Israel wants freedom to strike Lebanon even after ceasefire, France says

Israel wants freedom to strike Lebanon even after ceasefire, France says
Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike targeting a neighborhood in southern Beirut on Nov. 13, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. (AFP)
Short Url
Updated 13 November 2024
Follow

Israel wants freedom to strike Lebanon even after ceasefire, France says

Israel wants freedom to strike Lebanon even after ceasefire, France says
  • “Today we hear in Israel voices calling for it to keep a capacity to strike at any moment or even enter Lebanon,” said Barrot
  • “That is not compatible with the sovereignty of a strong country“

PARIS: Israeli officials are insisting on maintaining a capacity to strike Lebanon at any moment as part of conditions to secure a ceasefire with Iran-backed Hezbollah, France’s foreign minister said on Wednesday.
Speaking to a parliamentary hearing after holding talks in Israel last week in Jerusalem, Jean-Noel Barrot said it was a condition increasingly voiced among Israeli officials.
“Today we hear in Israel voices calling for it to keep a capacity to strike at any moment or even enter Lebanon, as is the case with its neighbor Syria,” said Barrot, who held talks with Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer and new Defense Minister Israel Katz last week.
“That is not compatible with the sovereignty of a strong country,” Barrot said, referring to broader efforts to help strengthen Lebanon’s governance.
Several diplomats said that it would be all but impossible to get Hezbollah or Lebanon to accept any proposal that included this demand.
There was no immediate comment from Israel on the remarks. Its defense minister, Israel Katz, said earlier: “We will not allow any arrangement that does not include the achievement of the war’s objectives — and above all Israel’s right to enforce and act on its own against any terrorist activity.”
France, which has historical ties with Lebanon, has sought to play a role in trying to secure a ceasefire in the Middle Eastern country.
It has worked with the United States to try to implement a temporary ceasefire, but those talks stalled at the end of September.
Coordination between Paris and the outgoing US administration to get a ceasefire has been more complicated since, with US envoy Amos Hochstein focused on his own proposals.
Barrot said it made no sense for France to lead initiatives by itself on Lebanon given it needed the United States to convince Israel, just like it was not helpful for Washington to go it alone because it would “lack a fine appreciation of Lebanon’s internal political dynamics,” he said.


Morocco’s king undergoes successful surgery after shoulder fracture

Morocco’s king undergoes successful surgery after shoulder fracture
Updated 9 sec ago
Follow

Morocco’s king undergoes successful surgery after shoulder fracture

Morocco’s king undergoes successful surgery after shoulder fracture
RABAT: King Mohammed VI of Morocco had successful surgery on Sunday on his left shoulder after suffering a fall while working out, state media said.
He has been told to rest for 45 days to allow his shoulder to recover, state news agency MAP said, citing a statement by the king’s medical team.
The palace has issued statements about the king’s health in the past, including when he had heart surgery in 2018 and 2020, a lung infection in 2019 and COVID-19.

Across Europe, Syrians celebrate being ‘free’ of Assad

Lareen, 8, looks on as people gather in Trafalgar Square, after Syrian militants announced that they ousted Syria's Bashar Assad
Lareen, 8, looks on as people gather in Trafalgar Square, after Syrian militants announced that they ousted Syria's Bashar Assad
Updated 7 min 58 sec ago
Follow

Across Europe, Syrians celebrate being ‘free’ of Assad

Lareen, 8, looks on as people gather in Trafalgar Square, after Syrian militants announced that they ousted Syria's Bashar Assad
  • Syrians in Athens, Belgrade, Istanbul, London, Paris, Stockholm, Vienna also waved flags in the green, red, black and white colors of the Syrian opposition

