Blinken says US has made ‘direct contact’ with Syria’s victorious HTS

Blinken says US has made ‘direct contact’ with Syria’s victorious HTS
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken delivers a statement to the press after the meeting with the foreign ministers of the Arab Contact Group on Syria in Jordan’s southern Red Sea coastal city of Aqaba, Dec. 14, 2024. (AP)
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Updated 14 December 2024
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Blinken says US has made ‘direct contact’ with Syria’s victorious HTS

Blinken says US has made ‘direct contact’ with Syria’s victorious HTS
  • “We’ve been in contact with HTS and with other parties,” Blinken told reporters after talks on Syria in the Jordanian Red Sea resort of Aqaba
  • He did not give details on how the contact took place but when asked if the United States reached out directly, he said: “Direct contact — yes“

AQABA, Jordan: The United States has made “direct contact” with Syria’s victorious Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham militants despite designating the group as terrorists, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Saturday, as he sought international unity on a peaceful transition.
“We’ve been in contact with HTS and with other parties,” Blinken told reporters after talks on Syria in the Jordanian Red Sea resort of Aqaba.
He did not give details on how the contact took place but when asked if the United States reached out directly, he said: “Direct contact — yes.”
Blinken said that the contact was partly related to the search for Austin Tice, the US journalist kidnapped in 2012 near the start of the brutal civil war.
“We have pressed upon everyone we’ve been in contact with the importance of helping find Austin Tice and bringing him home,” Blinken said.
He said that in the dialogue with HTS the United States also “shared the principles” on Syria that he has publicly laid out.
Blinken indicated the United States was open eventually to easing sanctions on Syria but not yet.
Referring to HTS statements since their victory, Blinken said: “We appreciate some of the positive words we heard in recent days, but what matters is action — and sustained action.
“This can’t be a decision on the events of one day,” he said.
If a transition moves forward, “we in turn will look at various sanctions and other measures that we have taken and respond in kind.”
Blinken was closing a regional tour in which he has sought common ground after HTS overthrew Bashar Assad, whose family ruled brutally for half a century.
In Aqaba, Blinken took part in talks that brought together top Arab and European diplomats as well as Turkiye, the main supporter of militant groups in Syria.
In a joint statement, the participants called for a Syrian-led transition to “produce an inclusive, non-sectarian and representative government formed through a transparent process.”
The statement also stressed “respect for human rights,” the importance of combating “terrorism and extremism” and demanded “all parties” cease hostilities in Syria.
“Syria finally has the chance to end decades of isolation,” the group said.
UN Syria envoy Geir Pedersen earlier told Blinken: “We need to make sure that state institutions do not collapse, and that we get in humanitarian assistance as quickly as possible.”
The United States and other Western governments classify HTS as a terrorist group due to its roots in Al-Qaeda’s Syria branch.
The designation severely impedes activities of businesses and aid workers who risk falling foul of US law enforcement if they are seen as directly supporting a terrorist group.
Since seizing power last weekend, militant leader Abu Mohammed Al-Jolani has spoken in conciliatory terms about making peace with the broad spectrum of Syrian society.
Some analysts note that HTS has not focused on US or other Western targets.
Few expect a quick move by the United States to lift the terrorist designation, especially with a political transition set next month following Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential election.
In Britain, a senior minister said that the government would decide quickly whether to remove the terrorist designation but Prime Minister Keir Starmer said it was still “far too early” to do so.
Blinken said that he found hope in the street celebrations in Syrian cities in recent days.
“No one has any illusions about how challenging this time will be, but there’s also something incredibly powerful — the Syrian people determined to break with the past and shape a better future,” he said.
He also hailed the US-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces for raising the new “independence” flag of the militants, after for years flying their own flag as they achieved limited self-rule.
Blinken said it was for Syrians to decide how to incorporate Kurds in the country but he hailed SDF fighters — who are bitterly opposed by Turkiye — for their role in fighting the Daesh group.


Aid agencies ready Gaza push but warn of mammoth obstacles

Aid agencies ready Gaza push but warn of mammoth obstacles
Updated 9 sec ago
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Aid agencies ready Gaza push but warn of mammoth obstacles

