Japan govt loses upper house majority in elections: Media projections
Ishiba's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its partner Komeito won around 41 of the 125 seats contested, short of the 50 needed to retain a majority, Nippon TV and TBS reported, with the populist party Sanseito projected to have made strong gains.
AFP
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9 hours ago
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UN nuclear watchdog chief says Iran ready to restart technical conversations
Iran has indicated that it will be ready to restart conversations at a technical level regarding its nuclear program, the head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog said Friday. Iran needs to be transparent about its facilities and activities, Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said in Singapore. Earlier in July, Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the country plans to cooperate with the nuclear watchdog despite restrictions imposed by its parliament, while stressing that access to its bombed nuclear sites posed security and safety issues. Araghchi at that time reiterated that Iran will not agree to any nuclear deal that does not allow it to enrich uranium. Reuters
Nahar Net
13 hours ago
- Nahar Net
Syria's Druze fear for their future after sectarian clashes
Before the eruption of sectarian violence in southern Syria, Saber Abou Ras taught medical sciences at a university in the city of Sweida and was somewhat hopeful of a better future for his country as it emerged from nearly 14 years of civil war. Now, like many others in the Druze-majority city in southern Syria, he carries arms and refuses to give them up to the government. He sees little hope for the united Syria he recently thought was in reach. "We are for national unity, but not the unity of terrorist gangs," Abou Ras, a Druze, told The Associated Press in a phone call from the battered city. Clashes broke out last week that were sparked by tit-for-tat kidnappings between armed Bedouin clans and fighters with the Druze religious minority. The violence killed hundreds of people and threatened to unravel Syria's fragile postwar transition. Syrian government forces intervened to end the fighting, but effectively sided with the clans. Disturbing videos and reports soon surfaced of Druze civilians being humiliated and executed, sometimes accompanied by sectarian slurs. One showed gunmen in military uniform asking an unarmed man about his identity. When he replies that he is Syrian, the gunmen demand, "What do you mean Syrian? Are you Sunni or Druze?" When the man says he is Druze, the men open fire, killing him. Hossam Saraya, a Syrian-American Druze from Oklahoma, was shown in another video, kneeling with his brother, father, and at least three other relatives, before a group of men in military garb sprayed them with automatic fire and celebrated. A religious sect with roots in Islam The Druze religious sect is an offshoot of Ismailism, a branch of Shiite Islam. Outsiders are not allowed to convert, and most religious practices are shrouded in secrecy. There are roughly a million Druze worldwide and more than half of them live in Syria. The others live in Lebanon and Israel, including in the Golan Heights — which Israel captured from Syria during the 1967 Mideast War and annexed in 1981. Though a small community within Syria's population of more than 20 million, Sweida's Druze take pride in their involvement in liberating the country from Ottoman and later French colonial rule, and establishing the present-day Syrian state. During the uprising-turned-civil war that started in 2011, Druze leaders reached a fragile agreement with former President Bashar Assad that gave Sweida semi-autonomy, leaving the minority group to protect its own territory instead of serving in the Syrian military. Most Druze celebrated Assad's fall The Druze largely welcomed the fall of Assad in December in a rebel offensive that ended decades of autocratic rule by the Assad dynasty. The Druze were largely skeptical of the Islamist background of Syria's interim president Ahmad al-Sharaa, especially as he once led the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front. But many, including influential clerics, supported diplomatically engaging with the new leadership. Among those more hostile towards al-Sharaa is spiritual leader Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri and a faction of Druze militias called the Sweida Military Council. There were intense divisions between them and others in the Druze community for months. Previous clashes between Druze armed groups and government forces were resolved before the violence could escalate. A security agreement was reached between the Druze and Damascus in May that was intended to bring about long-term calm. But the recent clashes and sectarian attacks in Sweida have upset that balance, and many Druze appear to have lost hope in reaching a fair settlement diplomatically. Sectarian violence after the fall of Assad Many Druze see the government's attacks as an extension of a wave of sectarian violence that broke out months ago on Syria's