Latest news with #Hay'atTahriralSham
Business Recorder
15 hours ago
- Politics
- Business Recorder
Israel's expansionism
In the convoluted and strife-ridden terrain of the Middle East, one fact remains constant and easily discernible. This is the Zionist entity Israel's constantly being on the lookout for opportunities to feed its unlimited appetite for expansionism since its creation in 1948. In that founding year, Israel blatantly violated the UN Partition Plan for Palestine, intended to provide two states, Israel and Palestine, to accommodate the mixed populace as a result of the British Mandate authorities conniving at illegal Jewish migration to the so-called 'Promised Land'. It perpetrated the Nakba (Catastrophe) to expel thousands of Palestinians from territories designated as Palestinian by the UN Plan. So even the unjust Partition of Palestine (a shift of culpability by the West for the Holocaust onto innocent Palestinian shoulders) was not adhered to by the Zionist settler colonialists. Then in 1956 Israel joined Britain and France (the Mandate powers in the region between WWI and WWII and arguably the authors of all the mischief perpetrated against the Arabs as a whole) in attacking Egypt to try and wrest back from Nasser's nationalisation of the Suez Canal that critical passageway for the world's trade. Unfortunately, for this evil trio, the new dominant western power, the US, vetoed their plans in the interests of its newfound desire for global hegemony in the aftermath of WWII and even in the early days of the Cold War. In 1967, Israel launched a surprise attack against its Arab neighbours, Egypt, Syria and Jordan, destroying their air forces on the ground and seizing Sinai, the Golan Heights and the West Bank (including Jerusalem, the historic site of religious wars such as the Crusades). Since then, Sinai (the Gaza Strip excepted) was returned to Egypt after Anwar Sadat made peace with Israel following the indecisive 1973 war, annexed the Golan Heights and is currently in the process of carrying out a genocide in Gaza and a creeping annexation in the West Bank through militant, armed Israeli settlers, backed by the Israeli army. As if all this were not enough, Israel has been playing a sinister, expansionist role in post-Assad Syria. Ahmed al-Sharaa's government that came to power in Syria at the culmination of the 14-year civil war in Syria, given its past al Qaeda roots and current religious fundamentalist character, carried within it the real possibility of not only not being able to weld a united country out of the ruins, but in fact becoming the main factor in impending conflict with the religious and ethnic minorities in Syria. Sure enough, the Sunni fundamentalist Hay'at Tahrir al Sham party of al-Sharaa has clashed with the Alawite minority (to which Assad's elite belonged) in March 2025 on the Syrian coast that left about 1,600 people dead. Another outbreak of violence outside Damascus in May killed more than 100 people, mostly Druze. The current round of conflict in Suweida in southern Syria began about a week ago with an exchange of attacks and kidnappings between Sunni Bedouin tribes and Druze militias, who practice a secretive religion rooted in Ismaili Islam. Since the new government came to power in December 2024, a collection of Druze militias had secured Suweida and refused to integrate their forces into the new national army, an objective the Syrian government has been actively pursuing to bring the fractured militias scene under control. As the unrest in Suweida worsened, the government deployed military forces in the area to quell the conflict. But Druze militia leaders, deeply distrustful of the new Islamist authorities, believed these forces were coming to attack them. They then mobilised to repel the incoming government forces, escalating the fighting and in the process, yielding a harvest of over 1,000 people killed, many thousand wounded, 80,000 displaced. The evidence for the bloodbath was the piles of dead and wounded in Suweida's hospitals, whom an overstretched medical structure could barely see to. At this point, using the plight of the Druze minority as a cover (the Druze are also a minority in Israel, integrated closely with its military and security infrastructure), Israel bombed south Syria and the Syrian military's Damascus Headquarters. Al-Sharaa withdrew his forces in the face of this Israeli assault, which threatened to blow up into a war with Israel. The US then intervened, persuading Israel to cut al-Sharaa (their 'newly found' ally) some slack, which allowed him to take advantage of Tel Aviv's 'generous offer' of redeployment in Suweida for just two days to separate the warring militias and enforce a tenuous peace. One wonders how long this peace will last if the Syrian military once more is forced to retreat by Israeli pressure. What is Israel's objective in this complicated conflict? To be noted: apart from the annexed Golan Heights, Israel has, since the fall of Assad, set up 10 bases inside Syrian territory abutting the Golan Heights. Not only that, Israel has dictated to Damascus that south Syria is to remain free of Syrian military forces. No doubt the game plan is that in the name of 'rescuing' their dearly beloved Druze minority in Syria, Israel is just waiting to pounce on southern Syria to gobble up more territory. Given this expansionist history, can one hope for anything except conflict so long as Israel continues to exist with the unfettered support and help of the US-led West? Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
CNN
08-07-2025
- Politics
- CNN
5 things to know for July 8: Texas floods, Immigration, Planned Parenthood, Ukraine, Veterans Affairs
