Kuwait’s emir calls on new government to pursue reforms

Kuwait’s emir calls on new government to pursue reforms
Kuwait’s Emir Sheikh Meshal Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah (AFP)
Short Url
Updated 15 May 2024
Follow

Kuwait’s emir calls on new government to pursue reforms

Kuwait’s emir calls on new government to pursue reforms

RIYADH: Kuwait’s Emir Sheikh Mishal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah on Wednesday met with the new prime minister and his government.

According to the Kuwait News Agency, Sheikh Mishal said: “We are in a new phase of reforms and serious actions must be taken.”

He added that ministers should “accelerate the implementation of long-awaited strategic development projects, address needed files and work on the infrastructure projects, develop healthcare and the educational system, and take into account transparency and to preserve public funds.”

Sheikh Mishal appointed Sheikh Ahmad Abdullah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah as prime minister in April, and dissolved parliament last Friday in a televised speech.

He urged ministers to ensure that Kuwait has a strong and sustainable economy by investing in human capital and promoting innovation and scientific research.


King Abdullah stresses need for regional stability in call with Greek PM as Jordanians march in solidarity with Gaza

King Abdullah stresses need for regional stability in call with Greek PM as Jordanians march in solidarity with Gaza
Updated 15 sec ago
Follow

King Abdullah stresses need for regional stability in call with Greek PM as Jordanians march in solidarity with Gaza

King Abdullah stresses need for regional stability in call with Greek PM as Jordanians march in solidarity with Gaza

AMMAN: King Abdullah II of Jordan emphasized the importance of regional stability and of coordinated international efforts during a phone call with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Friday, according to a report from Petra, the Jordan News Agency.

The two leaders discussed key regional developments, particularly the ongoing crisis in Syria and the escalating conflict in the Gaza Strip.

King Abdullah said securing Syria’s stability was essential to strengthening broader regional security and reiterated that the immediate cessation of Israel’s military actions in Gaza was critical to halting the escalation of violence in the region. He also called for the urgent delivery of uninterrupted humanitarian aid to the besieged enclave.

The king also highlighted the necessity of maintaining international efforts to uphold the ceasefire in Lebanon, which remains a vital factor in preventing the conflict from spreading further across the region, Petra added.

Also on Friday, a large march was held in downtown Amman following prayers at Al-Husseini Mosque. Participants protested the ongoing Israeli assault on Gaza, decrying what they described as “global double standards and the international community’s silence on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza,” Petra reported.

Marchers called on Arab nations and the international community to take decisive action to end the aggression and support Palestinian rights. They commended Jordan’s firm opposition to the war on Gaza and advocacy for the delivery of humanitarian aid.

Protesters criticized the actions of Israeli forces and also demanded that crossings be opened to facilitate the entry of critical aid.


Arab League condemns Israeli incursion into Syria, calls for UN Security Council action

Arab League condemns Israeli incursion into Syria, calls for UN Security Council action
Updated 51 min 44 sec ago
Follow

Arab League condemns Israeli incursion into Syria, calls for UN Security Council action

Arab League condemns Israeli incursion into Syria, calls for UN Security Council action
  • Concerns over Israel’s actions, violation of agreement

CAIRO: The Arab League, which convened an emergency meeting on Thursday, has strongly condemned Israel’s recent incursion into Syria, describing it as a serious threat to regional and international peace, the Saudi Press Agency reported on Friday.

Abdulaziz bin Abdullah Al-Matar, Saudi Arabia’s permanent representative to the organization, attended the meeting in Cairo, which culminated in a resolution denouncing Israel’s incursion into the demilitarized zone near Mount Hermon and the continued occupation of Syrian territories in the Quneitra and Rif Dimashq governorates.

An Arab League statement said that these actions represented a violation of the 1974 Disengagement Agreement and various UN resolutions. The statement further condemned Israeli airstrikes on Syrian civilian and military sites, urging Israel to provide compensation for the resulting damage.

The Arab League called on the international community to hold Israel accountable for its activities in the occupied Golan Heights, and emphasized the need to halt the expansion of illegal settlements in the area.

