Israeli occupation is ‘basis of all evil’: Jordanian FM

Israeli occupation is ‘basis of all evil’: Jordanian FM
Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi. (File/AFP)
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Updated 07 January 2024
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Israeli occupation is ‘basis of all evil’: Jordanian FM

Israeli occupation is ‘basis of all evil’: Jordanian FM
  • “Nothing justifies the Security Council’s inability to decide to stop the barbaric aggression against Gaza,” Safadi says

AMMAN: Jordan’s foreign minister on Sunday strongly criticized Israel’s ongoing military actions in Gaza, describing them as “barbaric aggression” and warning of a potentially dangerous escalation in the region.
Speaking to Jordan News Agency, Ayman Safadi said Israel is killing innocent people, depriving over 2.3 million Palestinians of water, food and medicine, and attempting to displace them.
“Jordan, with all its capabilities, will counter the Israeli government’s attempts to displace Palestinians inside and outside their homeland,” he said, adding that the kingdom considers attempts to displace people to be a war crime.
A future security-based approach to Gaza, according to Safadi, would entrench the state of oppression, despair and misery that Israel created through its colonial policies prior to and during the current war, making conflict “the fate of the region.”
He added: “The occupation is the basis of all evil. Any approach that does not aim to end the occupation and fulfill all the rights of the Palestinian people will not achieve security and just peace and will spark more conflicts and wars.”
He said Jordan refuses to talk about the day after in Gaza before stopping the war, and without adopting a comprehensive plan to fulfill the rights of the Palestinian people.
“The main goal for which all efforts must be united now is to stop the barbaric aggression against the Gaza Strip and end the unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe it is causing,” he added.
“The Jordanian proposal is that after stopping the aggression, dealing with the situation in Gaza must be within the context of an integrated plan based on the solid unity of Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and starting with the recognition of an independent, sovereign Palestinian state along the lines of June 4, 1967, with Jerusalem as its capital according to the two-state solution.”
He said ending the occupation of Palestinian territories must come with clear objectives, timelines and “real guarantees,” adding: “We are coordinating this with our brothers in the Arab countries, and we discussed it with many of our partners in the international community.”
Safadi also condemned the “extremist, racist, inflammatory” policies and positions of Israeli ministers who “demonize the Palestinians and deny their right to live on their national soil and the land of their fathers and grandfathers.”
He warned of the Israeli government’s extremist agenda to continue the war and extend it to the occupied West Bank and Lebanon in order to prolong its political leadership and drag the West into military interventions in the region.
He said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and “racist, extremist” cabinet ministers have publicly stated their desire to evict Palestinians from Gaza, and their rejection of the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination.
Safadi discussed the need for the international community to take clear and direct positions in condemning extremist Israeli rhetoric.
He said Jordan would press the UN Security Council to take legal, moral and humanitarian decisions to end the war in Gaza and to challenge Israeli violations of international law.
“Nothing justifies the Security Council’s inability to decide to stop the barbaric aggression against Gaza, stop the war crimes committed by Israel there and its inability even to impose a mechanism for bringing in humanitarian aid to confront the humanitarian catastrophe exacerbated by an aggression that crossed all legal, ethnic and humane lines,” he added.
Safadi said the UNSC’s failure to end the war reflects “dangerous double standards and selectivity in the system of international multilateral action, and began to seriously reflect on the image and interests of many countries in the region.”
He added: “The killing, destruction and human suffering caused by the aggression eliminated the pretext of self-defense promoted by the Israeli government, and revealed that the war is crude revenge and a means to translate the agenda of the extremist racists in the Israeli government … to kill the two-state solution.”
Jordan is supporting South Africa’s lawsuit against Israel on charges of genocide, and is preparing to submit its own legal case to the International Court of Justice, which is expected to be reviewed in the coming days.


 


Opposition fighters are at Damascus’ gates. Who are they and what now?

Updated 12 sec ago
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Opposition fighters are at Damascus’ gates. Who are they and what now?