Shifting perspectives on the terrorism front. Last week, Russia became the first nation to formally recognize the Taliban government of Afghanistan since it took power in 2021. And today, the Trump administration's revocation of its foreign terrorist designation for Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham, the Islamist militant group led by Syria's interim president, will take effect. Here's what else you need to know to get up to speed and on with your day. Local officials are facing questions about their actions in the years and hours before the catastrophic flooding hit central Texas last week, and whether more could have been done to avert the tragedy. Although officials have long acknowledged the risk of flooding near the Guadalupe River, multiple efforts to build a more substantial flood warning system have faltered or been abandoned due to budget concerns. While at least one neighboring county issued evacuation orders in the early hours of July 4, Kerr County officials don't appear to have done so. The effectiveness of emergency notifications is also under scrutiny. A series of alerts were transmitted to mobile devices during the night of the flooding, but some people — including the mayor of hard-hit Kerrville — didn't receive the warnings. To date, the floods have claimed the lives of more than 100 people. A massive search is underway to locate two dozen others who are still missing. Dozens of armed federal immigration agents wearing tactical gear and masks — as well as members of the California National Guard — swarmed a mostly empty MacArthur Park in Los Angeles on Monday. Residents were outraged and shouted at the ICE agents who were on foot, on horseback and in Humvees. LA Mayor Karen Bass called the federal government's display of force 'an attempt to spread fear' and said they need to leave. 'Frankly, it is outrageous and un-American that we have federal armed vehicles in our parks when nothing is going on in the parks,' Bass said. An ICE spokesperson told CNN it does not comment on ongoing operations. A federal judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from enforcing a provision of the president's sweeping domestic policy law that would bar federal funding for providers 'primarily engaged in family planning services, reproductive health and related medical care.' The Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts and the Planned Parenthood Association of Utah sued the administration, claiming the funding ban could lead to the closure of 200 clinics nationwide, most of which are in states where abortion is legal. On Monday, US District Judge Indira Talwani issued the order to stop enforcement of the provision for 14 days. The US will send additional defensive weapons to Ukraine to repel attacks from Russian forces, President Trump said on Monday. Last week, a senior White House official told CNN that the Trump administration was pausing some weapons shipments to Ukraine, including air defense missiles. The decision was announced following a review of military spending that was signed off by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. At the time, White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly said the decision was made 'to put America's interests first.' Trump's turnaround occurred after he spoke separately with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Trump said afterward that his conversation with Putin was disappointing and that there was 'no progress' towards a ceasefire. The Department of Veterans Affairs is walking back plans for mass layoffs, but the agency said it will still cut tens of thousands of jobs by the end of the year. Although the VA had originally planned to lay off roughly 80,000 employees from a total staff of about 470,000, the agency will now reduce the number of staffers by nearly 30,000 through the federal hiring freeze, deferred resignations, retirements and normal attrition. A news release issued by the VA insisted that the reductions would not impact veteran care or benefits. 'All mission-critical positions are exempt' from the deferred resignations and voluntary early retirements, the agency said. GET '5 THINGS' IN YOUR INBOX If your day doesn't start until you're up to speed on the latest headlines, then let us introduce you to your new favorite morning fix. Sign up here for the '5 Things' newsletter. Costco's priciest membership plan, which costs $130 per year, just launched a new perk. Turns out there's a trick to bringing a full bottle of water through an airport security checkpoint — and it's TSA-approved. Singer Katy Perry and actor Orlando Bloom, who have a daughter, have split three years after announcing their engagement. Singer and talk-show host Kelly Clarkson said she was 'devastated to have to postpone' the launch of her Las Vegas residency at the last minute. The 2026 Hollywood Walk of Fame honorees have been revealed. 75%That's about how many staff members the Department of Homeland Security is preparing to cut from the agency's office tasked with developing and sharing threat intelligence with state and local partners. '[President Trump is] forging peace, as we speak, in one country, in one region after the other.' — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking during Monday's dinner at the White House. Netanyahu then shared a letter he sent nominating Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize. 🌤️ Check your local forecast to see what you can expect. Delivery drones are taking to the skies over London, but they're not dropping off dinner orders. These flying machines are transporting time-sensitive blood samples to labs in order to receive faster results. Today's edition of 5 Things AM was edited and produced by CNN's Andrew Torgan.
LBCI
07-07-2025
- Politics
- LBCI
US revokes foreign terrorist designation for Syria's HTS
President Donald Trump's administration has revoked the foreign terrorist organization designation for al-Nusrah Front, also known as Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham, according to a State Department memo filed on Monday, a major step as Washington moves to ease sanctions on Syria. The June 23 memo was signed by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and was published in a preview of the Federal Register prior to its official publication on Tuesday. The move comes a week after Trump signed an executive order terminating a U.S. sanctions program on Syria to help end the country's isolation from the international financial system and build on Washington's pledge to help it rebuild after a devastating civil war. Reuters
