Ireland calls Israeli demand to move UN troops ‘outrageous’
“It is outrageous that the Israeli Defense Forces have threatened this peacekeeping force,” President Michael Higgins said
“Indeed, Israel is demanding that the entire UNIFIL operating under UN mandates walk away“
Updated 05 October 2024
AFP
DUBLIN: The president of Ireland on Saturday sharply criticized Israel’s demand that UN peacekeepers leave their positions in southern Lebanon.
“It is outrageous that the Israeli Defense Forces have threatened this peacekeeping force and sought to have them evacuate the villages they are defending,” President Michael Higgins said in a statement.
“Indeed, Israel is demanding that the entire UNIFIL (United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon) operating under UN mandates walk away.”
Ireland accounts for 347 of the 10,000 soldiers serving in the UNIFIL forces, which are charged with maintaining peace in the south of Lebanon.
Earlier Saturday, UNIFIL said it had rejected Israeli demands that it “relocate” some positions ahead of Israeli ground operations against Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.
Higgins called the demand “an insult to the most important global institution.”
Fighting between Hezbollah and Israel has intensified since the start of ground incursions by Israeli troops in southern Lebanon earlier this week.
Some 1,110 people have died in Lebanon and hundreds of thousands have fled their homes because of the fighting.
In first contacts, US officials urge Syrian rebels to support inclusive government
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken laid out on Tuesday criteria for Syria’s political transition, saying Washington would recognize a future Syrian government that amounts to a credible, inclusive and non-sectarian governing body
Updated 14 sec ago
Reuters
WASHINGTON: The Biden administration has urged the rebel group that led the ouster of Syrian President Bashar Assad not to assume automatic leadership of the country but instead run an inclusive process to form a transitional government, according to two US officials and a congressional aide briefed on the first US contacts with the group. The communications with Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS), a group formerly allied with Al-Qaeda and designated a terrorist organization by the United States, are being conducted in coordination with Washington’s Middle East allies, including Turkiye. The administration is also in touch with President-elect Donald Trump’s team about the matter, one of the officials said. The discussions, which have taken place over the last several days, are part of a larger effort by Washington to coordinate with various groups inside Syria as it tries to navigate the chaotic aftermath of the sudden collapse of the Assad regime on Sunday.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the US has sent messages to the group to help guide early efforts to establish a formal governing structure for the country.
The sources declined to say whether the messages were being sent directly or via an intermediary. Washington believes the transitional government should represent the desires of the Syrian people and would not support HTS taking control without a formal process to select new leaders, the officials said.
The US National Security Council declined to comment. TERRORIST DESIGNATION
The United States in 2013 designated HTS leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa, better known as Abu Mohammed Al-Golani, a terrorist, saying Al-Qaeda in Iraq had tasked him with overthrowing Assad’s rule and establishing Islamic sharia law in Syria. It said the Nusra Front, the predecessor of HTS, carried out suicide attacks that killed civilians and espoused a violent sectarian vision. The official said the administration is not clear about Golani’s role in a future Syrian government — or whether he still holds extremist ideologies. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken laid out on Tuesday criteria for Syria’s political transition, saying Washington would recognize a future Syrian government that amounts to a credible, inclusive and non-sectarian governing body.
Some lawmakers on Capitol Hill are pushing the administration to consider lifting US sanctions on Syria, including sanctions specifically related to HTS, in exchange for the group meeting certain US demands, the congressional aide told Reuters.
The aide said there is a growing feeling among some members of Congress that the US will need to help a transitional government in Syria connect to the global economy and rebuild the country. Sanctions are preventing that from happening, the aide said. Washington is also in communication with HTS and other actors on the ground about battlefield operations, one of the officials said. Senior US officials have repeatedly said they intend to continue military operations in northeastern Syria against Daesh, to ensure the radical extremist group does not become a threat again, given the current power vacuum in the country. US forces in Syria will also continue to prevent Iranian-backed proxy groups from gaining ground, one of the officials said.
Thousands of intelligence files lay abandoned, many of them scattered on the floor, detailing the activities of ordinary citizens subjected to draconian surveillance by security service agents
Updated 11 December 2024
AFP
DAMASCUS: Syrians lived in terror for decades of what went on behind the concrete walls of Damascus’s security compound. Now the Assad dynasty has been toppled, its dungeons and torture chambers are giving up their secrets.
Rebel fighters stand guard at the entrances to the forbidden city in the capital’s Kafr Sousa district, where the feared security services had their headquarters alongside government offices.