Opposition fighters are at Damascus’ gates. Who are they and what now?
Opposition fighters have entered Syria’s capital in a swiftly developing crisis that has taken much of the world by surprise. Syria’s army has abandoned key cities with little resistance. President Bashar Assad has now left the country.
Who are these opposition fighters? If they take control of Damascus after seizing some of Syria’s largest cities, what then?
Here is a look at the stunning reversal of fortune for Assad and the government in just the past 10 days, and what might lie ahead as Syria’s 13-year civil war reignites.
The aim? Overthrow the government
This is the first time that opposition forces have reached the outskirts of the Syrian capital since 2018, when the country’s troops recaptured the area following a yearslong siege.
The approaching fighters are led by the most powerful insurgent group in Syria, Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, or HTS, along with an umbrella group of Turkish-backed Syrian militias called the Syrian National Army. Both have been entrenched in the northwest. They launched the shock offensive on Nov. 27 with gunmen capturing Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, and the central city of Hama, the fourth largest.
The HTS has its origins in Al-Qaeda and is considered a terrorist organization by the US and the United Nations. But the group said in recent years it cut ties with Al-Qaeda, and experts say HTS has sought to remake itself in recent years by focusing on promoting civilian government in their territory as well as military action.
HTS leader Abu Mohammed Al-Golani told CNN in an exclusive interview Thursday from Syria that the aim of the offensive is to overthrow Assad’s government.
Possible rifts ahead
The HTS and Syrian National Army have been allies at times and rivals at times, and their aims might diverge.
The Turkish-backed militias also have an interest in creating a buffer zone near the Turkish border to keep away Kurdish militants at odds with Ankara. Turkiye has been a main backer of the fighters seeking to overthrow Assad but more recently has urged reconciliation, and Turkish officials have strongly rejected claims of any involvement in the current offensive.
Whether the HTS and the Syrian National Army will work together if they succeed in overthrowing Assad or turn on each other again is a major question.
Others take advantage
While the flash offensive against Syria’s government began in the north, armed opposition groups have also mobilized elsewhere.
The southern areas of Sweida and Daraa have both been taken locally. Sweida is the heartland of Syria’s Druze religious minority and had been the site of regular anti-government protests even after Assad seemingly consolidated his control over the area.
Daraa is a Sunni Muslim area that was widely seen as the cradle of the uprising against Assad’s rule that erupted in 2011. Daraa was recaptured by Syrian government troops in 2018, but rebels remained in some areas. In recent years, Daraa was in a state of uneasy quiet under a Russian-mediated ceasefire deal.
And much of Syria’s east is controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces, a Kurdish-led group backed by the United States that in the past has clashed with most other armed groups in the country.
Syria’s government now has control of only three of 14 provincial capitals: Damascus, Latakia and Tartus.
What’s next?
A commander with the insurgents, Hassan Abdul-Ghani, posted on the Telegram messaging app that opposition forces have started carrying out the “final stage” of their offensive by encircling Damascus.
And Syrian troops withdrew Saturday from much of the central city of Homs, Syria’s third largest, according to a pro-government outlet and the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. If that city is captured, the link would be cut between Damascus, Assad’s seat of power, and the coastal region where he enjoys wide support.
“Homs to the coastal cities will be a very huge red line politically and socially. Politically, if this line is crossed, then we are talking about the end of the entire Syria, the one that we knew in the past,” said a Damascus resident, Anas Joudeh.
Assad appears to be largely on his own as allies Russia and Iran are distracted by other conflicts and the Lebanon-based Hezbollah has been weakened by its war with Israel, now under a fragile ceasefire.
The UN special envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, seeks urgent talks in Geneva to ensure an “orderly political transition,” saying the situation is changing by the minute. He met with foreign ministers and senior diplomats from eight key countries including Saudi Arabia, Russia, Egypt, Turkiye and Iran on the sidelines of the Doha Summit.

Assad has left Damascus, say senior army officers; Syria rebels say they are in capital

 Assad has left Damascus, say senior army officers; Syria rebels say they are in capital
Updated 34 min 9 sec ago
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Assad has left Damascus, say senior army officers; Syria rebels say they are in capital

 Assad has left Damascus, say senior army officers; Syria rebels say they are in capital
  • Thousands of Syrians in cars and on foot arrive at main square in Damascus, demanding freedom 
  • On Saturday, rebels announced they had seized key city of Homs after entire day of fierce fighting 

AMMAN/BEIRUT: Syrian President Bashar Assad boarded a plane and left Damascus for an unknown destination on Sunday, two senior army officers told Reuters, as rebels said they had entered the capital with no sign of army deployments.
Thousands in cars and on foot congregated at a main square in Damascus waving and chanting “Freedom,” witnesses said.
“We celebrate with the Syrian people the news of freeing our prisoners and releasing their chains and announcing the end of the era of injustice in Sednaya prison,” said the rebels.

