Egypt’s top diplomat in Damascus, meets with Syria’s Assad

Egypt’s top diplomat in Damascus, meets with Syria’s Assad
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Syria's President Bashar al-Assad meets with Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry in Damascus, Syria Feb. 27, 2023. (Reuters)
Egypt’s top diplomat in Damascus, meets with Syria’s Assad
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Syrian Foreign minister Faisal Mikdad receives Sameh Shoukry, Foreign minister of Egypt, in Damascus. (Twitter/@MfaEgypt)
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Updated 27 February 2023

Egypt’s top diplomat in Damascus, meets with Syria’s Assad

Egypt’s top diplomat in Damascus, meets with Syria’s Assad
  • It is the first visit by an Egyptian foreign minister to Damascus since Syria’s conflict erupted in 2011

BEIRUT: Egypt’s foreign minister arrived in Damascus on Monday, the first visit by an Egyptian foreign minister to Syria since its civil war began in 2011 and another sign of warming ties between President Bashar Assad and Arab states that once shunned him.
Assad has benefited from an outpouring of Arab support for Syria since a Feb. 6 earthquake that killed more than 50,000 people in Turkiye and neighboring Syria.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry was received at Damascus airport by his Syrian counterpart Faisal Mekdad, according to the Syrian state news agency (SANA) and a tweet by Egypt’s foreign ministry spokesperson.
An Egyptian foreign ministry statement on Sunday said Shoukry would “convey a message of solidarity from Egypt” during visits to both Syria and Turkiye on Monday.
Egypt’s President Abdul Fattah El-Sisi spoke with Assad by phone for the first time on Feb. 7 and on Sunday a delegation of top parliamentarians from around the region — including Egypt’s parliament speaker — met Assad in Damascus.
Following the earthquake, the foreign minister of Jordan, which once backed the Syrian opposition, has also visited Damascus for the first time since the civil war began.
Assad had been isolated by regional states over the government’s crackdown on protests in 2011 and the Arab League suspended Syria’s membership in 2011.
The United Arab Emirates, which began normalizing ties with Assad several years ago has poured aid into Syria since the earthquake.
Washington has voiced opposition to any moves toward rehabilitating or normalizing ties with Assad, citing his government’s brutality during the conflict and the need to see progress toward a political solution.
The earthquake killed at least 5,900 people in Syria, the bulk of them in the rebel-held northwest.
Shoukry’s visit to Turkiye underlines a thaw in Egypt’s ties with Ankara.
Diplomatic relations between Egypt and Turkiye were severed after El-Sisi, then army chief, led the 2013 overthrow of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Mursi, who had enjoyed Turkish support during his short-lived presidency.


Syrian top diplomat to meet Iraqi PM on visit to key ally

Syrian top diplomat to meet Iraqi PM on visit to key ally
Updated 10 sec ago

Syrian top diplomat to meet Iraqi PM on visit to key ally

Syrian top diplomat to meet Iraqi PM on visit to key ally

BAGHDAD: Syria’s foreign minister has arrived in Iraq for a visit to its longtime ally and talks with its premier, at a time Damascus is emerging from years of diplomatic isolation.
The visit by Faisal Mekdad comes weeks after the Arab League agreed to end Syria’s suspension from the 22-member bloc, bringing the regime of President Bashar Assad back into the regional fold after years of civil war.
Iraq remained an ally to Damascus throughout the wider Arab boycott, never severing relations and maintaining close cooperation during Syria’s civil war, particularly over the fight against the Daesh group.
Mekdad arrived in Baghdad Saturday night, said Iraq’s state news agency.
He is expected to meet Iraqi Prime Minister Mohamed Shia Al-Sudani, President Abdul Latif Rashid and Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein, Iraqi foreign ministry spokesman Ahmed Al-Sahaf told the news agency.
“The visit will focus on bilateral relations between Baghdad and Damascus and on Iraq’s role in Syria’s return to the Arab League,” Sahaf said.
The Arab League voted on May 7 to readmit Syria after its suspension in 2011 over Assad’s brutal repression of pro-democracy protests that later devolved into an all-out war.
At the time, Iraq had abstained from the vote that resulted in Damascus’ suspension.
The two countries share a 600-kilometer (370-mile) porous desert border that has continued to see militant activity even years after the defeat of IS.
The militant group took over large swathes of both countries in 2014, declaring its “caliphate” before it was defeated in 2017 in Iraq and in 2019 in Syria.
Drug trafficking has also proliferated in past years, with the trade of the amphetamine-like drug captagon exploding in the region, much of it traveling through that border.
Iraqi guards in March seized over three million captagon pills at the border with Syria.
In addition to security coordination, Baghdad and Damascus continue to coordinate on other key issues including water as both countries face dangerous shortages.
Dam-building in neighboring countries and climate change impacts have dramatically reduced water flows in both countries, disrupting agriculture and threatening livelihoods amid persistent economic challenges.