The myriad of different agencies which kept tabs on the lives of ordinary Syrians each operated their own underground prisons and interrogation chambers inside the walled defense ministry compound.
A woman looks through a list of names in a document found on the floor at the infamous Saydnaya military prison, just north of Damascus, Syria, Monday, Dec. 9, 2024. (AP)
Syrians lived in fear of being summoned for a round of questioning from which they might never return.
AFP found first responder Sleiman Kahwaji wandering around the complex this week trying to locate the building where he was questioned and then detained.
He said he was still at secondary school when he was arrested in 2014 on suspicion of “terrorism,” a frequent allegation under the rule of now toppled president Bashar Assad, who brooked no dissent.
“I spent 55 days underground,” he said. “There were 55 of us in that dungeon. Two died, one from diabetes.”
This picture shows empty sells at Sednaya prison in Damascus on December 9, 2024. (AFP)
Scribbled graffiti left by the prisoners are barely legible on the walls amid the darkness.
“My dear mother,” one had scribbled, probably in his own blood.
The cells that were used for solitary confinement are so small there isn’t even space to lie down.
As many as 80 prisoners per cell were crammed into the larger ones, forcing inmates to take turns to sleep, recalls another former detainee Thaer Mustafa, who was arrested for alleged desertion.
All remaining prisoners were freed on Sunday after their captors fled as the rebels swept into Damascus capping the lightning offensive they launched late last month.
A large crowd broke into the security zone and ransacked the sprawling offices on the upper floors of the complex.
Thousands of intelligence files lay abandoned, many of them scattered on the floor, detailing the activities of ordinary citizens subjected to draconian surveillance by security service agents.
One handwritten document lists more than 10,000 prisoners held on suspicion of membership of the Muslim Brotherhood.
The Sunni Islamist group was anathema to the Assad clan who are members of Syria’s Alawite minority, followers of an offshoot of Shiite Islam.
Brotherhood membership became punishable by death since 1980 two years before Assad’s father and predecessor Hafez ordered the army to crush its insurgency with an assault on the central city of Hama which killed between 10,000 and 40,000 people.
Alongside each prisoner’s name and date of birth, the security services noted the details of their detention and interrogation, and whether and when they had died.
Another abandoned file details the detention of a Briton of Syrian origin, who was subjected to a lie detector test over allegations he was working for British intelligence.
Another, dated this January, details the investigation into a bomb attack on the Mazzeh neighborhood of Damascus, in which an Iraqi was wounded.
Nothing was considered too trivial to escape the security services’ attention. There are files recording the activities of ordinary citizens as well as journalists and religious leaders.
Not even government ministers were immune. On a list of members of Assad’s government, a security service agent has carefully noted the confession of each minister — Sunni or Alawite, Christian or Druze.
The security services operated vast networks of paid informers, who provided the tiniest details of people’s daily lives.
Families have been arriving at the gates of the Damascus security zone since Saturday, desperately seeking word on the fate of their missing loved ones.
Many come after first visiting Saydnaya Prison, a vast detention complex on the outskirts of Damascus where many of those who survived interrogation at security headquarters were taken for long-term incarceration.
“We heard that there were secret dungeons. I’m looking for my son Obada Amini, who was arrested in 2013,” said Khouloud Amini, 53, her husband and daughter by her side.
“He was in his fourth year at the engineering faculty, I went to Saydnaya but I didn’t find him.
“I was told there were underground dungeons here. I hope that all Syrian prisoners are freed.”
VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis will meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday, the Vatican said, as the Catholic pontiff has become more vocal in his criticism of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.
Abbas travels to Italy this week, where he is expected also to meet with Italian President Sergio Mattarella and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. The Vatican announced the meeting with Abbas in a brief note on Tuesday but did not offer further details.
In November, Francis suggested the global community should study whether Israel’s campaign in Gaza constitutes a genocide of the Palestinian people.
The comment, in a forthcoming book, drew a public rebuke from Israel’s ambassador to the Holy See. Israel claims accusations of genocide in Gaza are baseless and that it is solely hunting down Hamas and other armed groups.
Gaza authorities say almost 45,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 106,000 injured in Israel’s offensive, while most of Gaza’s 2 million people are homeless or displaced as famine looms.
Pope Francis and President Abbas have met several times and are last known to have spoken on the phone in November 2023, a month into the Israel-Hamas conflict.
The pope, as leader of the 1.4-billion-member Catholic Church, is usually careful about taking sides in conflicts but has recently been more outspoken about Israel’s campaign.
In October, he criticized the “shameful inability” of the international community to end the war.