The organization requested in its resolution that the Arab group at the UN, in coordination with Algeria, worked to convene a special session of the UN Security Council. The proposed session would address what the Arab League described as an “escalating threat to international peace and security,” the SPA reported.

The Arab League’s resolution reflects growing regional concerns about Israel’s activities in Syria and the occupied Golan Heights, with Arab states urging stronger international intervention to prevent further destabilization in the region after the fall of Bashar Assad’s government.


Kyiv ready to supply food to Syria as Russia supplies suspended

People walk with food in plastic bags, after rebels seized the capital and ousted Syria's Bashar Assad, in Damascus on Thursday.
People walk with food in plastic bags, after rebels seized the capital and ousted Syria's Bashar Assad, in Damascus on Thursday.
Updated 13 December 2024
Follow

Kyiv ready to supply food to Syria as Russia supplies suspended

People walk with food in plastic bags, after rebels seized the capital and ousted Syria's Bashar Assad, in Damascus on Thursday.
  • Russian wheat supplies to Syria had been suspended over uncertainty about the new government

KYIV: Ukraine, a global producer and exporter of grain and oilseeds, is ready to supply food to Syria following the fall of Bashar Assad, Ukrainian Agriculture Minister Vitaliy Koval told Reuters on Friday.
Russian and Syrian sources said earlier that Russian wheat supplies to Syria had been suspended over uncertainty about the new government and payment delays.
Syria imported food from Russia during the Assad era and it is unclear how relations between Damascus and Moscow will take shape under the new government.
“Where it is difficult, we have to be there with our food. We are open to supplying our food and if Syria needs food — then we are there,” Koval told Reuters.
Ukraine’s exports were buffeted by Russia’s February 2022 invasion, which severely reduced shipments via the Black Sea. Ukraine has since broken a de facto sea blockade and revived exports from its southern ports of Odesa.
Kyiv traditionally exports wheat and corn to Middle Eastern countries, but not to Syria.
Traders say that only about 6,000 metric tons of Ukrainian corn reached the Syrian market in the 2023/24 season, out of a total corn export volume of 29.4 million tons.
However, small parcels of Ukrainian-origin grain may have reached Syria from neighboring countries, but not been captured by those statistics, analysts said.
Since the fall of Assad, a close Russian ally, Kyiv has voiced a desire to restore relations with Syria.
Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha said Kyiv was ready “to pave the way for the restoration of relations in the future and reaffirm our support for the Syrian people.”


Blinken meets Iraq PM in unannounced stop on Syria crisis tour

Blinken meets Iraq PM in unannounced stop on Syria crisis tour
Updated 13 December 2024
Follow

Blinken meets Iraq PM in unannounced stop on Syria crisis tour

Blinken meets Iraq PM in unannounced stop on Syria crisis tour
  • The top US diplomat flew to Baghdad from Ankara

BAGHDAD: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Iraq’s prime minister on Friday in an unannounced visit as he seeks to coordinate a regional approach to Syria following the overthrow of Bashar Assad.
The top US diplomat flew to Baghdad from the Turkish capital Ankara and headed into talks with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani, an AFP journalist traveling with Blinken said.


Syrian Shiites and other minorities flee to Lebanon, fearing Islamist rule

Syrian Shiites and other minorities flee to Lebanon, fearing Islamist rule
Updated 13 December 2024
Follow

Syrian Shiites and other minorities flee to Lebanon, fearing Islamist rule

Syrian Shiites and other minorities flee to Lebanon, fearing Islamist rule
  • Their accounts reflect fears of persecution despite promises of protection by Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham
  • Shiite communities have often been on the frontline of Syria’s 13-year civil war

