Hamas negotiators demand Jerusalem be Palestinian state capital
The statement, which reasserts a long-held demand by the group, seemingly came in response to a declaration by the Arab League last week that called for Hamas to lay down its weapons and release all remaining hostages. On Tuesday, the 22 member nations called for Hamas to relinquish control of Gaza and hand it over to the Palestinian Authority, which rules the West Bank.
After comments from Steve Witkoff, the US's envoy to the Middle East, claiming that Hamas was willing to disarm, the militant group said: 'Armed resistance … cannot be relinquished except through the full restoration of our national rights, foremost among them the establishment of an independent, fully sovereign Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.'
Qatar and Egypt, which have mediated ceasefire talks between Hamas and Israel, endorsed a declaration by France and Saudi Arabia that outlined steps towards a two-state solution. Part of this required Hamas to relinquish its weapons to the western-backed Palestinian Authority.
Israel has previously stated that it considers the disarmament of Hamas a core component of any agreement to end the conflict, while Hamas has reiterated that it is not prepared to hand over its weapons.
Hamas expelled the Palestinian Authority from Gaza in 2007, when it took control of the strip, imposing its authoritarian brand of Islamist rule. The US and other western nations, as well as the Arab League, argue that the authority is best placed to rule Gaza.
However, it is widely despised by Palestinians, who see it as corrupt. They are united in their distaste for President Abbas, 89, and any attempt to install him as the ruler of Gaza is likely to meet resistance.
Sir Keir Starmer announced plans on Wednesday to recognise a Palestinian state in September unless Israel agreed to a ceasefire. This follows the lead set by President Macron and has been joined by Canada.
• Keir Starmer says he will not back down on Palestinian state pledge
In response, Binyamin Netanyahu said that the decision rewarded 'Hamas's monstrous terrorism' and 'punishes its victims'.
Emily Damari, a British-Israeli woman who was held captive by Hamas, accused Starmer of 'moral failure' and said the move would 'embolden extremists'. Starmer was also warned by some of Britain's most prominent lawyers that the pledge risked breaking international law.
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Telegraph
27 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Six months on from the fall of Assad, can Syria survive?
For centuries an old, severed head helped hold Syria together. Pilgrims from across the Middle East journeyed to Damascus to venerate the skull buried beneath the storied eighth-century Umayyad mosque – a relic Christian and Muslims alike believe belongs to John the Baptist, beheaded to reward Salome for her sensuous dance before Herod Antipas. The site could scarcely be more apt for cross-community worship. Blending Corinthian columns, Byzantine mosaics and Islamic arches – in a building incorporating a Roman temple and a Christian church – few mosques anywhere are as inclusive. But harmony has been rare of late. In June, an Islamist gunman killed 25 worshippers at an Orthodox church in Damascus, opening fire before blowing himself up in the middle of a Sunday service. A month later, fighters from the new Syrian army stormed the home of Khalid Mezher, an evangelical pastor in southern Syria's Sweida region, murdering him, his parents, his siblings, their young children and even the family dog. Activists say the attackers were motivated less by Mr Mezher's religious beliefs than by sectarian animosity towards the Druze minority to which he belonged, hundreds of whom were slaughtered in clashes with Sunni Bedouin tribesmen. Ahmed al-Sharaa, Syria's new president, dispatched troops to restore order, some of whom are accused of rounding up Druze and executing them. It is not the first time sectarian violence has shaken Syria since Mr Sharaa came to power nine months ago. In March, Sunni fighters descended on Syria's Mediterranean coast and massacred hundreds of Alawites, the minority sect of Bashar al-Assad, the dictator who was toppled in December. Euphoria initially greeted Assad's downfall, uniting communities. But minorities – Alawites, Christians, Druze, Kurds, Ismailis and Shias – now question whether a Syria dominated by its Sunni majority can hold together. To prevent disintegration, many say Mr Sharaa must shed his Jihadi past and become a national leader, rather than merely head of his own Sunni sect. 