Israel prevents Lebanese army and UNIFIL from opening key road
Green flag of militants raised at Syrian Embassy in Lebanon
Freed Lebanese prisoners continue to arrive from Syria to reunite with families
Updated 11 December 2024
NAJIA HOUSSARI
BEIRUT: The Israeli army fired a warning shot on Tuesday at a joint patrol of the Lebanese army and a Polish unit operating under UN peacekeeping force UNIFIL while trying to unblock the Aitaroun-Bint Jbeil public road.
The Israeli military blocked the road last Thursday with a mound of earth.
UNIFIL and Lebanese army vehicles were seen on Tuesday driving on the Bint Jbeil road for the first time since the ceasefire.
Israel is being criticized for continuing to violate the ceasefire agreement under the pretext of having 60 days to withdraw from the south.
Its violations involve destroying remaining buildings, houses, facilities and roads along the border, rendering the area unlivable.
The Israeli army carried out extensive explosions in Khiam to destroy houses and buildings.
The entry of the Lebanese army’s engineering teams to southern Lebanon has been postponed. A five-member committee responsible for enforcing the ceasefire agreement had previously approved the teams’ entry.
The committee convened secretly on Monday in Naqoura, UNIFIL’s headquarters, with the presence of military representatives of the Lebanese army, the Israeli army, the US, France, and UNIFIL.
A joint statement from the US and French embassies in Lebanon and UNIFIL said that the meeting aimed to coordinate the participants’ support for the cessation of hostilities that went into effect on Nov. 27.
The group will meet regularly and coordinate closely to implement the ceasefire agreement and Resolution 1701, it added.
The Lebanese army links the gradual deployment of its soldiers south of the Litani River to the end of Israeli hostilities and the gradual withdrawal of Israeli military forces, allowing Lebanese troops to enter the areas.
Israeli forces in the south launched several artillery shells from a Merkava tank on the outskirts of Chihine and Jebbayn.
The Israeli army opened heavy machine-gun fire on the outskirts of the southern villages of Chakra, the Doubiyeh castle, and valleys adjacent to Qabrikha and Majdel Selem.
Several Israeli Merkava tanks backed off from Wata Al-Khiam toward Sarda and Aamra adjacent to the Wazzani orchards.
Parallel to its duties in southern Lebanon, the Lebanese army is also dealing with the developments at illegal crossings and on smuggling routes on the border between Lebanon and Syria, as Syrians attempt to enter Lebanon forcibly with militants gaining control of the country.
Israeli airstrikes had targeted Lebanon’s land crossings with Syria under the pretext of preventing Hezbollah supplies from reaching Syria.
The Israeli airstrikes also put out of service the Al-Qaa-Jussiyeh crossing in the Bekaa and the Arida and Dabousieh crossings in the north, in addition to the Tal Kalakh crossing in Akkar in the north.
Lebanon’s reopening of the Masnaa border crossing, the legal route to Damascus, facilitates the return of Syrian refugees in Lebanon to their home country.
For the third consecutive day, the Masnaa border crossing witnessed heavy movement of Syrian refugees leaving for their country.
The Lebanese General Security reported that the situation at the Masnaa crossing had improved after chaos erupted due to the absence of the Syrian General Security at the Jdeidet Yabous border post, causing a large influx of Syrians.
The Lebanese army is involved in controlling the Masnaa border crossing, and Lebanon strictly vets which Syrians it allows to enter Lebanon — requiring either a travel document through the Beirut airport, a residency permit in Lebanon, or a sponsor who confirms their employment in Lebanon.
Also on Tuesday, the Syrian Embassy in Lebanon lowered the flag previously used by the regime of Bashar Assad, raising that of the militants.
In other developments, Lebanese prisoner Muath Muraab arrived in his hometown of Bireh in Akkar on Tuesday after being detained in Sednaya Prison for 20 years.
He is the third prisoner to return to Lebanon from a list of dozens of Lebanese detainees in Syrian prisons, whose existence had previously been denied by Syrian authorities during the Assad regime.
In the past two days, freed prisoners Suhail Hamaoui, Marwan Nouh, Mohammed Omar Al-Flaiti, and Moaz Merheb rejoined their families.
Additionally, Khalidiya Fayyad, who was arrested 22 years ago in the town of Sindiana in Akkar, was freed from the women’s prison.
The Lebanese State Security denied protecting anyone linked to the former Syrian regime after their relocation to Lebanon.
Recent media reports indicated that the Lebanese State Security was protecting some Syrian figures and officials who fled to major hotels in Lebanon due to ongoing developments in Syria.