BERLIN: Thousands of jubilant Syrians rallied in Berlin and cities across Europe on Sunday, waving flags and barely able to contain their joy at the downfall of president Bashar Assad.
“Finally we are free!” exclaimed Bassam Al-Hamada, 39, among 5,000 people at an exuberant rally in the capital of Germany, where the one million-plus Syrians makes it the largest diaspora in Europe.
But Syrians in Athens, Belgrade, Istanbul, London, Paris, Stockholm, Vienna also waved flags in the green, red, black and white colors of the Syrian opposition and made clear their hostility to Assad.
Berlin police said more than 5,000 Syrians gathered in a square in the Kreuzberg district.
Many waved flags and banners that read “Free Syria” and “Freedom,” flashed “V” for victory signs and chanted “Allahu Akbar!” (God is Greatest!).
Despite a cold drizzle, many came with their families. Children’s faces were painted in the Syrian colors. Passing cars honked their horns.
Most Syrians in Germany fled their country after civil war erupted in 2011. A big community now lives in Berlin’s Neukoelln district.
“We’re happy. The dictatorship is over. Assad has gone,” said 39-year-old Berlin resident Ahmed, who preferred not to give his last name.
“All Syrians are together now,” said the railway technician, who fled the Syrian city of Aleppo in 2015.
Ahmad Al-Hallabi, a 27-year-old mechanic from Aleppo, arrived in Germany through Turkiye and Greece in 2015 at the peak of the migrant influx into Europe.
“Ten years ago, I was in Syria and saw things no-one should have to see, things that are impossible to wipe from your memory,” he said.
“Assad is the worst terrorist imaginable ... I hope there’ll be peace and everything Assad and his men destroyed will be rebuilt.”
Germany’s far-right, which has gained popularity on the back of its opposition to the arrival of Syrians and other migrants quickly raised its fears about more arrivals.
“The frontiers are closed, we will not accept any any more,” said Alternative for Germany co-leader Alice Weidel on the X social platform.
Anti-immigrant parties have also made gains in other European countries. “The top priority must be to ensure that the Syrian civilian population has prospects on the ground again and that refugees can return,” Austria’s foreign ministry said in a statement on Assad’s defeat.
Many Syrian say they want to return to their war-battered nation.
“Like many Syrians, I would like to return to my country to help rebuild it,” said Bassam Al-Hamada, a social worker who arrived in Germany in early 2016.
Sabreen, 36, an architect, said she planned to help from Germany.
“They mainly need expertise and money. All of that, we can gather here for the moment,” added the woman.
Like many of the stunned exiles in Berlin, Sabreen called for Assad to answer for the killing and torture of his people in the past 13 years. “He must be tried in the international court in The Hague,” she said.
Hundreds of ecstatic Syrians celebrated the fall of Assad on London’s Trafalgar Square, hugging each other and chanting “Mabrouk!” (Congratulations!).
Syrians greeted each other, many with the opposition flag, and singing: “Syria is ours, not the Assad family’s.”
Hundreds took part in joyous scenes outside the Fatih Mosque in Istanbul, one of the focal points for their 500,000-strong Syrian community in the Turkish city.
Several hundred Syrians also gathered outside parliament in central Athens. “Allah, Syria, freedom!” and “together, together, together,” they chanted.
“I am happy after these 13 years of displacement, massacres and tens of thousands of people killed in prisons,” said Adel Batal, 29.
“I am in Greece because of this regime,” said the man from Aleppo. “My city has been destroyed by this regime.”
Thousands also gathered in Stockholm, Copenhagen and Vienna. Sweden has Europe’s second biggest Syrian diaspora.
“I lost my homeland. My home, my family and my friends, and we fought for 14 years — so yes, today I am happy,” Noura Bittar told Danish local television.
“Of course, we are worried about what the next step will be, what kind of government will be put in place? But for now, we are just happy.”


Bewildered, elated prisoners pour out as Assad’s jails flung open

A person gestures as individuals, reportedly freed prisoners, run in the streets of Damascus, Syria, December 8, 2024. (Reuters)
A person gestures as individuals, reportedly freed prisoners, run in the streets of Damascus, Syria, December 8, 2024. (Reuters)
Updated 43 min 50 sec ago
Follow

Bewildered, elated prisoners pour out as Assad’s jails flung open

A person gestures as individuals, reportedly freed prisoners, run in the streets of Damascus, Syria, December 8, 2024. (Reuters)
  • Throughout the civil war that began in 2011, security forces held hundreds of thousands of people seized in detention camps

