Newly named Syria PM calls for ‘stability and calm’

Update Syria’s new transitional prime minister Mohammad Al-Bashir chairs a meeting of the new cabinet in Damascus on December 10, 2024. (AFP)
Syria’s new transitional prime minister Mohammad Al-Bashir chairs a meeting of the new cabinet in Damascus on December 10, 2024. (AFP)
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Updated 11 December 2024
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Newly named Syria PM calls for ‘stability and calm’

Syria’s new transitional prime minister Mohammad Al-Bashir chairs a meeting of the new cabinet in Damascus on December 10, 2024.
  • “Now it is time for this people to enjoy stability and calm,” Al-Bashir said in first interview since being appointed
  • Blinken said the future government of Syria should be “credible, inclusive and non-sectarian”

DAMASCUS: Syria’s new transitional prime minister on Tuesday said it was time for “stability and calm” in the country, two days after longtime president Bashar Assad was toppled by militants in a lightning offensive.
The militants appointed Mohammad Al-Bashir as the transitional head of government to run the country until March 1, a statement said.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged all nations to support an “inclusive” political process in Syria, saying the United States would eventually recognize a government if it meets such standards.
“Now it is time for this people to enjoy stability and calm,” Al-Bashir told Qatar’s Al Jazeera television in his first interview since being appointed.
A senior official told US broadcaster NBC that Assad was in Moscow, after he fled Syria as a militant alliance swept into Damascus on Sunday, ending five decades of brutal rule by his clan.
Abu Mohammed Al-Golani, the leader who headed the militant offensive, had announced talks on a transfer of power and vowed to pursue former senior officials responsible for torture and war crimes.
His group, Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, is rooted in Syria’s Al-Qaeda branch and is proscribed by many Western governments as a terrorist organization, though it has sought to moderate its image.

'Unity, inclusiveness'
Blinken said the future government of Syria should be “credible, inclusive and non-sectarian.”
Laying out US priorities, Blinken said the new government must “uphold clear commitments to fully respect the rights of minorities” and allow the flow of humanitarian assistance.
The United States wanted the next government to “prevent Syria from being used as a base for terrorism,” he added.
Although they no longer hold any territory in Syria, the extremists of the Daesh group remain active.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said Daesh fighters killed 54 government troops after capturing them as they fled across the vast Syrian desert.
The UN envoy for Syria said the groups that forced Assad to flee must transform their “good messages” into actions on the ground.
“They have been sending messages of unity, of inclusiveness,” Geir Pedersen said.
“What we need not to see is... that this is not followed up in practice in the days and the weeks ahead of us,” he added.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas warned of the risks of sectarian violence and a resurgence of extremism. “We must avoid a repeat of the horrific scenarios in Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan.”
Syria’s nearly 14-year civil war killed 500,000 people and forced half the country to flee their homes, millions of them finding refuge abroad.
Golani, who now uses his real name Ahmed Al-Sharaa, vowed: “We will not hesitate to hold accountable the criminals, murderers, security and army officers involved in torturing the Syrian people.”

Thousands missing
The fall of Assad has sparked a frantic search by families of the tens of thousands of people held in his security services’ jails and detention centers.
As they advanced toward Damascus, the militants released thousands of detainees, but many more remain missing.
Syria’s White Helmet rescuers on Tuesday called on Russia to pressure Assad into providing maps of secret jails and lists of detainees as they race against time to release prisoners.
A large crowd gathered Monday outside Saydnaya jail, synonymous with the worst atrocities of Assad’s rule, to search for relatives, many of whom had spent years in captivity, AFP correspondents reported.
“I’m looking for my brother, who has been missing since 2013. We’ve looked everywhere for him, we think he’s here, in Saydnaya,” said 52-year-old Umm Walid.
Crowds of freed prisoners wandered the streets of Damascus, many maimed by torture, weakened by illness and emaciated by hunger.
The United Nations said whoever ended up in power in Syria must hold Assad and his lieutenants to account.
UN investigators who for years have been gathering evidence of horrific crimes called Assad’s ouster a “game-changer” because they will now be able to access “the crime scene.”