Syrian opposition fighters ride along the streets in the aftermath of the opposition's takeover of Hama, Syria, on December 6, 2024. (AP)

Sednaya is a large military prison on the outskirts of Damascus where the Syrian government detained thousands.
Just hours earlier, rebels announced they had gained full control of the key city of Homs after only a day of fighting, leaving Assad’s 24-year rule dangling by a thread.
Intense sounds of shooting were heard in the center of Damascus, two residents said on Sunday, although it was not immediately clear what the source of the shooting was.
In rural areas southwest of the capital, local youths and former rebels took advantage of the loss of authority to come to the streets in acts of defiance against the Assad family’s authoritarian rule.
Thousands of Homs residents poured onto the streets after the army withdrew from the central city, dancing and chanting “Assad is gone, Homs is free” and “Long live Syria and down with Bashar Assad.”

Syrian opposition fighters remove a government Syrian flag from an official building in Salamiyah, east of Hama in Syria on December 7, 2024. (AP)

Rebels fired into the air in celebration, and youths tore down posters of the Syrian president, whose territorial control has collapsed in a dizzying week-long retreat by the military.
The fall of Homs gives the insurgents control over Syria’s strategic heartland and a key highway crossroads, severing Damascus from the coastal region that is the stronghold of Assad’s Alawite sect and where his Russian allies have a naval base and air base.
Homs’ capture is also a powerful symbol of the rebel movement’s dramatic comeback in the 13-year-old conflict. Swathes of Homs were destroyed by gruelling siege warfare between the rebels and the army years ago. The fighting ground down the insurgents, who were forced out.
Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham commander Abu Mohammed Al-Golani, the main rebel leader, called the capture of Homs a historic moment and urged fighters not to harm “those who drop their arms.”

Residents celebrate in the Syrian city of Salamiyah in the Hama governorate, days after anti government forces captured and took control of the area, on December 7, 2024. (AFP)

Rebels freed thousands of detainees from the city prison. Security forces left in haste after burning their documents.
Residents of numerous Damascus districts turned out to protest Assad on Saturday evening, and security forces were either unwilling or unable to clamp down.
Syrian rebel commander Hassan Abdul Ghani said in a statement early Sunday that operations were ongoing to “completely liberate” the countryside around Damascus and rebel forces were looking toward the capital.
In one suburb, a statue of Assad’s father, the late President Hafez Assad, was toppled and torn apart.

A boy steps over pictures of Syrian President Bashar Assad and his late father, Hafez Assad, right, Salamiyah, east of Hama in Syria, on December 7, 2024. (AP)

The Syrian army said it was reinforcing around Damascus, and state television reported on Saturday that Assad remained in the city.
Outside the city, rebels swept across the entire southwest over 24 hours and established control.
The fall of Homs and threat to the capital pose an immediate existential danger to the Assad dynasty’s five-decade reign over Syria and the continued influence there of its main regional backer, Iran.
The pace of events has stunned Arab capitals and raised fears of a new wave of regional instability.
Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Turkiye and Russia issued a joint statement saying the crisis was a dangerous development and calling for a political solution.

A view shows a damaged poster of Syria's President Bashar al-Assad in Aleppo, after the Syrian army said that dozens of its soldiers had been killed in a major attack by rebels who swept into the city, in Syria November 30, 2024. (REUTERS)