BEIRUT/NUBL: Tens of thousands of Syrians, mostly Shiite Muslims, have fled to Lebanon since Sunni Muslim Islamists toppled Bashar Assad, fearing persecution despite assurances from the new rulers in Damascus that they will be safe, a Lebanese official said.
At the border with Lebanon, where thousands of people were trying to leave Syria on Thursday, a dozen Shiite Muslims interviewed by Reuters described threats made against them, sometimes in person but mostly on social media.
Their accounts reflect fears of persecution despite promises of protection by Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) — the Sunni Islamist group which has emerged as the dominant force in the new Syria but is far from being the only armed faction on the ground.
Shiite communities have often been on the frontline of Syria’s 13-year civil war, which took on sectarian dimensions as Assad, from the minority Alawite faith, mobilized regional Shiite allies, including Lebanon’s Hezbollah, to help fight Sunni militants.
The senior Lebanese security official said more than 100,000 people, largely members of minority faiths, had crossed into Lebanon since Sunday, but could not give an exact number because most of them had used illegal crossings along the porous border.
At the main border crossing between Syria and Lebanon, Samira Baba said she had been waiting for three days to enter Lebanon with her children.
“We don’t know who sent these threats, on WhatsApp and Facebook,” she said. “The militants in charge haven’t openly threatened us, so it could be other factions, or individuals. We just don’t know. But we know it’s time to leave,” she said.
The new Syria holds uncertainty for many, especially minorities. Shiites are thought to number around a tenth of the population, which stood at 23 million before the war began.
While HTS, which has cut its ties with the global jihadist network Al-Qaeda, is the most powerful of the constellation of factions that fought Assad, there are numerous other armed groups, many of which are Islamist.
Ayham Hamada, a 39-year-old Shiite who was serving in the army when Assad fell, said the government’s collapse was so sudden that it left him and his brother, also a soldier, scrambling to decide whether to stay or go.
They fled to Damascus where they received threats, he said, without elaborating. “We are afraid of sectarian killings... this will be liquidation.”
Despite assurances voiced by HTS leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa, Hamada said minorities have been left without protection after Assad’s sudden flight. “Bashar took his money and fled and didn’t pay attention to us,” he said.
Many of the Shiites at the border were from Sayyeda Zeinab, a Damascus district home to a Shiite shrine where fighters from Hezbollah and other Shiite militias were based. Supported by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, the Shiite militias also came from Iraq and Afghanistan, and recruited some Syrian Shiites.
Elham, a 30-year-old nurse, said she had been waiting at the crossing for days without food or water with her 10-day-old niece and two-year-old son.
A Shiite from Damascus, she said she fled to rural areas when the government fell. When she returned, she found her house looted and torched. She and others said that armed, masked men raided their homes and ordered them at gunpoint to leave, or be killed.
“They took our car because they said it’s theirs. You daren’t say a word. We left everything and fled.”
Reuters could not immediately reach HTS officials for comment on threats received by minorities.

’WE ARE ALL ONE PEOPLE’
In parts of Syria’s north, however, some residents who fled when HTS went on the offensive in late November said they now felt confident to return.
“My wife is Sunni. We are all one people and one nation,” Hussein Al-Saman, 48, a Shiite father of three told Reuters, next to the main mosque in the Shiite town of Nubl, where Hezbollah once stationed fighters.
He praised HTS leader Sharaa for his efforts to protect the community, saying he “enabled us to come to our houses.”
“We were a minority and didn’t have a choice but to stand with (Assad). But now that the war is over we are free... I hope for my children to just live comfortably under the new government.”
Bassam Abdulwahab, an official overseeing the returns, said essential services had been restored. “Security was provided to protect the minorities,” he said, adding that this “is the approach of the commanding leadership.”
“We carry the responsibility of protecting the minorities in Syria. What happens to us happens to them,” he said.
At the entrance to Nubl, a statue of Assad lay toppled. Further into the town, residents cleaned stores and repaired damaged buildings, while officials in military fatigues coordinated the return of those who had fled.
“The (Assad) government forced the minorities here to live in a situation where they had to be enemies of their neighbors,” said Muhyie Al-Dien, who works in mining. “The government played its game so it could divide us and our Sunni brothers.”
While some in Nubl spoke hopefully of the future, one 41-year-old man, who gave his name as Hami and declined to speak on camera, was more cautious. “We are Shiite and the new leadership is Sunni. We don’t know what will happen,” he said.