'After what happened in March, every Alawite is scared,' said Zaki, an IT technician in Tartous, an Alawite port city. 'We don't know when we will next be slaughtered — and we don't trust Sharaa to protect us. It feels like there's no place for Alawites in the new Syria.' Despite recent bloodbaths, Syria is no longer at war – for now. The Assad regime, which killed perhaps 200,000 civilians and tortured to death at least 15,000 more, is gone. The United States has led efforts to lift the sanctions that crippled Syria's economy. Saudi Arabia and Qatar have repaid its World Bank loans and pledged billions of pounds in investment. Turkey is helping rebuild the country. Minorities hold cabinet posts in the transitional government and an interim constitution promises inclusion. Yet as Syria comes under Sunni majority rule for the first time in half a century, sectarian tensions threaten these fragile gains. Many question whether a Sunni-dominated Syria can be both democratic and pluralistic, protecting, its minorities rather than subjugating them. The weight of history It may even be that the task facing Mr Sharaa is all but impossible, with some arguing that present-day Syria is doomed to failure by its Western imperial legacy that imprisoned the country within artificial borders, setting it up for failure from the outset. According to the romantic view, Greater Syria – encompassing present-day Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian Territories – enjoyed a golden era under the Ottoman Empire, with its sects protected by the Sultan. But in 1916, Britain and France secretly divided the empire's Arab lands under the Sykes-Picot Agreement, giving France modern Syria and Lebanon, and Britain Palestine and Transjordan. 'For minorities it was a zero-sum game,' says Joshua Landis, director of the centre for Middle East studies at the university of Oklahoma. 'New national borders were drawn around people who didn't want to live together. 'In Lebanon, it was the Maronite Christians who got the lion's share of power; in Syria, it was the Alawites who were elevated, allowing them later to take power at the expense of the Sunni majority who were brutally repressed.' Syrian nationalist Adib al-Shishakli, who seized power in 1949, complained that 'Syria is the current official name for that country which lies within the artificial frontiers drawn up by imperialism'. Between independence from France in 1946 and 1970, when Hafez al-Assad – Bashar's father – seized power, Syria was ruled by 16 presidents and experienced ten military coups. Many doubted it would survive as a nation-state. Stability came under Hafez and, initially, Bashar al-Assad, but at enormous cost. They imposed order through violent repression and sectarian manipulation, making minorities dependent on them and leaving most Syrians deeply divided, according to Charles Lister of the Middle East Institute, a think tank in Washington. 'This is the hornet's nest that has been opened up now that Assad is gone,' he says. 'After 14 years of debilitating conflict and a very fragile transition, distrust runs deep across every ethnic, sectarian and political line.' The sectarian volcano That distrust has already erupted. In March, Sunni fighters – enraged by years of minority privilege and Assad's wartime brutality – mobilised en masse after pro-Assad insurgents staged attacks on government forces. Up to 200,000 armed Sunnis joined in, many driving across the country after hearing calls to jihad issued in mosques. In some villages, they filmed themselves forcing their victims to bark like dogs before shooting them dead. Hundreds of thousands of Alawites fled through corpse-strewn streets and charred towns into Lebanon, which had mostly sheltered Sunni refugees during the war. More than 1,400 people were killed, according to government figures. Initially Mr Sharaa, once an affiliate of both Islamic State and al Qaeda, praised the fighters. But he reversed course, calling for peace, ordering an investigation and giving Alawites posts in his government. Calm was restored, but with Syria awash in weapons and vigilantes bent on revenge, low violence persisted and then exploded again in Druze areas last month. 'I don't think Sharaa or the government want these massacres,' says Aaron Zelin of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a think tank. 'But because it can't control everybody that has a weapon, these crises spiral into far greater levels of violence.' The new army is also clearly unstable. Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), Mr Sharaa's former militia, has given it a disciplined core, despite its jihadi roots. But other ex-militias, nominally absorbed into the military, act almost autonomously, committing atrocities and defying orders. They spearheaded last month's bloodshed, executing 182 people, including women and children. Bedouin gunmen joined from across Syria, turning vigilante revenge into another sectarian massacre. Druze and Alawite fighters have also been accused of killing civilians. Syria thus simmers like a volcano: a vengeful Sunni majority, fearful minorities resentful over lost privileges and a weak state unable to restrain rogue elements bent on destroying the country's fraying cohesion. An interim constitution adopted in March meant to reassure minorities instead deepened mistrust by requiring the president to be Muslim and making Islamic Sharia the primary source of law – alarming communities deemed apostate by hard-line Sunnis. 'Sunnis are in power now – and many of those in power are real Salafists in the Jihadist tradition,' said Mr Landis. 'Some in the security services regard Druze, Ismailis and Alawites as pagans and therefore guilty of the worst crime in Islam. 'So there are really two Syrias today: the 70 per cent who are Sunni Arabs and the rest. Sunnis are optimistic; minorities are terrified.' The International Crisis Group, a conflict-monitoring think tank in Brussels, warned last month that minorities are increasingly arming themselves for self-defence, fearing government forces will not protect them. 'The violence deepened a sense of alienation and existential dread among many Syrians,' it wrote. 'If these patterns continue, social relations, the Syrian state's stability and the transition to a post-Assad political order will all be in jeopardy.' Regional crossfire Regional powers are adding to the upheaval. Israel has launched airstrikes on Syrian forces, destroying part of the defence ministry in Damascus last month after intervening on behalf of Druze communities. Israel's motives are partly domestic: its own Druze population serves in the Israeli armed forces under a 'blood covenant' with the Jewish state and has asked it to protect their kinsmen across the border. But its involvement risks deepening sectarian tensions. Israeli troops have seized parts of southern Syria, violating a 1974 disengagement deal brokered by Henry Kissinger. One notable Druze leader, Hikmat al-Hijri, has openly sought Israeli protection, but others fear being branded traitors and sparking further reprisals. Israel has also courted Kurds in Syria's north-east. For now, the main Kurdish militia, the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), has struck a deal to integrate into the national army. Under pressure from Turkey, which recently ended a 40-year war with its own Kurdish rebels, the pact may hold. But spreading sectarian unrest threatens to unravel it, leaving Kurds wary of marginalisation in a Sunni-dominated Syria. 'There is a crisis of confidence brewing,' says a Kurdish official in the primarily SDF-held city of Qamishli. '[Sharaa] has to decide whether he wants to oppress or defend minorities. If he cannot defend all Syrians then Syria is heading for anarchy. It's his choice.' Can Syria hold? Syria's history has rarely been harmonious. Coups, dictatorship and civil war hardened sectarian lines. Yet the country has survived predicted collapse before – held together not by trust or unity, but by brute force. Analysts say Mr Sharaa faces a stark choice: continue that tradition by terrorising minorities into submission or attempt something no Syria leader has yet achieved – forging a genuinely inclusive national identity that transcends sect and ethnicity. Not everyone is convinced he will choose the latter. Mr Landis believes Mr Sharaa is more likely to subjugate minorities rather than share power with them. But others see reason for hope. 'Syria is going to be very unstable for years to come,' says Mr Lister of the Middle East Institute. 'But the ingredients to reunify the country are all in place. The transitional government is attempting to engage constructively with minority communities. 'Crucially, the US, the Europeans and the wider Middle East – except Israel – are united behind the idea that Syria's central government must control all its territory. That shared vision may be what holds the country together.' Whether Mr Sharaa can turn that vision into reality will decide more than Syria's borders. It will determine whether a country long defined by sectarian bloodshed can one day return to being the kind of place where Christians and Muslims kneel side by side before an ancient skull, believing, however improbably, that Syria belongs to all of them.