Aid agencies ready Gaza push but warn of mammoth obstacles
  • On the ground in the territory, aid workers worry nothing will be enough to meet the need
  • World Food Programme has enough food for one million people ‘waiting outside Gaza or on its way’
CAIRO: An Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal expected to take effect on Sunday has sparked hope for life-saving aid to reach Palestinians, but aid agencies warn of obstacles from destroyed infrastructure, massive need and collapsed law and order.
Announcing the truce, United States President Joe Biden said on Wednesday it would “surge much needed humanitarian assistance to Palestinian civilians.”
The United Nations’ humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher called it “a moment of hope and opportunity” but said “we should be under no illusions how tough it will still be to get support to survivors.”
On the ground in the territory, where nearly all 2.4 million people have been displaced at least once, aid workers worry nothing will be enough to meet the need.
“Everything has been destroyed. Children are on the streets. You can’t pinpoint just one priority,” Doctors Without Borders (MSF) coordinator Amande Bazerolle said by phone from Gaza.
Speaking from the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis, Mohammed Al-Khatib, of Medical Aid for Palestinians, said local aid workers haven’t stopped for 15 months even though they themselves are displaced.
“Everyone is exhausted,” he said.
In the hunger-stricken makeshift shelters set up in former schools, bombed-out houses and cemeteries, hundreds of thousands lack even plastic sheeting to protect from winter rains and biting winds, Gavin Kelleher, of the Norwegian Refugee Council, said.
Even if the bombs stop, agencies like his have to focus on the basics of emergency response, including bringing in “tarpaulins, rope and fixtures to close gaping holes” in buildings.
“At least until we stop seeing children dying of hypothermia,” he said via text message from Gaza.
By last week, hypothermia had killed at least eight people – four newborns, three infants and one adult – according to a health ministry toll used by the World Health Organization.
On Wednesday, Egypt’s state-linked Al-Qahera News reported coordination was underway to reopen the Rafah crossing on the Gaza border. It was one of the main humanitarian entry points but has been closed since Israeli forces seized the Palestinian side in May.
The truce is based on a plan Biden presented in mid-2024 that foresaw a surge in aid to 600 trucks per day, or more than eight times the December average reported by the United Nations.
The World Food Programme said Thursday it had enough food for one million people “waiting outside Gaza or on its way.”
On the Egyptian side of the border, a source in the Egyptian Red Crescent said up to 1,000 trucks are waiting “for their entry into Gaza.”
But with air strikes continuing to pound the territory, where aid groups and the UN have regularly accused Israel of impeding aid flows – which Israeli denies – aid workers were skeptical.
MSF’s Bazerolle said the promise of hundreds of trucks a day “is not even feasible technically.”
“Since Rafah has been destroyed, the infrastructure is not there to be able to cope with that level of logistics,” she explained, with bombs audible in the background.
Aid that does arrive is subject to looting by both armed gangs and desperate civilians.
“The Israelis have targeted the police, so there’s no one to protect the shipments” from looting, which Bazerolle said will continue “as long as there’s not enough aid entering.”
After more than a year of the “systematic dismantling of the rule of law” in Gaza, NRC’s Kelleher called for “the resumption of a Palestinian civilian police force.”
The situation is especially dire in northern Gaza.
Bazerolle, who says MSF missions in the area have been targeted by Israel, says the group hopes to send teams to the north “to at least treat patients where they are,” in the absence of hospitals.
According to the WHO, only one hospital, Al-Awda, is partially functioning in the north.
WHO’s Rik Peeperkorn said that, in addition to hospital capacity, his agency will focus on “the very basic things” including water, electricity and waste management systems in Gaza.
Still, the displaced will hope to head back – including Khatib himself – if the truce holds.
Many, he said, “will return to find their entire neighborhoods destroyed” and without food or shelter.
“People aren’t even talking about rebuilding their houses, but just the most basic essential needs,” he continued.
“We’re closing one chapter of suffering and opening a new one,” he predicted, before adding: “At least there is some hope of the bloodshed ending.”

WHO upbeat on scaling up aid under Gaza ceasefire terms

WHO upbeat on scaling up aid under Gaza ceasefire terms
Updated 1 min 22 sec ago
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WHO upbeat on scaling up aid under Gaza ceasefire terms

WHO upbeat on scaling up aid under Gaza ceasefire terms
  • The WHO plans to bring in an unspecified number of prefabricated hospitals to support Gaza’s decimated health sector, he added

GENEVA: A World Health Organization official said on Friday that it should be possible to scale up aid imports into Gaza massively to around 600 trucks a day under the terms of a ceasefire deal.
“I think the possibility is very much there and specifically when other crossings will be opened up,” Rik Peeperkorn, WHO representative for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, told a Geneva press briefing.
The WHO plans to bring in an unspecified number of prefabricated hospitals to support Gaza’s decimated health sector, he added.


First Syria visit by an EU official since Assad’s fall

First Syria visit by an EU official since Assad’s fall
Updated 17 January 2025
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First Syria visit by an EU official since Assad’s fall

First Syria visit by an EU official since Assad’s fall
  • Syrian state news agency SANA published images of Lahbib with the country’s new leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa

Damascus: EU crisis management chief Hadja Lahbib on Friday became the first European Union official to visit Syria since Islamist-led forces toppled longtime ruler Bashar Assad last month.
Syrian state news agency SANA published images of Lahbib with the country’s new leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa, reporting he was meeting with “a delegation from the European Commission” headed by the EU official.