Strikes
While Syrians were celebrating Assad’s ouster, the country now faces enormous uncertainty, and it is unclear whether the dreams of democracy so many sacrificed their lives for will be realized.
Further complicating prospects, the Israeli military said it had conducted hundreds of strikes on Syria over the past two days.
Pedersen, the UN special envoy for Syria, called on Israel to stop.
“We are continuing to see Israeli movements and bombardments into Syrian territory. This needs to stop,” he said.
The Britain-based Observatory said Israeli strikes had “destroyed the most important military sites in Syria.”
The monitor said the strikes targeted weapons depots, naval vessels and a research center that Western governments suspected of having links to chemical weapons production.
Israel, which borders Syria, also sent troops into the UN-patrolled buffer zone east of the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights.
Israel backer the United States said the incursion must be “temporary,” after the United Nations said Israel was violating the 1974 armistice.
The Israeli defense minister said the military had orders to “establish a sterile defense zone free of weapons and terrorist threats in southern Syria, without a permanent Israeli presence.”


France to decide response to Algeria ‘hostility’ as tensions mount — minister

Updated 27 sec ago
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France to decide response to Algeria ‘hostility’ as tensions mount — minister

France to decide response to Algeria ‘hostility’ as tensions mount — minister
French officials say Algiers is adopting a policy that aims to wipe France’s economic presence from the country
“The relationship between France and Algeria is not a bilateral relationship like any other, it is a relationship of deep intimacy,” Jean-Noel Barrot told lawmakers

PARIS: President Emmanuel Macron and key members of the government will meet in the coming days to decide how to respond to what Paris deems as growing hostility from Algeria, France’s foreign minister said on Wednesday.
Ties between Paris and Algiers have been complicated for decades, but have taken a turn for the worse since last July when Macron angered Algeria by recognizing a plan for autonomy for the Western Sahara region under Moroccan sovereignty.
Although diplomatic ties have not been ruptured, French officials say Algiers is adopting a policy that aims to wipe France’s economic presence from the country, with trade falling by as much as 30 percent since the summer.
A poor relationship has major security, economic and social repercussions: trade is extensive and some 10 percent of France’s 68 million population has links to Algeria, according to French officials.
“The relationship between France and Algeria is not a bilateral relationship like any other, it is a relationship of deep intimacy,” Jean-Noel Barrot told lawmakers, accusing Algeria of taking a “hostile posture.”
Barrot has offered to go to Algeria to discuss the standoff.
In November, Algeria’s banking association tested the waters verbally to suggest a directive to end banking transactions to and from France, although did not go through with it given the extensive nature of trade ties between the two countries, three diplomats said.
Diplomats and traders say French firms are no longer being considered in tenders for wheat imports to Algeria, to which France had been a key exporter.
Beyond business, Macron accused Algiers of “dishonoring itself” by detaining arbitrarily Franco-Algerian author Boualem Sansal, whose health has worsened in recent weeks.
Algeria’s President Abdelmadjid Tebboune has called Sansal an “imposter” sent by France.
With Macron’s government under pressure to toughen immigration policies, a diplomatic spat also broke out last week after several Algerian social media influencers were arrested in France and accused of inciting violence.
One was deported to Algiers, where authorities sent him back to Paris, citing legal procedures. That sparked anger among France’s right-wing parties and Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau accused Algiers of trying to humiliate the former colonial power.
“This is a violation of the texts that govern our relationship and it is a precedent that we consider serious,” Barrot said, adding that this and the arrest of Sansal had forced Paris’ hands to decide how to respond.
Algeria’s foreign ministry denied on Saturday it was seeking escalation with France and said the far-right in France was carrying out a disinformation campaign against Algeria.

PAST TRAUMA
The relationship between the two countries is scarred by the trauma of the 1954-1962 independence war in which the North African country broke with France.
About 400,000 Algerian civilians and fighters were killed, as well as about 35,000 French and as many as 30,000 Muslim “harkis” who fought in the French army against Algerian insurgents.
Macron has over the years pushed for more transparency regarding France’s past with Algeria while also saying that Algeria’s “politico-military system” had rewritten the history of its colonization by France based on “a hatred of France.”
Jalel Harchaoui, associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, said the countries were locked in an escalating standoff.
“Many politicians in Paris say they want to force Algeria to soften its position, but Algiers has every intention to stand firm. Algeria feels all the more emboldened by the fact that France is far less important to its economy than a few years ago,” he said.