The Guardian
27 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Julian Assange joins pro-Palestine march across Sydney Harbour Bridge before police stop rally citing safety fears
Huge crowds of pro-Palestine marchers, including Julian Assange, Bob Carr and Ed Husic, have marched across Sydney Harbour Bridge in the rain to protest against Israel's conduct in Gaza and to speak out about the children starving there. The world-famous landmark was closed to traffic at 11.30am on Sunday, with protesters gathering in Lang Park in the city centre in chilly weather before walking north to Bradfield Park across the bridge. About 3pm NSW police sent out a mass text message to phones throughout the city ordering the pro-Palestine march to stop due to safety concerns, with authorities turning protesters around at the north end. Sign up: AU Breaking News email 'Message from NSW Police: In consultation with the organisers, the march needs to stop due to public safety and await further instructions,' the message read. A police helicopter hovered overhead with instructions for the hordes of protesters to turn around and walk back towards the city. A second text message read: 'After consultation with the protest organisers, we are asking that everyone stops walking north. As soon as the march has stopped, we will look at turning everyone around back towards the city BUT it needs to be done in a controlled way in stages to keep everyone safe. Earlier the Indigenous actor Meyne Wyatt and the former Socceroo and Australian of the Year Craig Foster were among tens of thousands of people marching in the wet weather, while the Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi spoke passionately before the walk began. Faruqi, who has been an outspoken critic of the federal government's action in relation to Israel's conduct in Gaza, commended protesters for 'defying Chris Minns' after the New South Wales premier said: 'We cannot allow Sydney to descend into chaos.' 'Thank you for defying Chris Minns,' she said. 'This is a man who wants you to stay home and be silent in the face of a genocide. 'It was never about logistics. It was never about traffic. It was never about communications or anything else. It was always about stopping us and silencing us. It was always about protecting Israel and the Labor government from accountability.' Police had rejected an application from organisers for them to facilitate the march, arguing there was not enough time to prepare a traffic management plan and warned of a potential crowd crush and huge disruptions. But on Saturday the NSW supreme court ruled the march could go ahead. On Sunday protesters turned out carrying pots and pans – to highlight the starvation in Gaza – while many carried Palestinian flags and signage along with their wet weather gear and umbrellas. One protester that Guardian Australia spoke to, a British man called Dan, held a sign reading 'Gay Jews 4 Gaza'. 'I grew up in a north London Jewish community, and I think there's a widespread Zionism that exists within the Jewish community that is difficult to separate from religion,' he said, adding: 'I think it's important for people within the community to stand up and raise their voice against the state of Israel because they're not representative of the Jewish community as a whole.' Guardian Australia also spoke to Philomena McGoldrick, a registered nurse and midwife, who has spent stints working in Gaza and described her heartbreak at images circulating of starving children. 'Innocent babies have no colour, no religion, no language. In this day and age … it's heartbreaking … But it's nice to meet people standing on the right side. The tide has changed.' Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion The WikiLeaks founder was also spotted in the crowd, one of few public appearances since Assange arrived home in Australia after a decade-long extradition battle. He was photographed alongside Carr, the former NSW premier and federal foreign affairs minister who last week told Guardian Australia the federal government should sanction the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and move quickly to recognise Palestinian statehood. Carr said it would send 'a message that we are turned inside out with disgust by what appears the deliberate starvation' of Gaza. Carr's call was echoed by Husic, a federal Labor MP and former cabinet minister, who joined the rally to march across the bridge alongside the five state Labor MPs who defied Minns. Labor's Stephen Lawrence, Anthony D'Adam, Lynda Voltz, Cameron Murphy and Sarah Kaine were among 15 NSW politicians who signed an open letter on Thursday evening calling on the government to facilitate 'a safe and orderly event' on Sunday. Meanwhile, pro-Palestinian protesters in Melbourne's city centre, who had planned to shut down King Street Bridge in solidarity with the Sydney protest, appeared to have been blocked from crossing the bridge. Video shared on social media by the protest organisers showed police in riot gear and shields blocking the bridge with trucks. Victoria police were approached to confirm the bridge had been shut down; a spokesperson said a statement would be released at the end of the day. In Sydney, Transport for NSW urged people to avoid non-essential travel around the central business district and northern parts of the city.
