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RNZ News
3 hours ago
- RNZ News
Syria believed it had green light from US, Israel to deploy troops to Sweida
By Timour Azhari, Suleiman Al-Khalidi and Maya Gebeily , Reuters Syria's security forces stand on a tank in the predominantly Druze city of Sweida on 15 July 2025, following clashes between Bedouin tribes and Druze fighters. Photo: Bakr Alkasem / AFP Syria's government misread how Israel would respond to its troops deploying to the country's south this week, encouraged by US messaging that Syria should be governed as a centralised state, eight sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. Israel carried out strikes on Syrian troops and Damascus on Wednesday (local time) in an escalation that took the Islamist-led leadership by surprise, the sources said, after government forces were accused of killing scores of people in the Druze city of Sweida. Damascus believed it had a green light from both the US and Israel to dispatch its forces south despite months of Israeli warnings not to do so, according to the sources, which include Syrian political and military officials, two diplomats, and regional security sources. Smoke billows following Israeli strikes near the Syrian Army and Defence Ministry headquarters in Damascus on 16 July 2025. Photo: Rami al-Sayed / AFP That understanding was based on public and private comments from US special envoy for Syria Thomas Barrack, as well as on nascent security talks with Israel, the sources said. Barrack has called for Syria to be centrally administered as "one country" without autonomous zones. A State Department spokesperson declined to comment on private diplomatic discussions but said the US supported the territorial unity of Syria. "The Syrian state has an obligation to protect all Syrians, including minority groups," the spokesperson said, urging the Syrian government to hold perpetrators of violence accountable. In response to Reuters' questions, a senior official from Syria's ministry of foreign affairs denied that Barrack's comments had influenced the decision to deploy troops, which was made based on "purely national considerations" and with the aim of "stopping the bloodshed, protecting civilians and preventing the escalation of civil conflict". Damascus sent troops and tanks to Sweida province on Monday to quell fighting between Bedouin tribes and armed factions within the Druze community - a minority that follows a religion derived from Islam, with followers in Syria, Lebanon and Israel. Syrian security forces fire towards a position near the Mazraa area, near Sweida on 14 July 2025. Photo: Bakr Alkasem / AFP Syrian forces entering the city came under fire from Druze militia, according to Syrian sources. Subsequent violence attributed to Syrian troops, including field executions and the humiliation of Druze civilians, triggered Israeli strikes on Syrian security forces, the defence ministry in Damascus and the environs of the presidential palace, according to two sources, including a senior Gulf Arab official. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel intervened to block Syrian troops from entering southern Syria - which Israel has publicly said should be a demilitarised zone - and to uphold a longstanding commitment to protect the Druze. Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa has vowed to hold accountable those responsible for violations against the Druze. Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa. File photo. Photo: AFP He blamed "outlaw groups" seeking to inflame tensions for any crimes against civilians and did not say whether government forces were involved. The US and others quickly intervened to secure a ceasefire by Wednesday evening. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio described the flare-up as a "misunderstanding" between Israel and Syria. A Syrian and a Western source familiar with the matter said Damascus believed that talks with Israel, as recently as last week in Baku, produced an understanding over the deployment of troops to southern Syria to bring Sweida under government control. Netanyahu's office declined to comment in response to Reuters' questions. Israel said on Friday it had agreed to allow limited access by Syrian forces into Sweida for the next two days. Soon after, Syria said it would deploy a force dedicated to ending the communal clashes, which continued into Saturday morning. Photo: AFP / Bakr ALkasem Joshua Landis, head of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma, said it appeared Sharaa had overplayed his hand earlier in the week. "It seems that his military staff misunderstood the backing of the US. It also misunderstood Israel's stand on the Jabal Druze (in Sweida) from its talks with Israel in Baku," he said. A Syrian military official said correspondence with the US had led Damascus to believe it could deploy forces without Israel confronting them. The official said US officials had not responded when informed about plans for the deployment, leading the Syrian leadership to believe it had been tacitly approved and "that Israel would not interfere." A diplomat based in Damascus said Syrian authorities had been "overconfident" in its operation to seize Sweida, "based on US messaging that turned out not to reflect reality." Syrian security forces ride a vehicle during a demonstration against Israeli intervention in Syria, in Damascus on 16 July 2025. Photo: Rami al-Sayed / AFP US envoy Barrack has said publicly and in private meetings in Damascus that Syria should be "one country," without autonomous rule for its Druze, Kurdish or Alawite communities, which remain largely distrustful of the new Islamist-led leadership. That distrust has prompted Druze factions and a major Kurdish force in northeast Syria to resist Syrian army deployments, and demand their own fighters be integrated into the army as wholesale units only stationed in their territory. Landis said it appeared Sharaa had understood Barrack's statements against federalism in Syria "to mean that the central government could impose its will on the Druze minority by force." Syria in Transition, an independent monthly journal, said, citing well-placed sources, that Syrian authorities' misunderstanding of messaging by the US and Israel resulted in the deployment of troops to Sweida. The senior Gulf official said Damascus had made a "big mistake" in its approach to Sweida, saying troops had committed violations, including killing and humiliating Druze. The nature of violence handed Israel an opportunity to act forcefully, the Gulf official and another source said. The Syrian Network for Human Rights, an independent monitoring group, said on Friday the death toll from the violence had reached at least 321 people, among them medical personnel, women and children. It said they included field executions by all sides. Members of the Druze community in Israel and their supporters wave a Druze flag and raise placards near the US Embassy in Jerusalem to show solidarity with their community in neighbouring Syria, on 16 July 2025. Photo: Ahmad Gharabli / AFP Reuters was able to verify the time and location of some videos showing dead bodies in Sweida, but could not independently verify