just doing his job,” he said.
Pinned on the ceiling is a huge Turkish flag, and on the walls are photos of Vedat, whose name has been given to a nearby park.
Although he wants peace more than anything, he admitted he has little faith.
“They are not honest,” he snapped, referring to DEM, the main pro-Kurdish party that is relaying messages from Ocalan to the government. He suspects they have ties to the PKK.
“The families of the martyrs are heartbroken. Enough is enough,” he said. “We support the process but we want something real.”
 

 


Israel defense minister announces agency for ‘voluntary departure’ of Gazans

A photograph taken by a drone shows tents amidst the destruction caused by the Israeli air and ground offensive in Beit Lahiya.
A photograph taken by a drone shows tents amidst the destruction caused by the Israeli air and ground offensive in Beit Lahiya.
Updated 18 February 2025
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Israel defense minister announces agency for ‘voluntary departure’ of Gazans

A photograph taken by a drone shows tents amidst the destruction caused by the Israeli air and ground offensive in Beit Lahiya.
  • Earlier this month, Katz said he had ordered the army to formulate a plan to allow Palestinians to leave Gaza

JERUSALEM: Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz said Monday that a special agency would be established for the “voluntary departure” of Gazans, after Israel expressed commitment to a US proposal to take over the Palestinian territory and expel its residents.
“Defense Minister Israel Katz held a meeting today (Monday) on the voluntary departure of Gaza residents, at the end of which he decided that a directorate for the voluntary departure of Gaza residents would be established within the ministry of defense,” a ministry statement said.
Earlier this month, Katz said he had ordered the army to formulate a plan to allow Palestinians to leave Gaza, adding that he welcomed “Trump’s bold plan, which could allow a large portion of Gaza’s population to relocate to various places around the world.”
An initial plan presented during the meeting on Monday “includes extensive assistance that will allow any Gaza resident who wishes to emigrate voluntarily to a third country to receive a comprehensive package, which includes, among other things, special departure arrangements via sea, air, and land,” the statement added.
Earlier on Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was “committed to US President Donald Trump’s plan for the creation of a different Gaza,” also promising that after the war, “there will be neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority” ruling the territory.
Trump’s repeated proposal for a US “takeover” of Gaza and the resettlement of Palestinians in other countries such as Egypt and Jordan lacks detail but has triggered widespread international outrage.
Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel sparked the Gaza Strip’s deadliest war and resulted in the deaths of 1,211 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 48,284 people in Gaza, the majority of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory that the United Nations considers reliable.
More than 15 months of war destroyed or damaged more than 69 percent of Gaza’s buildings, displaced almost the entire population, and triggered widespread hunger, according to the United Nations.


Zelensky says arrived in Turkiye for talks with Erdogan

Zelensky says arrived in Turkiye for talks with Erdogan
Updated 17 February 2025
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Zelensky says arrived in Turkiye for talks with Erdogan

Zelensky says arrived in Turkiye for talks with Erdogan

KYIV, Ukraine: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Monday he had arrived in Turkiye for talks with Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan on prisoner exchanges and other matters.
“Official visit with the First Lady to Turkiye. Meetings with President Erdogan and First Lady Emine Erdogan,” Zelensky said on his Telegram account.


 

 


In first, French minister visits Western Sahara claimed by Morocco

In first, French minister visits Western Sahara claimed by Morocco
Updated 17 February 2025
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In first, French minister visits Western Sahara claimed by Morocco

In first, French minister visits Western Sahara claimed by Morocco
  • Algeria has backed the separatist Polisario Front and had already cut diplomatic relations with Rabat in 2021 — the year after Morocco normalized ties with Israel under a deal that awarded it US recognition of its annexation of the Western Sahara

LAAYOUNE: France’s Culture Minister Rachida Dati became on Monday the first French official to make a formal visit to the Western Sahara, a sign of Paris’s recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over the disputed territory.
“This is the first time that a French minister has come to the southern provinces,” Dati told AFP, using Morocco’s name for the area, a former Spanish colony controlled by Rabat but claimed by the Algeria-backed Polisario Front.
Dati described the visit as “historic.”
The United Nations considers Western Sahara a “non-self-governing territory” and has had a peacekeeping mission there since 1991, whose stated aim is to organize a referendum on the territory’s future.
But Rabat has repeatedly rejected any vote in which independence is an option, instead proposing autonomy under Morocco.
Dati, accompanied by Moroccan Culture Minister Mohamed Mehdi Bensaid, launched a French cultural mission in Laayoune, Western Sahara’s main city.
She promised to open the territory’s first French culture center to “benefit children in the region, but also teachers, schools, students and teacher trainers.”
In Dakhla, the Western Sahara’s second city some 530 kilometers (330 miles) south of Laayoune, Dati said she is set to sign a cooperation agreement in the field of cinema and audiovisual art.
France’s stance on Western Sahara has been ambiguous in recent years, often straining ties between Rabat and Paris.
But in July, French President Emmanuel Macron said that Morocco’s autonomy plan was the “only basis” to resolve the Western Sahara dispute.
The turnabout marked by Macron’s statement drew a strong reaction from Algiers.
Algeria has backed the separatist Polisario Front and had already cut diplomatic relations with Rabat in 2021 — the year after Morocco normalized ties with Israel under a deal that awarded it US recognition of its annexation of the Western Sahara.
Macron renewed French support for Morocco’s plan in October, pledging investments and a “strong and exceptional partnership.”
Also in October, the UN Security Council called for parties to “resume negotiations” to reach a “lasting and mutually acceptable solution” for the Western Sahara dispute.