Telegraph
27 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Recognising Palestinian state would destabilise international law, Starmer told
Sir Keir Starmer has been warned that recognising a Palestinian state would 'destabilise' the international legal order. Malcolm Shaw KC, a leading lawyer, said that the recognition plan 'would create a troublesome precedent and could well challenge and ultimately destabilise an international system founded upon a common understanding of what it is to be a state'. The fresh legal opinion, seen by The Telegraph, was circulated to the Prime Minister, Lord Hermer, the Attorney General, and dozens of influential Labour MPs. It was commissioned by Lord Mendelsohn, the Labour peer, in response to Sir Keir's decision to recognise a State of Palestine in September unless Israel meets certain conditions. The warning comes after Hamas made it clear it will not disarm unless an independent Palestinian state is established. The militant group took the step of issuing a statement 'in response to media reports quoting US envoy Steve Witkoff, claiming [Hamas] has shown willingness to disarm'. It said: 'We reaffirm that resistance and its arms are a legitimate national and legal right as long as the occupation continues. 'This right is recognised by international laws and norms, and it cannot be relinquished except through the full restoration of our national rights - first and foremost, the establishment of an independent, fully sovereign Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.' Hamas added that Mr Witkoff's trip on Friday to a Gaza aid distribution site was 'designed to mislead public opinion, polish the image of the occupation, and provide it with political cover for its starvation campaign and continued systematic killing of defenceless children and civilians in the Gaza Strip'. Mr Shaw's legal opinion says the Prime Minister's plan to recognise the state of Palestine is 'premature and may have unintended consequences' and that it 'confuses and distorts' any attempt at a peaceful two-state solution. 'A prize for precipitating war' He describes Sir Keir's decision to make statehood dependent on the behaviour of Israel, a 'third country', as 'remarkable'. 'This is exceptional and, frankly, not in keeping with the tenor of the relevant international principles,' he wrote. 'Recognition at the current time will be seen as a prize for precipitating the war on Oct 7 2023 with its attendant rapes and massacres.' Mr Shaw also argues that the Palestinian territories 'do not currently satisfy' the criteria for a state. Some 40 peers warned this week that recognising Palestine in the process set out by the Prime Minister would be illegal. They included Lord Pannick KC and Lady Deech, both respected lawyers and patrons of UK Lawyers for Israel, an association of British lawyers who are supportive of Israel. Lord Hermer is understood to have disagreed with their arguments and dismissed their claim. But Mr Shaw's opinion could pile further pressure on the Government to reconsider its legal position with regards to recognition. He further argues that since both Israel and the Palestinian territories are still bound by the Oslo Accords, the agreement that remains the legal framework that governs the relationship between Israel and the Palestinians, proper recognition at this time is not possible. Mr Shaw, who is the author of a standard legal textbook on international law, is currently representing Israel in its International Court of Justice (ICJ) case against South Africa, which argued that Israeli forces had committed genocidal acts in Gaza. While Sir Keir has always agreed to the principle of recognising a Palestinian state at some point, he was reluctant to do so until his surprise announcement this week. The Prime Minister appears to have been influenced by a number of factors, including the worsening starvation crisis in Gaza, pressure from international allies such as Emmanuel Macron, and increasingly vocal calls for immediate recognition from his own MPs. The setting up of a rival Left-wing political party under Jeremy Corbyn which calls for an independent Palestinian state may have also put pressure on Sir Keir to act. On Saturday, protesters from the activist group Youth Demand blocked roads in the Holland Park and King's Cross areas of London as they called for an immediate British trade embargo on Israel. On Thursday, Labour MPs supportive of Israel reportedly clashed with Jonathan Powell, Sir Keir's national security adviser, in a meeting about the recognition announcement.