Hezbollah — in its first statement regarding the Israeli airstrikes on Syria and the incursion into Syrian territory — emphasized its “support for Syria and its people, asserting the importance of maintaining the unity of Syria, both in terms of its land and its people.”
Hezbollah said that “the continuing crimes committed by Israel, whether by occupying more lands in the Golan Heights or striking and destroying the defensive capabilities of the Syrian state, constitute a flagrant act of aggression and a brazen violation of the sovereignty of the Syrian state and its people, and an attempt to destabilize this brotherly country.”
What does Assad’s downfall mean for the millions of Syrians displaced by war?
Jubilant after the fall of Assad, many displaced Syrians are eager to return home, despite destruction and political instability
UN refugee chief calls for ‘patience and vigilance’ as governments suspend Syrian asylum claims and consider deportations
Updated 11 December 2024
ANAN TELLO
LONDON: Although Syria remains in a precarious state just days after the fall of the regime of Bashar Assad, hundreds of displaced Syrians have flocked to border crossings in Lebanon and Turkiye, eager to return to their homeland after more than 13 grueling years of civil war.
At daybreak on Monday, scores of people gathered at the Cilvegozu and Oncupinar border gates in southern Turkiye and the Masnaa crossing in Lebanon, confident for the first time in years that they would not face arrest or conscription when they reached the other side.
On Sunday, in a historic moment for the Middle East, a coalition of armed opposition groups led by Hay’at Tahrir Al-Sham seized Damascus. Now a refugee himself, Assad fled the country and sought asylum in Russia, marking an inglorious end of his family’s brutal 54-year rule.
Syrians displaced across the Middle East, North Africa, Europe, and further afield by the years of fighting and persecution in their home country poured into the streets in celebration, jubilant that the uprising that began in 2011 had finally succeeded in dislodging Assad.
An aerial view shows long vehicle queues have formed on the roads leading to and from Damascus on December 8, 2024. (Getty Images)
Syria remains the world’s largest refugee crisis. Since the outbreak of civil war in 2011 following the regime’s brutal suppression of anti-government protests, the UN says more than 14 million Syrians have been forced to flee their homes.
While the majority sought refuge in other parts of Syria, including areas outside the regime’s control, others fled to neighboring countries — primarily Turkiye and Lebanon, but also Jordan, Egypt, and Iraq. Many more risked the perilous Mediterranean crossing to Europe.
Some 7.2 million Syrians remain internally displaced, where 70 percent of the population is deemed to require humanitarian assistance and where 90 percent live below the poverty line, according to the UN refugee agency, UNHCR.
More than 5 million Syrian refugees live in the five neighboring countries — Turkiye, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, and Egypt. Turkiye alone hosts around 3.2 million registered with the UNHCR, while Lebanon hosts at least 830,000.
Karam Shaar, a senior fellow at the Newlines Institute for Strategy and Policy, a nonpartisan Washington think tank, believes the first Syrians to return are likely “the most vulnerable,” such as those in Lebanon and in Turkiye, who have endured poverty and mounting hostility.
“In general, because of the situation in Lebanon and Turkiye being so bad, I think these people would be the most likely to come back,” Shaar told Arab News. “Many of them would be willing to go back to the rubble of their houses as long as Assad is not there because it just can’t get any worse.”
In Lebanon, anti-Syrian sentiment has grown significantly since the country was plunged into a debilitating economic crisis in 2019. There have even been cases of violence against members of the community and their property.
In April, Syrians were attacked and publicly humiliated in the streets of Byblos after a senior Lebanese Forces official, Pascal Suleiman, was reportedly killed by a Syrian gang during a botched carjacking.
On Monday, scores of people gathered at the Masnaa crossing in Lebanon. (AFP)
Compounding the plight of Syrians, the recent Israeli assault on Lebanon has displaced many families already struggling to survive, forcing them to live on the streets amid reports they have been denied access to municipal shelters.
Even before the outbreak of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, displaced Syrians were subjected to restrictions on work and access to public services. Some 90 percent of them lived in extreme poverty, according to the UN.
Returning to Syria while Assad remained in power was out of the question for many. Before the regime’s downfall on Sunday, Human Rights Watch warned that Syrians fleeing Lebanon risked repression and persecution upon their return, including “enforced disappearance, torture, and death in detention.”
Indeed, the Syrian Network for Human Rights documented at least nine arrests of returnees prior to Oct. 2, most of which were reportedly linked to “mandatory and reserve” military conscription.