But there was no indication they agreed on any concrete steps, with the situation inside Syria changing by the hour.
Syria’s civil war, which erupted in 2011 as an uprising against Assad’s rule, dragged in big outside powers, created space for jihadist militants to plot attacks around the world and sent millions of refugees into neighboring states.
Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, the strongest rebel group, is the former Al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria regarded by the US and others as a terrorist organization, and many Syrians remain fearful it will impose draconian Islamist rule.
Golani has tried to reassure minorities that he will not interfere with them and the international community that he opposes Islamist attacks abroad. In Aleppo, which the rebels captured a week ago, there have not been reports of reprisals.
When asked on Saturday whether he believed Golani, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov replied, “The proof of the pudding is in the eating.”
Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group withdrew from the Syrian city of Qusayr on the border with Lebanon before rebel forces seized it, Syrian army sources said on Sunday.
At least 150 armored vehicles carrying hundreds of Hezbollah fighters left the city, long a point on the route for arms transfers and fighters moving in and out of Syria, the sources said. Israel hit one of the convoys as it was departing, one source said.
Assad long relied on allies to subdue the rebels. Russian warplanes conducted bombing while Iran sent allied forces including Hezbollah and Iraqi militia to reinforce the Syrian military and storm insurgent strongholds.
But Russia has been focused on the war in Ukraine since 2022 and Hezbollah has suffered big losses in its own gruelling war with Israel, significantly limiting its ability or that of Iran to bolster Assad.
US President-elect Donald Trump has said the US should not be involved in the conflict and should “let it play out.”


Syrian army command tells officers that Assad's rule has ended

Syrian army command tells officers that Assad's rule has ended
Updated 25 min 21 sec ago
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Syrian army command tells officers that Assad's rule has ended

Syrian army command tells officers that Assad's rule has ended
  • Thousands of Syrians in cars and on foot congregate at a main square in Damascus, waving and chanting freedom
  • Assad’s destination unknown, officers say

AMMAN/BEIRUT: Syrian President Bashar Assad flew out of Damascus for an unknown destination on Sunday, two senior army officers told Reuters, as rebels said they had entered the capital with no sign of army deployments.
Thousands in cars and on foot congregated at a main square in Damascus waving and chanting “Freedom,” witnesses said.
“We celebrate with the Syrian people the news of freeing our prisoners and releasing their chains and announcing the end of the era of injustice in Sednaya prison,” said the rebels.
Sednaya is a large military prison on the outskirts Damascus where the Syrian government detained thousands.
A Syrian Air plane took off from Damascus airport around the time the capital was reported to have been taken by rebels, according to data from the Flightradar website.
The aircraft initially flew toward Syria’s coastal region, a stronghold of Assad’s Alawite sect, but then made an abrupt U-turn and flew in the opposite direction for a few minutes before disappearing off the map.
Reuters could not immediately ascertain who was on board.
Just hours earlier, rebels announced they had gained full control of the key city of Homs after only a day of fighting, leaving Assad’s 24-year rule dangling by a thread.
Intense sounds of shooting were heard in the center of the Damascus, two residents said on Sunday, although it was not immediately clear what the source of the shooting was.
In rural areas southwest of the capital, local youths and former rebels took advantage of the loss of authority to come to the streets in acts of defiance against the Assad family’s authoritarian rule.
Thousands of Homs residents poured onto the streets after the army withdrew from the central city, dancing and chanting “Assad is gone, Homs is free” and “Long live Syria and down with Bashar Assad.”
Rebels fired into the air in celebration, and youths tore down posters of the Syrian president, whose territorial control has collapsed in a dizzying week-long retreat by the military.
The fall of Homs gives the insurgents control over Syria’s strategic heartland and a key highway crossroads, severing Damascus from the coastal region that is the stronghold of Assad’s Alawite sect and where his Russian allies have a naval base and air base.
Homs’ capture is also a powerful symbol of the rebel movement’s dramatic comeback in the 13-year-old conflict. Swathes of Homs were destroyed by gruelling siege warfare between the rebels and the army years ago. The fighting ground down the insurgents, who were forced out.
Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham commander Abu Mohammed Al-Golani, the main rebel leader, called the capture of Homs a historic moment and urged fighters not to harm “those who drop their arms.”
Rebels freed thousands of detainees from the city prison. Security forces left in haste after burning their documents.
Residents of numerous Damascus districts turned out to protest Assad on Saturday evening, and security forces were either unwilling or unable to clamp down.
Syrian rebel commander Hassan Abdul Ghani said in a statement early Sunday that operations were ongoing to “completely liberate” the countryside around Damascus and rebel forces were looking toward the capital.
In one suburb, a statue of Assad’s father, the late President Hafez Assad, was toppled and torn apart.
The Syrian army said it was reinforcing around Damascus, and state television reported on Saturday that Assad remained in the city.
Outside the city, rebels swept across the entire southwest over 24 hours and established control.