DAMASCUS: Bewildered and elated prisoners poured out of Syrian jails on Sunday, shouting with joy as they emerged from one of the world’s most notorious detention systems and walked to freedom following the collapse of Bashar Assad’s government.
All across Syria, families wept as they were reunited with children, siblings, spouses and parents who vanished years ago into the impregnable gulag of the Assad dynasty’s five-decade rule.
A video verified by Reuters showed newly freed prisoners ran through the Damascus streets, holding up the fingers of both hands to show how many years they had been in prison, asking passers-by what had happened, not immediately understanding that Assad had fallen.
“We toppled the regime!” a voice shouted and a prisoner yelled and skipped with delight in the same video. A man watching the prisoners rush through the dawn streets put his hands to head, exclaiming with wonder: “Oh my god, the prisoners!“
Throughout the civil war that began in 2011, security forces held hundreds of thousands of people seized in detention camps where international human rights organizations say torture was universal practice. Families were often told nothing of the fate of their loved ones.
As insurgents seized one city after another in a dizzying eight-day campaign, prisons were often among their first objectives. The most notorious prisons in and around Damascus itself were finally opened on the uprising’s final night and the early hours of Sunday.
When they reached Sednaya prison, militants shot the lock off the gate, a video showed, using more gunfire to open closed doors leading to cells. Men poured out into corridors and a courtyard, cheering and helping them open more cells.
In a video uploaded by Step News Agency, a grey-haired man leapt into the arms of relatives in a sudden, disbelieving hug, the three men clasping each other and sobbing with joy before one fell to his knees, still clutching the freed man’s legs.
The pan-Arab Al Arabiya news channel showed a family arriving in Damascus by car from Jordan to meet their newly released son, the elderly mother’s voice breaking with emotion as she told the interviewer he had been freed after 14 years.
Reuters was not immediately able to verify the locations of some of the videos, though no one disputed that prisons were opened across the country.
Relief and terror
In what was purported to be the women’s block at Sednaya prison on the Damascus outskirts, perhaps the most notorious in the country, a militant recorded the moment he reached cells and pulled open the doors for prisoners who seemed to have had little idea they were about to be freed.
“May God honor you!” a woman shouted to the men freeing her. As they left their cells a toddler could be seen walking the corridor, having apparently been held in the prison along with his mother.
“He (Assad) has fallen. Don’t be scared,” a voice shouts, trying to reassure the prisoners that they faced no more danger.
In another video, a deafening roar erupted as militants marched down a corridor, said to be in the prison at Mezzeh air base southwest of the old center of Damascus. Prisoners leaned through the bars at the top of doors and banged on the sides of their cells as shouts of joy echoed all around.
One video showed a shaven-headed man squatting on his heels, trembling and barely able to answer the militants asking his name and where he was from.
Over the years, thousands of Syrians were brusquely informed by authorities that their relatives had been executed, sometimes years earlier.
The United States said in 2017 it had evidence of a new crematorium built at Sednaya especially to dispose of bodies of thousands of inmates hanged during the war.
Some of the most disturbing information about Assad’s prison system came with thousands of photographs smuggled out of Syria by a military photographer codenamed Caesar who defected to the West in 2013.
His photographs of thousands of killed detainees showed clear marks of torture and starvation and for many families provided the first evidence that imprisoned relatives were dead.
A few miles from Sednaya early on Sunday, a stream of freed prisoners was recorded walking toward Damascus, many lugging sacks of belongings on their backs, and chanting “God is great!”


Mikati urges Lebanese ‘to show wisdom and calm during critical time’

Mikati urges Lebanese ‘to show wisdom and calm during critical time’
Updated 08 December 2024
Follow

Mikati urges Lebanese ‘to show wisdom and calm during critical time’

Mikati urges Lebanese ‘to show wisdom and calm during critical time’
  • Prime minister stresses need to tighten border control in talks with army commander, security chiefs

BEIRUT: Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati stressed the need to tighten control over the border and distance Lebanon from the repercussions of the developments in Syria on Sunday.

Mikati discussed the situation at the Syrian border in a call with Gen. Joseph Aoun, head of the Armed Forces, and other security chiefs.

Lebanon currently hosts around 2 million Syrians, while more than 800,000 are registered with the UN. Many fled Syria after its civil war began in 2011.

Mikati called on the “Lebanese people, of all affiliations, to show wisdom and avoid provocations, especially at this critical time for our country.”

He urged communication with the National Commission for the Missing and Forcibly Disappeared in Lebanon and the committee addressing the issue of Lebanese detainees in Syria.

He requested the use of all available resources to contact the relevant parties for the release of hundreds of prisoners in Syrian prisons.

Recent developments in Syria, including the opening of prisons by opposition factions and the release of all detainees, along with videos on social media showing alleged Lebanese prisoners previously considered missing, have sparked widespread anger in Lebanon.

On Sunday, Lebanese citizen Marwan Nouh, who had been imprisoned in Syria, returned to Arsal, Lebanon.

The president of the Committee of Families of the Kidnapped and Disappeared in Lebanon, Wadad Halwani, called on Lebanese authorities to follow up on this issue, especially since Syrian officials had long denied the presence of Lebanese prisoners in Syrian prisons.

In Tripoli, Sidon, and parts of Beirut, people celebrated the fall of the Syrian regime.

The Lebanese Army Command took security measures “to prevent any threat to civil peace.”

Social media activists circulated a video showing a group of Lebanese youth storming the Arab socialist Baath party’s office in Akkar, northern Lebanon, and removing posters of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad.

Also on Sunday, many pro-regime Syrian families, along with Lebanese families who had been living in Syria, namely in Rablah and surrounding villages, entered Lebanon.

