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Kaja Kallas
EU takes first step to make contact with Syrian rebels, Kallas announces
BRUSSELS — The EU has taken the first step to directly engage with HTS, the Syrian rebel force, while maintaining its designation of a terrorist organization.Kaja Kallas has instructed a senior diplomat from the European Union to directly engage with the provisional government set up by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the rebel force that led the offensive that toppled Bashar al-Assad's autocracy.The move represents the strongest indication yet about the bloc's willingness to begin normalizing ties with HTS, which has been blacklisted as a terrorist organization by the United Nations due to its previous alliance with al-Qaeda.The designation has been transposed to EU law and is followed by all 27 member states."I've tasked a European top diplomat in Syria to go to Damascus...
December 16, 2024

EU takes first step to make contact with Syrian rebels, Kallas announces

David Lammy
UK in diplomatic contact with Syrian rebels, says Lammy
LONDON — UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy has said the British government has had "diplomatic contact" with the Syrian rebel group that toppled the Assad regime.Lammy said Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) remains a proscribed terrorist organization, but the UK "can have diplomatic contact and so we do have diplomatic contact, as you would expect".His US counterpart Antony Blinken said on Saturday that the US had made "direct contact" with the HTS rebels now in control of Syria.Lammy's remarks come as the government announced a £50m humanitarian aid package for vulnerable Syrians, including refugees in the region.Speaking on Sunday, Lammy said: "We want to see a representative government, an inclusive government. We want to see chemical weapons stockpiles...
December 16, 2024

UK in diplomatic contact with Syrian rebels, says Lammy

The exterior of the Israeli embassy in Dublin, 15 December, 2024
Ireland regrets Israel's decision to close embassy, but won't change stance on Gaza: PM
DUBLIN — Ireland's Prime Minister Simon Harris has called Israel’s decision to close its embassy in Dublin "deeply regrettable" but said his government would not change its position on how the war in Gaza is being fought.Israel announced on Sunday it would shut its mission in the Irish capital because of what Israel's Foreign Minister Gideon Saar called "extreme anti-Israel policies.""I will push back very strongly against any attempt by any country to misrepresent Ireland's position. Ireland is not anti-Israeli, but Ireland is absolutely anti the starvation of children, is absolutely anti the killing of civilians and is absolutely pro-peace, pro-international law and pro-human rights," Harris told reporters."And we have been consistent in...
December 16, 2024

Ireland regrets Israel's decision to close embassy, but won't change stance on Gaza: PM

Israeli soldiers stand on an armoured vehicle before moving towards the so-called Alpha Line that separates the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights from Syria, 15 December, 2024
Israel approves plans to up Golan Heights settler numbers as 'new front' opens in Syria
TEL AVIV — The Israeli Knesset has approved plans to increase the number of settlers in the Golan Heights, territory that was seized from Syria in 1967.The announcement comes after the dramatic downfall last week of President Bashar al-Assad, with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying that a "new front" had opened up in Syria close to Israel's border.The "demographic development" plan to increase settler numbers only applies to the area of the Golan Heights that Israel seized during the Six Day War in 1967 and later annexed in 1981 and not to territory taken since al-Assad's ouster.Netanyahu praised the plan which comes with 40 million shekels (€10 million) in funding with the aim of doubling the settler population in the territory.Currently,...
December 16, 2024

Israel approves plans to up Golan Heights settler numbers as 'new front' opens in Syria

Umayyad Square in Damascus had a party-like atmosphere with music and celebrations
Jubilant Syrians crowd squares for victory rallies
DAMASCUS — Thousands of Syrians have thronged the streets of the capital, Damascus, and other cities to celebrate the fall of the regime of Bashar al-Assad.In Damascus people gathered at the iconic Umayyad Mosque for prayers before the jubilant rallies called by the Islamist rebels who led the armed uprising against Assad.Rebel leader Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, who has now started using his real name, Ahmed al-Sharaa, had urged Syrians "to go to the streets to express their joy" on Friday to mark "the victory of the blessed revolution".Assad fled to Russia on Sunday as the regime set up by his father 50 years ago collapsed in just a few tumultuous days.Damascus's Umayyad Square had a party-like atmosphere. Speakers were set up, and music played "Raise your head...
December 13, 2024

