UN to HTS leader: Syria must have a ‘credible’ transition/node/2583210/middle-east
UN to HTS leader: Syria must have a ‘credible’ transition
Update
UN Special Envoy Geir Pedersen meets with Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa in Damascus on Dec. 15, 2024 in this handout photo provided by Syria’s interim government. (AFP)
UN to HTS leader: Syria must have a ‘credible’ transition
Special envoy underlined ‘the intention of the United Nations to render all assistance to the Syrian people’
Updated 16 December 2024
AFP
DAMASCUS: The United Nations told the leader of the Islamist Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham group which toppled Bashar Assad that Syria must have a “credible and inclusive” transition.
The UN special envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen who arrived in Damascus on Sunday, has met Abu Mohammed Al-Golani — who now goes under his real name Ahmed Al-Sharaa — Pedersen’s office said Monday in a statement on Telegram.
He also met interim prime minister Mohammed Al-Bashir, it said.
Pedersen met them after Saturday’s international meeting on Syria in Jordan, and stressed “the need for a credible and inclusive Syrian-owned and led political transition based on the principles of United Nations Security Council resolution 2254 (2015).”
The UN envoy also underlined “the intention of the United Nations to render all assistance to the Syrian people,” and was briefed on their “challenges and priorities,” the statement added.
It said Pedersen had several engagements planned in the days ahead, but did not elaborate.
Assad was toppled by a lightning 11-day offensive that swept down from northwest Syria, with fighters entering the capital on December 8.
Abandoned by his Russian and Iranian backers, Assad fled into exile in Moscow, bring to an end five decades of abuses by his clan.
The HTS group that led his overthrow is a former branch of Al-Qaeda in Syria, and the United States and other Western governments still classify it as a “terrorist” group.
While hailing Assad’s downfall, several nations have said they will wait to see how Syria’s new Sunni Muslim authorities treat minorities in the multi-ethnic and multi-confessional country.
Several countries including the United States and Britain have said they have already made contact with Golani.
Trump issues ‘last warning’ to Hamas to release all remaining hostages held in Gaza
“Release all of the Hostages now, not later, and immediately return all of the dead bodies of the people you murdered, or it is OVER for you,” Trump says
Updated 06 March 2025
AP
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump on Wednesday issued what he called a “last warning” to Hamas to release all remaining hostages held in Gaza, directing a sharply worded message after the White House confirmed that he had recently dispatched an envoy for unprecedented direct talks with the militant group.
Trump, in a statement on his Truth Social platform soon after meeting at the White House with eight former hostages, added that he was “sending Israel everything it needs to finish the job.”
“Release all of the Hostages now, not later, and immediately return all of the dead bodies of the people you murdered, or it is OVER for you,” Trump said. “Only sick and twisted people keep bodies, and you are sick and twisted!”
The pointed language from Trump came after the White House said Wednesday that US officials have engaged in “ongoing talks and discussions” with Hamas officials, stepping away from a long-held US policy of not directly engaging in the militant group.
Confirmation of the talks in the Qatari capital of Doha come as the Israel-Hamas ceasefire remains in the balance. It’s the first known direct engagement between the US and Hamas since the State Department designated the group a foreign terrorist organization in 1997.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt declined to provide detail on the the substance of talks, but said President Donald Trump has authorized his envoys to “talk to anyone.” Egyptian and Qatari intermediaries have served as mediators with Hamas for the US and Israel since the group launched its Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel that sparked the war.
“Look, dialogue and talking to people around the world to do what’s in the best interest of the American people is something that the president ... believes is a good-faith effort to do what’s right for the American people,” she said.
Leavitt added that Israel has been consulted about the direct engagement with Hamas officials, and noted that there are “American lives at stake.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office offered a terse acknowledgement of the US-Hamas talks. “Israel has expressed to the United States its position regarding direct talks with Hamas,” the prime minister’s office said.
Israeli officials say about 24 living hostages — including Edan Alexander, an American citizen — as well as the bodies of at least 35 others are believed to still be held in Gaza.
Adam Boehler, Trump’s nominee to be special envoy for hostage affairs, led the direct talks with Hamas. Boehler, founder and CEO of Rubicon Founders, a health care investment firm, was a lead negotiator on the Abraham Accords team during Trump’s first term that strove to win broader recognition of Israel in the Arab world.
The talks, which took place last month, focused mainly on the release of American hostages, and a potential end of the war without Hamas in power in Gaza, according to a Hamas official who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The official added that no progress was made but “the step itself is promising” and more talks are expected. Egyptian and Qatari mediators helped arrange the talks.