Syrian and Lebanese people celebrate the fall of the Syrian regime on December 8, 2024, in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli. (AFP)
In Turkiye, Syrians have frequently been scapegoated by politicians. In July, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused opposition parties of fueling xenophobia and racism. His remarks came a day after anti-Syrian riots broke out in the Kayseri province after a Syrian refugee there was alleged to have sexually assaulted a 7-year-old Syrian girl.
A similar wave of violence erupted in an Ankara neighborhood in 2021 after a Turkish teenager was stabbed to death by a group of young Syrians. Hundreds of people took to the streets, vandalizing Syrian owned businesses.
Erdogan announced on Monday that Turkiye was opening its Yayladagi border gate with Syria to facilitate the safe and voluntary return of refugees, Reuters reported. Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said his country would support the return of Syrians to contribute to the reconstruction of the conflict-ravaged country.
“Those with families in Syria are eager to at least pay them a visit,” Marwah Morhly, a Turkiye-based media professional, told Arab News.
“Many are making plans to visit their hometowns with their children, who were born in Turkiye and have never been to Syria or met their relatives in person.”
Children walk in a camp for Syrian refugee in Turkiye set up by Turkish relief agency AFAD in the Islahiye district of Gaziantep on February 15, 2023. (AFP)
However, given the ongoing insecurity and political uncertainty in Syria, and the fact that many Syrians have built lives in Turkiye, the decision to return is not an easy one to make.
Morhly herself is hesitant about visiting, despite longing for her hometown of Damascus. “I can’t take a risk with a young child,” she said, referring to her son. Such a decision would depend on a Syrian-Turkish agreement on the refugee issue, she added.
UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said “there is a remarkable opportunity” for Syrians “to begin returning home.”
“But with the situation still uncertain, millions of refugees are carefully assessing how safe it is to do so. Some are eager, while others are hesitant,” he added in a statement on Monday.
Syrians in Turkiye celebrate the fall of Assad in Gaziantep, on December 8, 2024. (AFP)
Urging “patience and vigilance,” he expressed hope that refugees would be able to “make informed decisions” based on developments on the ground. Those decisions, he added, would depend on “whether the parties in Syria prioritize law and order.”
He stressed that “a transition that respects the rights, lives, and aspirations of all Syrians — regardless of ethnicity, religion, or political beliefs — is crucial for people to feel safe.”
UNHCR “will monitor developments, engage with refugee communities, and support states in any organized voluntary returns,” he added, pledging to “support Syrians wherever they are.”
Grandi also highlighted that “the needs within Syria remain immense,” as more than 13 years of war and economic sanctions had “shattered infrastructure.”
A photo taken from the Lebanese side of the northern border crossing of Al-Arida shows Syrian fighters assisting with the passage of Syrians back into their country on December 10, 2024. (AFP)
In Europe, home to at least 4.5 million Syrian refugees, several countries — including Austria, France, The Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Greece, and the UK — announced they had halted Syrian asylum applications just hours after Assad’s fall.
Germany, which is home to the continent’s largest Syrian diaspora, was one of the first European countries to respond.
Nancy Faeser, Germany’s interior minister, said in a statement on Monday that the current “volatile situation” in Syria is the reason her country’s migration authority has paused asylum decisions, leaving thousands of Syrian applicants in limbo.
Austria has gone a step further, announcing plans to deport Syrian migrants. Interior Minister Gerhard Karner told Austrian media he has “instructed the ministry to prepare an orderly return and deportation program to Syria.
In The Netherlands, the government said it would stop assessing applications for six months. However, many are concerned it may also begin deportations.
Members of the Syrian community wave Syrian flags as celebrate on December 8, 2024 in Berlin, Germany. (AFP)
Discussions about sending refugees back to Syria amid such uncertainty have left many Syrians anxious about their future. This is particularly concerning for those who have built lives and established roots in their host countries.
Anti-refugee discourse has become increasingly common since the height of the European refugee crisis in 2015, when around 5.2 million people from conflict zones across Africa, Asia, and the Middle East arrived on European shores.
For many governments in Europe, the fall of the Assad regime could offer just the opportunity they were waiting for to show they are addressing public concerns about migration by removing thousands of Syrians.
But until Syria’s security situation stabilizes and its political future under its new de facto leadership becomes clearer, forced returns may be premature — or could even break international laws against refoulement should returnees come to harm.
Indeed, with the country still divided among rival factions, extremist groups like Daesh still at large, infrastructure in ruins, an economy crippled by sanctions, and uncertainty over the political agenda of the victorious HTS, Syria is by no means guaranteed peace and security.