First Israel strike on new Syria security forces kills 3: medical source, monitor

Security forces reporting to Syria’s transitional government patrol the streets of Dummar, a suburb of Damascus.
Security forces reporting to Syria’s transitional government patrol the streets of Dummar, a suburb of Damascus.
Updated 25 min 29 sec ago
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First Israel strike on new Syria security forces kills 3: medical source, monitor

Security forces reporting to Syria’s transitional government patrol the streets of Dummar, a suburb of Damascus.
  • “An Israeli drone launched an attack targeting a military convoy... killing two members of the Military Operations Department” and one civilian, monitor said

DAMASCUS: An Israeli air strike hit a military target belonging to Syria’s new authorities for the first time on Wednesday, killing three people, a war monitor and a medical source said.
“An Israeli drone launched an attack targeting a military convoy... killing two members of the Military Operations Department” and one civilian, in southern Syria’s Quneitra region, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
A medical source told AFP a local official from the Ghadir Al-Bustan area was among the three killed in the strike.
“This is the first Israeli strike targeting the security forces of the new authorities,” said Rami Abdel Rahman, who heads the British-based Observatory with a network of sources inside Syria.
Security forces had been conducting a sweep in the area to search for weapons in civilian homes, the Observatory said.
Israel has launched hundreds of strikes on targets belonging to Syria’s now-defunct army since militant-led forces ousted President Bashar Assad on December 8, destroying most of the military’s arsenal, the Observatory has said.
The same day Assad was toppled, Israel also announced that its troops were crossing the armistice line and occupying a UN-patrolled buffer zone that has separated Israeli and Syrian forces on the strategic Golan Heights since 1974.
Israel seized much of the Golan Heights from Syria in a war in 1967, later annexing the territory in a move largely unrecognized by the international community.


Istanbul toll from tainted alcohol rises to 19 dead in 48 hours

Istanbul toll from tainted alcohol rises to 19 dead in 48 hours
Updated 15 January 2025
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Istanbul toll from tainted alcohol rises to 19 dead in 48 hours

Istanbul toll from tainted alcohol rises to 19 dead in 48 hours
  • The figure raised a toll given late Tuesday of 11 dead in 24 hours, Anadolu said
  • A total of 65 people were affected, with 43 people still being treated in hospital and three others discharged

ISTANBUL: Nineteen people who drank tainted alcohol in Istanbul have died in the past 48 hours, with dozens more being treated for poisoning, the Anadolu news agency reported Wednesday.
The figure raised a toll given late Tuesday of 11 dead in 24 hours, Anadolu said.
A total of 65 people were affected, with 43 people still being treated in hospital and three others discharged.
Among them were 26 foreign nationals, the agency said without saying if any had died.
There was no immediate comment from the health ministry.
"The death toll is rising," wrote Istanbul governor Davut Gul on X late Tuesday, saying the "licences of 63 business selling counterfeit alcohol were cancelled and they were closed".
One of those was a business posing as a restaurant that was selling counterfeit alcohol in water bottles for 30 lira ($0.85) each, the private NTV channel said.
In 2024, 110 people fell ill after drinking tainted alcohol in Istanbul, of whom 48 died, the governorate said.
Alcohol tainted with methanol is thought to be the cause, methanol being a toxic substance that can be added to liquor to increase its potency but which can cause blindness, liver damage and death.
Poisonings from adulterated alcohol are quite common in Türkiye, where private production has shot up as authorities crank up taxes on alcoholic drinks.
The most commonly faked product is raki, Türkiye’s aniseed-flavoured national liquor whose price has leapt to around 1,300 lira ($37.20) a litre in supermarkets.
On January 1, Türkiye’s minimum wage rose to 22,104 lira ($600).
Türkiye’s authoritarian President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has been accused of trying to Islamise society in the officially secular state, has often criticised the consumption of alcohol and tobacco.