coast. Clashes between the new government's forces and Assad loyalists spiraled into revenge killings targeting members of the Alawite minority to which Assad belongs. A government investigation into the coastal violence found that more than 1,400 people were killed, mostly civilians, and that members of the security forces were implicated in the attacks. The difference in Sweida, as Abou Ras, the Druze medical sciences professor, sees it, is that the Druze had their own armed factions that were able to fight back. "They talked about respecting minorities and the different components of Syria," he said. "But what happened at the coast was a hard lesson for Syrians, and we learned from it." The interim president denies that Druze are being targeted After the violence in Sweida, Al-Sharaa vowed to hold perpetrators to account, and restated his promises since taking power that he will not exclude Syria's minority groups. He and other officials have insisted that they are not targeting the Druze, but armed factions that are challenging state authority, namely those led by al-Hijri. Al-Sharaa also accused Israel of trying to exacerbate divisions in the country by launching airstrikes on government forces in the province, which Israel said was in defense of the Druze. The tensions have already created new challenges to forging national unity. Other minority groups — particularly the Kurdish forces controlling Syria's northeast, who have been in negotiations with Damascus to merge with the new national army — are reconsidering surrendering their weapons after seeing the violence in Sweida. A Syrian Druze who lived abroad for over 20 years was in Syria when Assad fell and celebrated with friends and family on the streets of Sweida. He quit his job to move back and be involved with the community. He joined in with people who waved Syria's new flag that symbolized the uprising, danced, and stepped on torn portraits of Assad. He said he wanted al-Sharaa to be successful, but now he doesn't see a peaceful future for Syria's different ethnic and religious groups with him at the helm. "In every household (in Sweida), someone has died," he told the AP. The Associated Press could not confirm that independently as there was no official death toll. However, it was a sentiment frequently shared by Syrians from Sweida. He asked to have his name and other identifying details withheld out of fear for his and his family's safety. "I think after the massacres that happened, there is not a single person in Sweida that wants anything to do with this government, unfortunately," he said. "This government butchered people, and butchered any possibility to (bring) reconciliation and harmonize the south."
Nahar Net
a day ago
- Nahar Net
Syrian, Israeli ministers to attend US-brokered meeting in Paris
Damascus's top diplomat Asaad al-Shaibani is set to meet an Israeli minister on Thursday in Paris to discuss recent sectarian violence in Syria's south that had drawn in Israel's military, a senior diplomat told AFP. The U.S.-brokered talks would be the first ministerial meeting between the new Syrian authorities and Israel. The two countries have technically been at war since 1948, and Israel has occupied the Golan Heights from Syria in 1967. "There will be a Syrian-Israeli security meeting in Paris today, and Tom Barrack will facilitate it," the diplomat said, referring to the US special envoy for Syria. The diplomat said that Shaibani and Israel's Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer are expected to discuss "the topic of southern Syria", where deadly sectarian violence earlier this month prompted Israeli intervention. Dermer was already in Paris, according to an airport official. The senior diplomat, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, said that Shaibani was due to arrive in the city later on Thursday. Barrack, Washington's ambassador to Turkey, was also due to meet Paris's top diplomat Jean-Noel Barrot, according to a French foreign ministry source. Israel launched several air strikes on Syrian government positions in Sweida, a Druze-majority province in the country's south, saying it wanted to protect the minority community after sectarian clashes had erupted. The Israeli strikes also reached Damascus, hitting the area of the presidential palace and the army headquarters, in a bid to force government troops to leave Sweida city -- which eventually happened under a ceasefire announced by the authorities. Before the violence in Sweida, Syrian and Israeli officials had met in Baku on July 12, according to a diplomatic source in Damascus, coinciding with a visit to Azerbaijan by Syria's interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa. After the overthrow of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in December, Israel carried out hundreds of air strikes in Syria to prevent key military assets falling into the hands of the new Islamist-led administration. Israel also sent troops into the U.N.-patrolled buffer zone that used to separate the opposing forces in the strategic Golan Heights, from which it has conducted forays deeper into southern Syria, demanding the area's demilitarization.