who conducted the killings or when they occurred. A regional intelligence source said Sharaa had not been in control of events on the ground because of the lack of a disciplined military and his reliance instead on a patchwork of militia groups, often with a background in Islamic militancy. In sectarian violence in Syria's coastal region in March, hundreds of people from the Alawite minority were killed by forces aligned with Sharaa. With more blood spilt and distrust of Sharaa's government high among minorities, the senior Gulf Arab official said there are "real fears that Syria is heading towards being broken up into statelets." The official from the Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the Sweida operation was not aimed at revenge or escalation, but at preserving the peace and unity of the country. Syrian troops were ready to re-engage to end the communal violence there "whenever appropriate conditions arise, including clear guarantees from the United States that Israel will not intervene," the official said, speaking before the Israeli announcement. Israel initially lobbied the US to keep the country weak and decentralised after Assad's fall, Reuters reported in February. In May, US President Donald Trump met with Sharaa, said he would lift all US sanctions, and nudged Israel to engage with Damascus even though much of Israel's political establishment remains sceptical of the new Syrian leadership. A State Department spokesperson said on Thursday that the US "did not support" Israel's strikes on Sweida this week. The attacks also came as a shock to some Americans in Syria. Hours before Israel struck the capital city on Wednesday, executives from three US-based energy companies arrived in Damascus for a day of meetings. The lead member and organiser, Argent LNG CEO Jonathan Bass, told Reuters he had been sufficiently reassured by Washington that the violence unfolding in Sweida would not escalate to Damascus. They were pitching an energy project to Syria's finance minister when Israel struck. - Reuters
Scoop
5 hours ago
- Scoop
UN Experts Appalled By Mass Forced Returns Of Afghan Nationals
GENEVA (18 July 2025) – UN experts* today condemned ongoing mass returns of Afghan nationals – many of them refugees – from Iran and Pakistan, as well as threatened or actual forced returns from other countries. 'The scale is staggering: more than 1.9 million Afghans have returned or been forced to return to Afghanistan from Iran and Pakistan so far in 2025,' the experts said. More than 300,000 people have returned from Pakistan and over a 1.5 million from Iran, including 410,000 who have been deported from Iran since 24 June. Thousands of the returnees are unaccompanied children. Following the Iran-Israel conflict, forced returns of Afghan nationals have escalated, including those with valid documentation. Security-related discourse has intensified anti-Afghan sentiment. 'Returns must be halted immediately,' the experts said. 'Afghanistan is not a safe country for returnees, given the constantly deteriorating human rights situation since the Taliban seized control, nearly four years ago.' 'Those forced to return have genuine fears for their safety and security and face very real risks of persecution, threats, and violent reprisals,' they said. The experts stressed that women and girls are systematically deprived of their fundamental rights, while LGBT and gender-diverse persons face criminalisation. Last week, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for the Taliban's 'Supreme Leader' and Chief Justice, who are accused of the crime against humanity of persecution on gender and political grounds. Former security and government officials, including judges and prosecutors, those critical of Taliban policies, such as human rights defenders and journalists, as well as religious and ethnic minorities are at particular risk of reprisals and serious harms if they are returned, the experts stated. 'No government should ignore these very real dangers in Afghanistan – doing so would constitute an abandonment of their moral and legal responsibility.' UN experts have repeatedly warned that these returns may violate the principle of non-refoulement referenced in UNHCR's February 2023 non return advisory. They reiterated that States, due to the sheer quantity and forceful nature of returns, cannot ensure that Afghan nationals have access to fair procedures where their individual protection needs are fully assessed. Many Afghans have experienced discrimination, mistreatment, arbitrary arrest and detention, raising serious concerns under international refugee and human rights law. 'We are concerned that more States are considering to deport or forcefully return Afghans, and some have halted or suspended resettlement programmes, leaving at-risk and vulnerable Afghans in limbo – including those whose cases have previously been approved for resettlement,' the experts said. They stressed the need for an increased humanitarian response for Afghanistan and host countries to address the international protection needs of the population. More than four million Afghans have been internally displaced as a result of conflict and disasters. The experts also urged the expansion of resettlement and complementary pathways to third countries along with measures to facilitate departures from host countries. 'Amid large numbers of returnees arriving in Afghanistan, we call on all Member States to urgently provide adequate funding to organisations providing desperately needed humanitarian and reintegration support for Afghans,' they said. The experts expressed particular concern about the separation of families, including children, and specific risks for women, especially women-headed households and those without a mahram. ' The situation is being exacerbated by the Taliban's restrictions on women humanitarian workers,' they said. *The experts:
NZ Herald
9 hours ago
- NZ Herald
South Korea's ex-President indicted for abuse of power
South Korean prosecutors requested a new arrest warrant on July 6 to detain former President Yoon Suk Yeol, after questioning him twice, including a session that lasted over nine hours. Photo / AFP Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech. South Korean prosecutors requested a new arrest warrant on July 6 to detain former President Yoon Suk Yeol, after questioning him twice, including a session that lasted over nine hours. Photo / AFP Disgraced South Korean ex-President Yoon Suk Yeol was indicted for abuse of power over his declaration of martial law last year, as investigators widened an insurrection probe. Yoon plunged South Korea into a political crisis when he sought to subvert civilian rule on December 3, sending troops to Parliament in a bid to prevent lawmakers voting down his declaration of martial law. He became the first sitting President in the country to be taken into custody when he was detained in January after resisting arrest for weeks, using his presidential security detail to thwart investigators. He was released on procedural grounds in March, even as his trial on insurrection charges continued. Last week, he was detained again after an arrest warrant was issued over concerns he might destroy evidence in the case.