Gaza rescuers say Israeli strikes kill 27 Palestinians

Gaza rescuers say Israeli strikes kill 27 Palestinians
Updated 15 January 2025
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Gaza rescuers say Israeli strikes kill 27 Palestinians

Gaza rescuers say Israeli strikes kill 27 Palestinians
  • The civil defense agency said in a statement that 11 bodies were brought to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital
  • A seven-year-old boy and three teenagers were among the dead

GAZA STRIP: Gaza’s civil defense agency said on Wednesday that Israeli strikes killed at least 27 people, as the military issued new evacuation calls in northern areas of the Palestinian territory.
The latest Israeli strikes come as truce mediator Qatar said negotiations for a ceasefire and hostage release deal in Gaza were in their “final stages.”
The civil defense agency said in a statement that 11 bodies were brought to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central Gaza Strip, after Israel struck a family home in Deir el-Balah city during the night.
A seven-year-old boy and three teenagers were among the dead, the agency said.
A separate strike targeted a school building used as shelter for war-displaced Palestinians in Gaza City, killing seven people and injuring several others, the civil defense agency said.
A third strike at dawn hit a house in the Al-Nuseirat refugee camp, killing six people and injuring seven, the agency added.
Another three people were killed when the Israeli military targeted the Al-Shati camp in Gaza City, the agency said.
The Israeli military confirmed that its forces had carried out multiple strikes overnight in Gaza, saying in a statement that they were “precise” and targeted “terrorist operatives.”
In the past 24 hours, the military said it had struck more than 50 targets across the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli military on Wednesday issued a new evacuation call in Arabic for the northern Gaza city of Jabalia, warning residents to move south to Gaza City before it attacks the area.
Jabalia and its surrounding areas have been the focus of an intense Israeli military operation since October 2023, causing thousands of displaced and shortages of everything for those remaining.
The army says it is fighting Hamas militants who have regrouped in the area.
The war began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas launched the deadliest attack in Israeli history, resulting in the deaths of 1,210 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign in Gaza has killed 46,707 people, a majority of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory which the UN considers reliable.


UN rights chief says transitional justice ‘crucial’ in Syria

UN rights chief says transitional justice ‘crucial’ in Syria
Updated 15 January 2025
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UN rights chief says transitional justice ‘crucial’ in Syria

UN rights chief says transitional justice ‘crucial’ in Syria
  • “The enforced disappearances, the torture, the use of chemical weapons, among other atrocity crimes, must be fully investigated,” Turk said
  • “And then justice must be served, fairly and impartially”

DAMASCUS: United Nations rights chief Volker Turk on Wednesday said transitional justice was “crucial” for Syria after the fall of Bashar Assad, during the first-ever visit by someone in his post to the country.
“Transitional justice is crucial as Syria moves forward,” the UN high commissioner for human rights said.
“Revenge and vengeance are never the answer.”
The United Nations has said Assad’s fall must be followed by accountability for him and others behind the crimes committed during his rule.
“The enforced disappearances, the torture, the use of chemical weapons, among other atrocity crimes, must be fully investigated,” Turk said, alluding notably to accusations Assad used sarin gas against his own people.
“And then justice must be served, fairly and impartially,” he said at a press conference in Damascus.
Since Islamist-led rebels seized Damascus last month, the new authorities have sought to reassure Syrians and the international community that they will respect the rights of minorities in rebuilding the country.
Turk said that, during his visit, he and the country’s new leader Ahmed Sharaa had discussed “the opportunities and challenges awaiting this new Syria.”
“He acknowledged and assured me of the importance of respect for human rights for all Syrians and all different components of Syrian society,” Turk said.
He said Sharaa also backed “the pursuit of healing, trust building and social cohesion and the reform of institutions.”
Turk also called for an easing of certain sanctions imposed on Syria under Assad’s rule.
“I... call for an urgent reconsideration of... sanctions with a view to lifting them,” he said, that they had had “a negative impact on the enjoyment of rights” of Syrian people.
Turk said he had visited Syria’s notorious Saydnaya prison and met with a former detainee, “a former soldier suspected of being a defector.”
“He told me of the cruel treatment he endured. I cannot even bear to share the stories of beatings and torture that he shared with me,” he said.