The direct engagement comes as continuation of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire remains uncertain. Trump has signaled that he has no intentions of pushing Netanyahu away from a return to combat if Hamas doesn’t agree to terms of a new ceasefire proposal, which the Israelis have billed as being drafted by US envoy Steve Witkoff.
The new plan would require Hamas to release half its remaining hostages — the militant group’s main bargaining chip — in exchange for a ceasefire extension and a promise to negotiate a lasting truce. Israel made no mention of releasing more Palestinian prisoners, a key component of the first phase.
Trump on Wednesday welcomed eight former hostages — Iair Horn, Omer Shem Tov, Eli Sharabi, Keith Siegel, Aviva Siegel, Naama Levy, Doron Steinbrecher and Noa Argamani — to the White House.
“The President listened intently to their heartbreaking stories,” Leavitt said. “The hostages thanked President Trump for his steadfast efforts to bring all of the hostages home.”
The talks between US and Hamas officials were first reported earlier Wednesday by the news site Axios.
Leavitt, the White House press secretary, is one of three administration officials who face a lawsuit from The Associated Press on First- and Fifth-Amendment grounds. The AP says the three are punishing the news agency for editorial decisions they oppose. The White House says the AP is not following an executive order to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America.
How doctors in diaspora are helping resuscitate Syria’s broken health system
Shortages of food and medicine are compounding Syria’s suffering as the nation marks its first Ramadan since the fall of Assad
Aid agencies are working to prop up the country’s shattered infrastructure, as the health system creaks under ongoing US sanctions
Updated 06 March 2025
ANAN TELLO
LONDON: Brought to the brink of collapse by more than a decade of civil war, fragmentation, sanctions, and the displacement of countless medical professionals, the Syrian Arab Republic’s health system is on life support.
With the fall of the Bashar Assad regime in December and the rise of a fledgling transitional authority, Syria now faces the daunting task of rebuilding a unified and resilient health sector from amid the ruins.
Data from the World Health Organization shows that just 57 percent of Syria’s hospitals and 37 percent of its primary health centers are fully operational. However, even these suffer severe shortages, leaving millions unable to access basic services.
“Hospitals are outdated, primary health care centers lack essential services, technology is obsolete, and there is no health insurance, funding, or digitization,” Dr. Zaher Sahloul, head of the US-based medical charity MedGlobal, told Arab News.
“The Ministry of Health is tasked with resuscitating the healthcare system with a very limited capacity and a small cadre of health administrators. The whole healthcare system needs to be rebuilt.”
A senior Syrian health official recently told the Iraq-based Shafaq News that interim authorities have devised “a short-term emergency plan spanning three to six months, prioritizing fuel, electricity, and vital medical supplies.
Zuhair Qarat, director of planning and international cooperation at Syria’s Ministry of Health, said the country is experiencing critical shortages of essential medical supplies, fuel, and even food for patients and staff.
To pave the way for recovery, local nongovernmental organizations and international aid groups have launched their own initiatives, like MedGlobal’s “Rebuilding Syria” campaign, to help address these shortages.
MedGlobal, a US-based medical charity, has launched the “Rebuilding Syria” campaign to help address shortages in health care services. (Photo courtesy of MedGlobal)
Their efforts come as Muslims in Syria observe their first Ramadan since the fall of the regime. Food shortages during the fasting month have only intensified the suffering and highlighted the need for additional aid.
A recent report by the World Food Programme found that more than half of Syria’s population — 12.9 million people — are food insecure, with about 3 million facing acute hunger. Malnutrition, especially in children, weakens the immune system and can lead to a range of health problems.
MedGlobal’s Sahloul said that although Syrian doctors “are very capable, working against all odds,” the average salary for a doctor is just $25 a month — barely enough to cover three days of food and transportation.
“The needs are immense, while the funding is limited, especially with the persistence of sanctions,” he said.
About 3 million Syrians are facing acute hunger, and children are the most vulnerable, according to a recent report by the World Food Programme. (Photo courtesy of MedGlobal)
Coinciding with the Muslim holy month, MedGlobal has launched a special appeal for donations.
“In Ramadan, we are ramping up our fundraising campaign for the many programs we are offering, especially lifesaving dialysis services, medications for poor patients with chronic diseases, and supporting lifesaving heart procedures to patients with cardiac disease in public hospitals,” said Sahloul.
“We also started a new program to provide meals to patients and medical staff in two public hospitals in Homs.”
