The Documentary Podcast Assignment: What future for Assad's army?

03-06-2025

The former rebels who now rule Syria dismantled the old regime's security forces as soon as they came to power last December. Overnight, half a million soldiers, police and intelligence officers, and some civil defence workers lost their jobs and income. Many of those sacked were guilty of atrocities. But the majority probably were not. Tim Whewell reports on the reconciliation process which deprived servicemen of their jobs – but delayed justice. He talks to a variety of former junior members of the security forces – a civil defence worker, a policeman and an officer of the elite Republican Guard – to ask how and why they originally became servants of the regime – and find out how they are living now. War crimes investigator Kilman Abu Hawa says only 10-15% of former servicemen are guilty of crimes: the guilty should be prosecuted, and the innocent reinstated. Nanar Hawach of the International Crisis Group draws a parallel with Iraq, where the security forces were dismantled after the fall of Saddam Hussein. Many discontented former officers in Iraq eventually joined the jihadi group, ISIS. Do the mass dismissals in Syria risk provoking a similar insurgency?

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UN aid chief: some movement restrictions appear to have been eased in Gaza

Reuters

18 minutes ago

Reuters

UN aid chief: some movement restrictions appear to have been eased in Gaza

UNITED NATIONS, July 27 (Reuters) - United Nations aid chief Tom Fletcher said on Sunday that some movement restrictions appeared to have been eased by Israel in Gaza on Sunday after Israel decided to 'support a one-week scale-up of aid.' Fletcher said in a statement that initial reports indicate that more than 100 truckloads of aid were collected from crossings to be transported into Gaza. 'This is progress, but vast amounts of aid are needed to stave off famine and a catastrophic health crisis,' he said.

The safe passage of aid must be allowed in Gaza

Telegraph

an hour ago

Telegraph

The safe passage of aid must be allowed in Gaza

The dramatic shift in Israel's policy towards Gaza follows weeks of mounting international pressure for more to be done to help the Palestinian people caught in the middle of this catastrophe. The arguments over who was responsible are largely pointless now. The casus belli was the October 7, 2023 invasion by Hamas and the murder of more than 1,000 Israelis, and the kidnapping of scores more. Without that atrocity what we are now seeing would not have happened. Those who march through European capitals every week, blaming Israel for wanting peace and security free from neighbours seeking their destruction, do not have to live in the region. Nor do they consider what any country would do if its citizens were taken hostage and kept as bargaining counters by terrorists. Had they been released and Hamas accepted Israel's right to exist this could have ended months ago. But with a humanitarian crisis unfolding in Gaza we are past the blame game, as the Israeli government is tacitly conceding by offering 10-hour daily pauses and opening aid corridors in densely populated parts of the Strip. This is 'to enable the safe passage of UN and humanitarian aid organisation convoys delivering and distributing food and medicine to the population'. There have also been air drops of aid in recent days. Critics will say this has come a bit late in the day, although the Israelis have challenged Hamas's accounts of what has happened to past aid convoys, many of which they say have been hijacked. Nonetheless, the new, open-ended, policy is indicative of the massive pressure now being applied to Jerusalem, with countries like France proposing to recognise a Palestinian state. As more pictures emerge from inside Gaza it has become impossible for the Israelis to maintain a narrative that the privation of the people is being exaggerated. Now they have opened up the aid corridors it is imperative that the world sees it is being delivered to women and children and not being intercepted by Hamas. To that end, opening the country to the free and safe movement of foreign media representatives can only be to Israel's advantage. The fact remains, however, that Hamas is still holding at least 50 hostages, of whom 20 are thought still to be alive. Their release is essential to any chance of an agreement to end the conflict. Furthermore, apart from Jordan and the UAE, what are other Arab countries like Egypt and Saudi Arabia doing to help the Palestinians?

Hamas' exiled Gaza chief says ceasefire talks meaningless under 'blockade and starvation'

Reuters

2 hours ago

Reuters

Hamas' exiled Gaza chief says ceasefire talks meaningless under 'blockade and starvation'

July 27 (Reuters) - The exiled head of Hamas in Gaza, Khalil al-Hayya, said on Sunday ceasefire negotiations with Israel were "meaningless under continued blockade and starvation". "The immediate and dignified delivery of food and medicine to our people is the only serious and genuine indication of whether continuing the negotiations is worthwhile," he said in a recorded speech.