Hezbollah in Bekaa sent out a message urging the residents of the pro-Hezbollah Baalbek-Hermel region to welcome them.
Amid these developments, an Israeli airstrike hit the eastern ridge between Qoussaya and Anjar.

Early on Sunday, hundreds of Syrians gathered at Masnaa Border Crossing with Syria, waiting for the Lebanese General Security’s to open it.

Many more closely followed the rapid military developments in their homeland through television and social media.

Around 400,000 Syrians returned home from Lebanon during the Israeli assault on southern Lebanon, which lasted for 64 days.

In Arsal, a border town in eastern Lebanon whose terrain overlaps with Syria and includes the most significant number of Syrian refugee camps, people emerged from their tents at dawn and began chanting enthusiastic slogans.

One camp official, Abu Mohammed, told Arab News that people had not slept.

“We toured these camps in the Qalamoun region, Qusayr, and its countryside. All the people want to return, but we look forward to an orderly exit from Lebanon.”

He said that the refugee committees submitted a request to the relevant authorities in Lebanon to inquire about the procedures for return.

“We have been informed that those wishing to leave Lebanon may do so only once without possibly returning.

“Departure can occur through Al-Zamrani crossing on the outskirts of Arsal, a natural geographical passage and not an official crossing, or via Al-Matraba crossing in Hermel, an unofficial route.

“The former leads refugees to Qalamoun, while the latter directs them to Qusayr.”

The General Directorate of General Security in Lebanon said it would provide all necessary facilities to return Syrians to Lebanon.

It noted that the repeated Israeli assaults on the land border crossings, particularly in the north, have led to the closure of these crossings until further notice to ensure the safety of travelers and entrants.

Consequently, Masnaa Border Crossing remains open for the place of entry and exit, especially for Syrian nationals, under the previously issued temporary exceptional measures and instructions.

As of Sunday afternoon, around 1,500 Syrians crossed from Lebanon into Syria at Masnaa Border Crossing.

Conversely, the crossing experienced a significant influx of Syrians entering Lebanon, either to utilize Beirut Airport for travel or due to having residency permits or sponsors under the procedures established by Lebanon.

The Military Operations Management in Syria confirmed the withdrawal of Hezbollah from Al-Qusayr and Homs towards Lebanon.

The Lebanese Armed Forces announced the deployment of reinforcements to the Lebanese border north of the town of Al-Qaa following reports of the evacuation of Syrian security and customs personnel from their positions.

Dalal Harb, the spokesperson and Communications Officer for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, told Arab News about the measures UNHCR can implement to facilitate the return of Syrian refugees from Lebanon to Syria.

She said it is aware of reports of Syrians returning from Lebanon, with some movements reported through Masnaa crossing in Bekaa.

According to the Lebanese General Security Office, measures have been announced to facilitate returns to Syria.

Harb said: “We closely monitor these developments and remain in contact with the relevant authorities. Updates will be provided as more information becomes available.”


US to work with partners in Syria to manage risk after Assad toppled, Biden says

US President Joe Biden speaks after Syrian militants announced that they have ousted Syria’s Bashar Assad, at the White House.
US President Joe Biden speaks after Syrian militants announced that they have ousted Syria’s Bashar Assad, at the White House.
Updated 08 December 2024
Follow

US to work with partners in Syria to manage risk after Assad toppled, Biden says

US President Joe Biden speaks after Syrian militants announced that they have ousted Syria’s Bashar Assad, at the White House.
  • Biden said the US will support Syria’s neighbors through the period of transition and will assess the words and actions of militant groups

WASHINGTON: The United States will work with partners and stakeholders in Syria to help seize an opportunity and manage the risk, US President Joe Biden said on Sunday after militants overthrew Syrian President Bashar Assad.
In remarks at the White House, Biden said the United States will support Syria’s neighbors through the period of transition and will assess the words and actions of militant groups.
Biden said the United States does not officially know of Assad’s whereabouts but noted reports that he fled to Moscow. He said Assad “should be held accountable.”
Biden said Syria is in a period of risk and uncertainty and that it is the first time in years that neither Russia nor Iran nor the Hezbollah militant organization held an influential role in Syria.
“For years, the main backers of Assad have been Iran, Hezbollah and Russia. But over the last week, their support collapsed — all three of them — because all three of them are far weaker today than they were when I took office,” said Biden, who became president in 2021.
Biden said US forces on Sunday conducted a dozen precision strikes within Syria targeting camps and operatives of Daesh.
“It’s a moment of historic opportunity for the long suffering people of Syria to build a better future for their proud country. It’s also a moment of risk and uncertainty,” Biden said.
“As we all turn to the question of what comes next, the United States will work with our partners and the stakeholders in Syria to help them seize an opportunity to manage the risk,” Biden added.