MedGlobal has been working to address medical supply shortages by ramping up its in-kind donation programs to Syrian hospitals.
“We recently sent a shipment of medical supplies worth $20 million, to be distributed to hospitals in coordination with the Ministry of Health,” said Sahloul.
Workers unload medical and health supplies to Syria, delivered by the World Health Organization at the Istanbul International Airport in Turkiye on December 26, 2024. (AFP)
In addition to donations, MedGlobal and its partners are engaging Syrian expatriates in postwar recovery. One key effort is REViVE, launched by Syrian experts in global health, healthcare administration, public health, economics, informatics, and mental health.
Another initiative, the Homs Healthcare Recovery, also known as Taafi Homs, employs 625 Syrian doctors in the diaspora to develop a plan to support public hospitals.
“Through the initiative, we activated the only cardiac catheterization center in Homs at Al-Walid Hospital, launched a mental health program to support victims of torture and freed prisoners, and provided training to recent psychiatry graduates in coordination with the University of Illinois at Chicago,” said Sahloul.
IN NUMBERS
• 14.9 million Syrians in need of healthcare services. * $56.4m
• $56.4 million Funds required to address health needs.
(Source: WHO)
“We also procured critical medical equipment, including an eye echo machine for the city’s only public eye hospital and a neurosurgical microscope for the university hospital. Additionally, we delivered 1,000 life-saving dialysis kits to three hospitals and dialysis centers.
“Similar initiatives have begun in Deir ez-Zor and rural Damascus.”
And while these initiatives are providing Syrians with much-needed health services, Sahloul stressed that the full collaboration of the new health authorities remains key to their success.
Although the fall of the Assad regime has opened a path for the health sector’s recovery, significant challenges remain. These include the absence of a state-led transition strategy, the continued brain drain of health professionals, and US sanctions.
In this picture taken on May 2, 2023, female patients receive treatment at the Hematology and Oncology department run by the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS) at Idlib Central Hospital in the rebel-held northwestern Syrian city. (AFP/file)
“At this early stage, the focus is only on immediate and urgent needs and stopping the bleeding,” Sahloul said. “This is necessary but is not enough.
“A new strategy must be drafted to address health governance, human resources, health information systems, training, and education. It should place the Ministry of Health and related ministries at the center, supported by local and international NGOs, as well as UN agencies.
“There should be greater coordination and collaboration between the Ministry of Health, NGOs, and UN agencies. This is not happening at present for many reasons.”
In this picture taken on May 2, 2023, Rabie, a teenage cancer patient, speaks with his physician oncologist Abdel-Razek Bakkour as he lies in a bed at the Hematology and Oncology department run by the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS) at Idlib Central Hospital in Syria. (AFP/file)
Failing to develop a clear strategy amid ongoing shortages of basic services and limited resources “will further cripple the healthcare system, drive more brain drain, worsen healthcare outcomes more than the war’s impact, and allow disease outbreaks,” he added.
Sahloul also stressed the “urgent need” to lift “crippling” US sanctions, which had been imposed on the Assad regime but continue to weigh on the new government, to achieve a full recovery for the medical sector.
“Humanitarian and emergency aid won’t be enough,” he said.
In addition to destroyed infrastructure, funding shortfalls, and supply shortages, the exodus of medical professionals has devastated Syria’s health system.
Girls sits near damaged buildings in the devastated Hajar al-Aswad area near the Yarmuk camp for Palestinian refugees on the southern outskirts of Damascus on December 23, 2024. (AFP)
The conflict, which began in 2011 following Assad’s brutal crackdown on anti-government protests, led to a loss of more than 70 percent of Syria’s health workforce. By 2021, the International Rescue Committee said there was just one doctor for every 10,000 people.
“The resourceful Syrian diaspora should be embraced and allowed to help,” said Sahloul, noting that “there are more than 12,000 Syrian-American doctors and a similar number in Germany.”
Syrians now make up the largest group of foreign doctors in Germany, The Associated Press reported in December. German officials have even said Syrian physicians are “indispensable” to the nation’s health system.
Sahloul said stopping the brain drain must be the top priority. “Every young doctor or new graduate I met in Syria is thinking of leaving,” he said. “This is not good for the future of the country and its health.”
Members of the Syrian community rally in Berlin, Germany, on Dec. 8, 2024, to celebrate the end of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad's rule. The Syrian war has resulted in an acute shortage of health workers in the country. (AFP/File)
However, he added, “retention of healthcare workers requires improving compensation first and foremost, improving training and education, updating technology, and updating hospitals.”