Existential threat to Assad rule
The fall of Homs and threat to the capital pose an immediate existential danger to the Assad dynasty’s five-decade reign over Syria and the continued influence there of its main regional backer, Iran.
The pace of events has stunned Arab capitals and raised fears of a new wave of regional instability.
Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Turkiye and Russia issued a joint statement saying the crisis was a dangerous development and calling for a political solution.
But there was no indication they agreed on any concrete steps, with the situation inside Syria changing by the hour.
Syria’s civil war, which erupted in 2011 as an uprising against Assad’s rule, dragged in big outside powers, created space for jihadist militants to plot attacks around the world and sent millions of refugees into neighboring states.
Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, the strongest rebel group, is the former Al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria regarded by the US and others as a terrorist organization, and many Syrians remain fearful it will impose draconian Islamist rule.
Golani has tried to reassure minorities that he will not interfere with them and the international community that he opposes Islamist attacks abroad. In Aleppo, which the rebels captured a week ago, there have not been reports of reprisals.
When asked on Saturday whether he believed Golani, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov replied, “The proof of the pudding is in the eating.”
Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group withdrew from the Syrian city of Qusayr on the border with Lebanon before rebel forces seized it, Syrian army sources said on Sunday.
At least 150 armored vehicles carrying hundreds of Hezbollah fighters left the city, long a point on the route for arms transfers and fighters moving in and out of Syria, the sources said. Israel hit one of the convoys as it was departing, one source said.

Allies' role in supporting Assad
Assad long relied on allies to subdue the rebels. Russian warplanes conducted bombing while Iran sent allied forces including Hezbollah and Iraqi militia to reinforce the Syrian military and storm insurgent strongholds.
But Russia has been focused on the war in Ukraine since 2022 and Hezbollah has suffered big losses in its own gruelling war with Israel, significantly limiting its ability or that of Iran to bolster Assad.
US President-elect Donald Trump has said the US should not be involved in the conflict and should “let it play out.”


Hezbollah convoy exits Syria’s Qusayr as rebel forces take over city, Syrian army sources say

Hezbollah convoy exits Syria’s Qusayr as rebel forces take over city, Syrian army sources say
Updated 08 December 2024
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Hezbollah convoy exits Syria’s Qusayr as rebel forces take over city, Syrian army sources say

Hezbollah convoy exits Syria’s Qusayr as rebel forces take over city, Syrian army sources say
  • Israel, which has repeatedly hit Hezbollah weapons depots and underground fortifications it had built in the city, hit one of the convoys that was leaving, one source said, without elaborating

AMMAN: Lebanon’s Hezbollah group withdrew from the Syrian city of Qusayr along the border with Lebanon shortly before militant forces seized it, Syrian army sources said on Sunday.
They told Reuters at least 150 armored vehicles carrying hundreds of fighters left the city in phases. Qusayr has long been a major supply route for the militia’s arms transfers and flow of fighters in and out of Syria since Hezbollah seized it in 2013 at the early phase of the Syrian conflict.
Israel, which has repeatedly hit Hezbollah weapons depots and underground fortifications it had built in the city, hit one of the convoys that was leaving, one source said, without elaborating.

 


UK leader Starmer heads to Gulf to talk trade, Mideast

UK leader Starmer heads to Gulf to talk trade, Mideast
Updated 08 December 2024
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UK leader Starmer heads to Gulf to talk trade, Mideast

UK leader Starmer heads to Gulf to talk trade, Mideast
  • Discussing regional conflicts is expected to be “high up the agenda,” including the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, the fragile ceasefire in Lebanon and renewed unrest in Syria

LONDON: Britain’s leader Keir Starmer makes his first trip to the Gulf as prime minister from Sunday, Downing Street announced.
“There is huge untapped potential in this region, which is why, while here, I will be making the case to accelerate progress on the Gulf Cooperation Council Free Trade Agreement,” Starmer said in a statement released Saturday.
The meetings will also aim to “deepen our research and development collaboration” and partner on projects in areas including defense and artificial intelligence, Starmer added.
The regional tour will end on Tuesday with Starmer meeting President Nikos Christodoulides in Nicosia, the first bilateral talks between the leaders of Britain and Cyprus in over five decades.
Starmer is also due to address British troops stationed in Cyprus.