Jubilant Syrians crowd squares for victory rallies

File image of the Damascus Central Prison, also known as Adra Prison
Former Syria prison head charged with torture in US
DAMASCUS — A former Syrian government official has been charged with torture in the United States, authorities said on Thursday.Samir Ousman Alsheikh, who oversaw the Damascus Central Prison from 2005 and 2008, was charged by a federal grand jury with several counts of torture and conspiracy to commit torture.US authorities said the allegations against Alsheikh were "chilling".He was arrested earlier this year at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) on two immigration fraud charges, and had purchased a one-way ticket from LAX to Beirut, Lebanon.According to a statement from the US Attorney's Office, Central District of California, Alsheikh concealed his employment at the prison and denied persecuting anyone in his US visa and citizenship applications.US officials say...
December 13, 2024

Former Syria prison head charged with torture in US

Gaza's Civil Defence says seven guards were killed in a strike in Rafah, while another attack left five guards dead in Khan Younis
Israeli strikes kill 12 guarding Gaza aid lorries, medics say
GAZA — At least 35 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes in Gaza, including 12 guarding incoming aid lorries, local medics and the Hamas-run Civil Defense authority say.Seven guards were killed in a strike in Rafah while protecting aid lorries from violent armed theft, which UN workers say is the main obstacle to getting supplies into southern Gaza. Another attack left five guards dead in Khan Younis.The Israeli military said it "conducted precise strikes on armed Hamas terrorists" who had planned to hijack the lorries.In a separate Israeli attack, 15 people were killed near Nuseirat refugee camp, the Civil Defense said."The occupation once again targeted those securing the aid trucks," Civil Defence spokesman Mahmoud Basal told the AFP news agency.He added...
December 12, 2024

Israeli strikes kill 12 guarding Gaza aid lorries, medics say

Thousands of prisoners were released from Saydnaya prison, pictured above, on Sunday
Syria rebel leader vows to shut down notorious Assad prisons
DAMASCUS — Syrian rebel forces have said they plan to close the notoriously harsh prisons run by ousted president Bashar al-Assad and hunt those involved in the killing or torture of detainees.Rebel leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, also known as Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, also said he would dissolve the security forces of the former regime, in a statement seen by the Reuters news agency.Videos showing thousands of prisoners being freed from Saydnaya prison — referred to as a "human slaughterhouse" by rights groups — surfaced after the collapse of the Assad government on Sunday.Almost 60,000 people were tortured and killed in the prisons run by Assad, UK-based monitoring group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.Jolani's Islamist militant group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), led...
December 12, 2024

Syria rebel leader vows to shut down notorious Assad prisons

Hafez Al-Assad Hafez, Bashar Al-Assad's father. served as the 18th president of Syria from 1971 until his death in 2000.
Syria rebels burn tomb of Bashar al-Assad's father
DAMASCUS — Syrian rebel fighters have destroyed the tomb of late president Hafez al-Assad, father of ousted president Bashar, in the family's hometown.Videos verified by the BBC showed armed men chanting as they walked around the burning mausoleum in Qardaha, in the north-west of the coastal Latakia region.The rebels led by the militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) swept across Syria in a lightning offensive that toppled the Assad dynasty's 54-year rule. Bashar al-Assad has fled to Russia where he and his family have been given asylum.Statues and posters of the late President Hafez and his son Bashar have been pulled down across the country to cheers from Syrians celebrating the end of their rule.In other key developments:Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has...
December 12, 2024

Syria rebels burn tomb of Bashar al-Assad's father

A Syrian flag lies on the ground as opposition fighters stand on the tarmac of the Aleppo international airport
Syria's new administration takes over country's main international airport
DAMASCUS — Syria's new administration has taken over the country's main international airport after security forces of the deposed Bashar al-Assad government and staff withdrew, grounding flights and stranding passengers.The airport has not been functional since.Now, security members of the rebel alliance in control of Syria have taken over Damascus International Airport, hoping to restore security, a sense of confidence, and the legitimacy needed to restart flights out of the capital, and from one of the country’s three international airports."Damascus international airport is the heart of the city because it is the gateway for international delegations and missions,” Omar al-Shami, a security official with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the faction that led the shock offensive...
December 12, 2024

Syria's new administration takes over country's main international airport

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