In the meantime, NGOs are finding ways to leverage Syrian expatriates to aid the recovery. “Attracting Syrian specialists back is a challenge, but there are always creative solutions,” said Sahloul.
“Syrian expatriate physicians volunteering within MedGlobal and other diaspora NGOs are ready to contribute to medical and surgical missions, as well as tele-health, tele-psych, and online education and training — initiatives we’ve implemented across various regions over the past 14 years.”
Syria's yearslong war has resulted in an acute shortage in health care manpower. (Photo courtesy of MedGlobal)
Meanwhile, Syria faces multiple public health crises, including the rise of multidrug-resistant bacteria due to unchecked antibiotic use and limited lab testing.
Sahloul said a mental health crisis is also unfolding. This has been fueled by torture survivors, the families of the forcibly disappeared, victims of violence and displacement, returning refugees, and drug addiction linked to the production of the amphetamine-type stimulant captagon.
“There are very limited resources to manage the mental health crisis and festering drug addiction,” he said.
A man walks through a destroyed neonatal care ward at a hospital that was hit by a reported air strike in the Syrian village of Shinan, Idlib, on November 6, 2019. (AFP File)
Syria also faces an epidemic of noncommunicable diseases, including heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, obesity, chronic kidney disease, cancer, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
“Many patients cannot afford their medications — a problem compounded by one of the highest smoking rates in the world,” said Sahloul.
Although Assad’s portraits have been removed from hospitals in areas once under his regime’s control, anything beyond this surface level change remains unlikely without the lifting of US sanctions and a clear recovery strategy.
For now, Syria’s doctors will continue to fight an uphill battle, struggling to keep the lights on amid ongoing electricity and fuel shortages, and keeping themselves and their patients fed, let alone provide lifesaving care.
Israel’s settler pressure on West Bank villages stirs annexation fears
Military control and settler outposts threaten Palestinian livelihoods, villagers say
Updated 06 March 2025
Reuters
BARDALA, West Bank: Just meters from the last houses in Bardala, a Palestinian village at the northern end of the occupied West Bank, Israel’s army has been bulldozing a dirt road and ditch between the community and open grazing land on the hills behind it.
Israel’s military said the works were for security and to allow it to patrol the area following the killing of an Israeli civilian in August near the village by a man from another town. It did not detail what it was building there.
Farmers from the fertile Jordan Valley village fear the army patrols and Israeli settlers moving in will exclude them from pastures that feed around 10,000 sheep and goats, as has happened in other parts of the West Bank, undercutting their livelihoods and eventually driving them from the village.
Israeli settler outposts have appeared around the village since last year, with clusters of blue and white Israeli flags fluttering from nearby hilltops.
The settlers intimidated semi-nomadic Bedouin shepherds to abandon their camps in the area last year, four Bedouin families and Israeli human rights NGOs said.
The tighter military control in the Jordan Valley and the arrival of settler outposts in the area over the past months are new developments in a part of the West Bank that had mostly avoided the build-up of Israel’s presence on the ground in central areas of the Palestinian territory.
With each advance of Israeli settlements and roads, the territory becomes more fractured, further undermining prospects for a contiguous land on which Palestinians could build a sovereign state. Most countries consider Israel’s settlements in the occupied West Bank to be illegal.
Over recent weeks, caravans and shelters have begun appearing on the scrub-covered hills a few hundred meters west of Bardala, on land behind the new track, Reuters reporters saw. Such temporary shelters have been the first signs of new outposts being built.
Ibrahim Sawafta, a member of the Bardala village council, said two dozen farmers would be prevented from reaching grazing land if soldiers and settler outposts obstruct their free movement. Unable to keep their large flocks in pens within the village itself, they would be forced to sell.
“Bardala would be a small prison,” he said, sitting on a bench outside his house in the village. He said the overall goal was “to restrict people, to force them to leave the Jordan Valley.”
The army said the area behind the dirt road outside Bardala was designated as a live fire zone but included “a passage” manned by Israeli soldiers, suggesting limitations on free movement in the area.
It said the passage would allow for “the continuation of daily life and the fulfillment of residents’ needs,” without giving further details.
The office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as well as the Yesha Council and the Jordan Valley Council, that represent settlers in the West Bank did not reply to requests for comment for this story.
Sawafta said gunmen had been known to come into the area from towns to the west and the barrier appeared intended to make access more difficult and force traffic through main roads with security checkpoints under Israeli control.