Egypt deploys 3 tugboats to tow oil tanker after it breaks down in Suez Canal

Egypt deploys 3 tugboats to tow oil tanker after it breaks down in Suez Canal
Updated 04 June 2023

Egypt deploys 3 tugboats to tow oil tanker after it breaks down in Suez Canal

Egypt deploys 3 tugboats to tow oil tanker after it breaks down in Suez Canal
  • Tanker was heading from Russia to China

CAIRO: Egypt has deployed three tug boats to tow an oil tanker that suffered an engine failure in the Suez Canal, the canal’s authority said in a statement on Sunday.
The canal’s head Osama Rabie said traffic heading northwards will resume as normal after the tugboats move the tanker.
The crude tanker, SEAVIGOUR, is a Malta-flagged vessel that was built in 2016, according to Refinitiv Eikon shipping data.
It was heading from Russia to China, the canal authority added.
Frequent traffic disruptions occur because of technical malfunctions but stoppages are usually brief.
Less than two weeks ago, tugboats managed to move a bulk carrier that had been stranded for several hours in the Suez Canal.


50 Daesh terrorists, 168 family members repatriated from Syria to Iraq

50 Daesh terrorists, 168 family members repatriated from Syria to Iraq
Updated 04 June 2023

50 Daesh terrorists, 168 family members repatriated from Syria to Iraq

50 Daesh terrorists, 168 family members repatriated from Syria to Iraq
  • Al-Hol camp, in Kurdish-controlled northeast Syria, is home to about 50,000 people including family members of suspected terrorists

BAGHDAD: Fifty Daesh terrorists and 168 Iraqi members of terrorist families were repatriated from Syria to Iraq on Saturday, an Iraqi official said.
Iraqi authorities “received 50 members of the Daesh from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF),” said the source who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The SDF are the Kurds’ de facto army in the area, and led the battle that dislodged Daesh group fighters from the last scraps of their Syrian territory in 2019.
They will “be the subject of investigations and will face Iraqi justice,” they added.
According to conflict monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights they were detained in Hasakah, northeast Syria.
Additionally, 168 relatives of Daesh-group members were repatriated from Syria’s Al-Hol camp to be relocated to Al-Jadaa camp south of Mosul, the Iraqi official added, where they will undergo psychiatric treatment.
“Once we receive the assurances of their tribal leaders that they will not face reprisals, they will be sent home.”
Al-Hol camp, in Kurdish-controlled northeast Syria, is home to about 50,000 people including family members of suspected terrorists.
Among them are displaced Syrians, Iraqi refugees as well as more than 10,000 foreigners originally from some 60 countries.
In March, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for the swift repatriation of foreigners held in Al-Hol.
Nearly half of the camp’s population is under the age of 12 and residents are “deprived of their rights, vulnerable, and marginalized,” Guterres said in a statement during a visit to Iraq.
“I have no doubt to say that the worst camp that exists in today’s world is Al-Hol, with the worst possible conditions for people and with enormous suffering for the people that have been stranded there for years,” Guterres said.
Since May 2021, hundreds of families have been transferred from Al-Hol to Al-Jadaa in Iraq, with a number of those going on to flee.
The repatriation to Iraq of relatives of fighters who joined the ultra-radical group that controlled one-third of Iraq between 2014 and 2017 has sparked opposition.
In December 2021, Iraqi authorities announced plans to close Al-Jadaa.
But little progress has been made and the relocation of displaced people to their home regions has proven challenging and prompted opposition from local people.

 


Three Europeans released by Iran arrive home

Three Europeans released by Iran arrive home
Updated 04 June 2023

Three Europeans released by Iran arrive home

Three Europeans released by Iran arrive home
  • Vienna reacted with relief at the release of its two citizens, named as Kamran Ghaderi and Massud Mossaheb, who it said had been arrested “unjustly” by Iran in January 2016 and January 2019, respectively

BRUSSELS: One Dane and two Austrian-Iranian citizens released from detention by Tehran arrived in their home countries on Saturday, after the latest in a series of prisoner swaps.
The three Europeans had landed shortly before 2:45 am (0045 GMT) Saturday at Melsbroek military airport just outside Brussels.
They had flown there from Muscat, the capital of Oman which helped broker their release.
Belgian Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib welcomed them at the airport along with Danish and Austrian diplomats.
The trio’s release, as well as that of a Belgian aid worker a week earlier, were part of a prisoner swap in which Tehran got back an Iranian diplomat convicted and incarcerated in Belgium on terrorism charges.
Vienna reacted with relief at the release of its two citizens, named as Kamran Ghaderi and Massud Mossaheb, who it said had been arrested “unjustly” by Iran in January 2016 and January 2019, respectively.
Thanking Belgium, Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg said: “Our years of diplomatic efforts to secure their release have borne fruit... Today is a very emotional day for all of us.”
Ghaderi and Mossaheb arrived at Vienna airport from Belgium at around 11:30 am (0930 GMT) on Saturday, where they were welcomed by their families and Schallenberg, his spokeswoman Claudia Tuertscher told AFP.
The Danish man, identified as Thomas Kjems, landed at Copenhagen airport at around 11:00 am local time, telling reporters that he had been treated well in Iran, without being subjected to torture.
Kjems had been arrested in Iran in November 2022 on the sidelines of a demonstration for women’s rights, according to Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo.