South Sudan president urges ‘restraint’ after looting in capital

South Sudan president urges ‘restraint’ after looting in capital
Updated 17 January 2025
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South Sudan president urges ‘restraint’ after looting in capital

South Sudan president urges ‘restraint’ after looting in capital
  • South Sudan President Salva Kiir has urged restraint after an anti-Sudanese demonstration in the capital Juba degenerated into looting

JUBA: South Sudan President Salva Kiir has urged restraint after an anti-Sudanese demonstration in the capital Juba degenerated into looting.
Police fired warning shots on Thursday after protesters pillaged Sudanese-owned shops during a demonstration against the reported deaths of 29 South Sudanese citizens in Wad Madani, the capital of Sudan’s Al-Jazira State.
AFP has not been able to independently verify the reported deaths.
South Sudan, the world’s youngest country, gained independence from Sudan in 2011.
It faces chronic instability, violence and extreme poverty, lately exacerbated by some of the worst flooding in decades and a massive influx of refugees fleeing the war in Sudan.
“We must not allow anger to cloud our judgment, and individuals fleeing violence deserve protection,” Kiir’s office said in a statement late Thursday.
“I call on all of you to exercise restraint and allow the government of South Sudan and Sudan to address this matter.”
Since April 2023, a war between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has killed tens of thousands, uprooted more than 12 million people and pushed hundreds of thousands into famine.
Both sides have been accused of targeting civilians and indiscriminately shelling residential areas, with the RSF specifically accused of ethnic cleansing, systematic sexual violence and laying siege to entire towns.
The Sudanese army this week retook Wad Madani from the RSF, which controlled the city for over a year.


ICC prosecutor sees ‘no real effort’ by Israel to probe alleged Gaza war crimes

ICC prosecutor sees ‘no real effort’ by Israel to probe alleged Gaza war crimes
Updated 17 January 2025
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ICC prosecutor sees ‘no real effort’ by Israel to probe alleged Gaza war crimes

ICC prosecutor sees ‘no real effort’ by Israel to probe alleged Gaza war crimes
  • Israel has rejected the jurisdiction of the Hague-based court and denies war crimes
  • The US, Israel’s main ally, is also not a member of the International Criminal Court

THE HAGUE: International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan has defended his decision to bring war crimes allegations against Israel’s prime minister, saying Israel had made “no real effort” to investigate the allegations itself.
In an interview, he stood by his decision over the arrest warrant despite a vote last week by the US House of Representatives to sanction the ICC in protest, a move he described as “unwanted and unwelcome.”
ICC judges issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Israeli defense chief Yoav Gallant and Hamas leader Ibrahim Al-Masri last November for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity during the Gaza conflict.
The Israeli prime minister’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Khan’s remarks to Reuters.
Israel has rejected the jurisdiction of the Hague-based court and denies war crimes. The United States, Israel’s main ally, is also not a member of the ICC and Washington has criticized the arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant.
“We’re here as a court of last resort and ... as we speak right now, we haven’t seen any real effort by the State of Israel to take action that would meet the established jurisprudence, which is investigations regarding the same suspects for the same conduct,” Khan told Reuters.
“That can change and I hope it does,” he said in Thursday’s interview, a day after Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas reached a deal for a ceasefire in Gaza.
An Israeli investigation could have led to the case being handed back to Israeli courts under so-called complementary principles. Israel can still demonstrate its willingness to investigate, even after warrants were issued, he said.
The ICC, with 125 member states, is the world’s permanent court to prosecute individuals for alleged war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and aggression.
Khan said that Israel had very good legal expertise.
But he said “the question is have those judges, have those prosecutors, have those legal instruments been used to properly scrutinize the allegations that we’ve seen in the occupied Palestinian territories, in the State of Palestine? And I think the answer to that was ‘no’.”
Trump’s imminent return
Passage of the “Illegitimate Court Counteraction Act” by the US House of Representatives on Jan. 9 underscored strong support for Israel’s government among President-elect Donald Trump’s fellow Republicans.
The ICC said it noted the bill with concern and warned it could rob victims of atrocities of justice and hope.
Trump’s first administration imposed sanctions on the ICC in 2020 over investigations into war crimes in Afghanistan, including allegations of torture by US citizens. Those sanctions were lifted during Joe Biden’s presidency.
Five years ago, then-ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda and other staff had credit cards and bank accounts frozen and US travel impeded. Any further US sanctions under Trump would be widely expected to be more severe and widespread.
The ICC, created in 1998, was intended to assume the work of temporary tribunals that have conducted war crimes trials based on legal principles established during the Nuremberg trials against the Nazis after World War Two.
“It is of course unwanted and unwelcome that an institution that is a child of Nuremberg ...is threatened with sanctions. It should make people take note because this court is not owned by the prosecutor or by judges. We have 125 states,” Khan said.
It “is a matter that should make all people of conscience be concerned,” he said, declining to discuss further what sanctions could mean for the court.