But he said the effect of the move would be to obstruct access to the land, which in some cases was owned by villagers. The activity around Bardala is part of a wider Israeli effort to reshape the West Bank.
Over the year and a half since war broke out in Gaza, settlement activity has accelerated in areas seen as the core of a future Palestinian state.
Meanwhile, Israel’s pro-settler politicians have been emboldened by the return to the White House of Donald Trump who has already proposed that Palestinians leave Gaza, a suggestion widely condemned across the Middle East and beyond as an attempt to ethnically cleanse Palestinian territories.
In recent weeks, army raids in refugee camps near volatile West Bank cities, including Jenin, Tulkarm and Tubas, near Bardala, have sent tens of thousands of people fleeing their homes, fueling fears of permanent displacement.
The raids come amid a renewed push to formally absorb the West Bank as part of Israel, a proposal supported by some of US President Donald Trump’s aides. Israel’s military has occupied the West Bank since the 1967 Middle East war.
Bardala, with a population of about 3,000, lies a few meters from the pre-1967 line separating the West Bank from Israel. It prospered quietly over the past 30 years as Israel’s settlement movement swallowed up thousands of hectares of land in other parts of the West Bank.
NEW YORK CITY: The UK and the four EU countries that are members of the UN Security Council (France, Greece, Denmark and Slovenia) on Wednesday urged Israeli authorities to immediately allow the safe and unhindered delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza.
Their plea echoed an appeal by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres at the Arab summit in Cairo on Monday.
Speaking on behalf of the five nations, Jay Dharmadhikari, the charge d’affaires at the French mission to the UN said: “We call on Israel to abide by its obligations under international law and to allow and facilitate the safe, unconditional, massive and unhindered delivery of humanitarian aid at scale, as well as to ensure the protection of civilians and other protected persons, including humanitarian workers, in line with international humanitarian law.”
The diplomats also called for progress in the next phases of the ceasefire agreement and hostage-release deal between Israel and Hamas, and commended the efforts by Egypt, Qatar and the US to facilitate negotiations.
The joint statement followed a Security Council consultation session on Resolution 2720, which included a briefing by Sigrid Kaag, the UN’s senior humanitarian and reconstruction coordinator for Gaza. Adopted by the Security Council in December 2023, Resolution 2720 calls for increased aid to address the crisis in Gaza, including the provisioning of fuel, food and medical supplies.
The five nations condemned Hamas for continuing to hold and mistreat hostages, and called for their immediate release.
“We need a permanent ceasefire that can pave the way for the release of all remaining hostages and for the reconstruction of Gaza,” Dharmadhikari added.
The countries denounced terrorism and reaffirmed that the delivery of humanitarian aid must be nonnegotiable principle under international humanitarian law.
They also welcomed regional efforts to form a cohesive plan for the future of Gaza, emphasizing that any plans must exclude Hamas, ensure the security of Israel, and avoid the displacement of Palestinians.
It must also align with Resolution 2735 and support the unity of the West Bank and Gaza under the mandate of the Palestinian Authority, they added. US-drafted Resolution 2735, which was adopted by the Security Council in June last year, represents a proposal for a three-phase ceasefire agreement to end the war.
“We stand ready to support and develop these ideas further,” Dharmadhikari said.
The diplomats also reiterated their unwavering, long-term commitment to the vision of a two-state solution, consistent with international law and UN resolutions, in which Israel and Palestine can live peacefully side by side with secure, recognized borders.
US holds secret talks with Hamas on Gaza hostages, source says
US special envoy for hostage affairs Adam Boehler has been holding the direct talks with Hamas in recent weeks in Doha, the source said
Updated 05 March 2025
Reuters
WASHINGTON: The Trump administration has been conducting secret talks with Hamas on the possibility of releasing US hostages being held in Gaza, a source briefed on the conversations told Reuters.
US special envoy for hostage affairs Adam Boehler has been holding the direct talks with Hamas in recent weeks in Doha, the source said, confirming a report by Axios.
Until recently the United States had avoided direct discussions with the militant group. The US State Department designated Hamas as a foreign terrorist organization in 1997.
The Israeli embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Boehler’s office declined to comment. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The source said the talks have focused on gaining the release of American hostages still held in Gaza, but also have included discussions about a broader deal to release all remaining hostages and how to reach a long-term truce.
US President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff plans to return to the region in coming days to work out a way to either extend the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire deal or advance to the second phase, a State Department spokesperson said on Monday.