Melsbroek is the same airport that Belgian aid worker Olivier Vandecasteele arrived at on May 26 upon being freed by Iran after 15 months in captivity.
His liberation was obtained in exchange for Belgium freeing Iranian diplomat Assadollah Assadi, who had been imprisoned for a 2018 plot to bomb an Iranian opposition rally outside Paris.
Iran had levelled charges of “espionage” at Vandecasteele but his family, the Belgian government and rights groups all say that was a fabricated case used to pressure Brussels for Assadi’s release.
Belgian government officials said the release of Vandecasteele, the Dane and the two Austrian-Iranians were all part of “Operation Blackstone,” in reference to an 18th-century English jurist William Blackstone, who was known for declaring: “It is better that 10 guilty escape than one innocent suffer.”
De Croo confirmed to Le Soir daily that the three Europeans released on Friday were the second part of the negotiations with Tehran on the exchange between Vandecasteele and Assadi.
The exiled Iranian opposition group the National Council of Resistance in Iran, the target of the 2018 bomb plot, has criticized Assadi’s release, saying it violated a Belgian court order requiring them to be consulted first.
Critics of the prisoner swap said it would encourage Tehran to take more Europeans hostage as bargaining chips to seek the return of agents like Assadi arrested for terror offenses in the West.
De Croo stressed his government “continues to fight for the respect of human rights and the release of European citizens unjustly detained by Iran.”

The exact number of foreign passport holders still being held by Iran is thought to be in the dozens but is not precisely known, as the families of some detainees opt to negotiate out of the public eye.
Belgian government officials said at least 22 “innocent” Europeans remained detained in Iran. France last week gave a figure of more than 30 EU citizens held.
Austria’s Schallenberg said of his two freed compatriots: “We are especially happy for the brave families who have suffered so much in recent years. Now they can finally embrace their husbands, fathers and grandfather again in freedom.”
The Gulf sultanate of Oman has emerged as a key interlocutor between the West and Iran.
In 2016 it also played a mediator role in the release of Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian and three other US citizens who had been held by Tehran.
In May, Iran released a Frenchman and a French-Irish citizen, both of whom had gone on hunger strike to protest their detention and conditions.

 


Israelis stage mass protest against judicial reform plan

Israelis stage mass protest against judicial reform plan
Updated 04 June 2023

Israelis stage mass protest against judicial reform plan

Israelis stage mass protest against judicial reform plan
  • On Friday, several hundred Israelis had protested outside Netanyahu’s private residence in Caesarea north of Tel Aviv in a demonstration police labelled as unauthorized

TEL AVIV: Tens of thousands of demonstrators thronged Tel Aviv and other Israeli cities on Saturday for the 22nd consecutive week to protest against a controversial plan to reform Israel’s judicial system.
The government’s reform proposals would curtail the authority of the Supreme Court and give politicians greater powers over the selection of judges.
In March, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had announced a “pause” to allow for talks on the reforms, which were moving through parliament and split the nation.
Israeli media said nearly 100,000 people gathered in Tel Aviv for Saturday’s protest. The police do not supply official figures for the number of demonstrators.
On Friday, several hundred Israelis had protested outside Netanyahu’s private residence in Caesarea north of Tel Aviv in a demonstration police labelled as unauthorized. There were at least 17 arrests.
“We will keep demonstrating to show them that even if they have paused in the reform plan we will stay mobilized — they will not be able to pass laws on the sly,” said 55-year-old dentist Ilit Fayn at Saturday’s Tel Aviv protest.
“It’s important for us to eliminate the possibility of Israel becoming a dictatorship,” added Arnon Oshri, a 66-year-old farmer.
Netanyahu’s government, a coalition between his Likud party and extreme-right and ultra-Orthodox Jewish allies, argues that the proposed changes are needed to rebalance powers between lawmakers and the judiciary.
But opponents of the plan believe it could open the way to a more authoritarian government.
“This corrupt government is full of outlaws who are degrading our country to the level of a third world country,” Oshri said.
“It took 2,000 years for the Jewish people to have a state, and we cannot lose it because of a bunch of fanatics.”