Latest news with #al-Sharaa
Saudi Gazette
2 days ago
- Politics
- Saudi Gazette
Syria to hold first parliamentary elections since the fall of al-Assad
DAMASCUS — Syria will hold its first parliamentary elections since the fall of former President Bashar al-Assad, with voting scheduled to take place between 15 and 20 September, the head of the election organising body told state media on Sunday. Mohammed Taha al-Ahmad, chairman of the Higher Committee for People's Assembly Elections, confirmed the dates to the state-run SANA news agency. The elections will be held under the authority of interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa, who took power following a rapid rebel advance that ousted al-Assad in December. One-third of the 210 seats in the new assembly will be appointed directly by al-Sharaa, while the remaining two-thirds will be filled through provincial-level elections. In an interview with the Erem News website, committee member Hassan Al-Daghim said that electoral colleges would be established in each province to oversee the voting for the elected seats. A temporary constitution, signed by al-Sharaa in March, established a People's Committee to serve as a transitional parliament until a permanent constitution is enacted and full national elections are held, a process expected to take several announcement comes amid heightened political uncertainty and deepening divisions over Syria's new leadership, particularly after a wave of violence, between the Bedouin and Druze communities, erupted in Suwayda earlier this between the two groups spiralled into heavy fighting that left hundreds dead and threatened to destabilise the postwar Syrian government troops intervened, their actions have been criticised. Some government forces allegedly sided with the Bedouins, reportedly carrying out executions against Druze civilians and looting homes in Druze violence also drew in Israel, which launched airstrikes targeting Syrian government positions, including the Defence Ministry headquarters, citing the need to protect the Druze minority as justification for its intervention. — Euronews
Euronews
2 days ago
- Politics
- Euronews
Syria to hold first parliamentary elections since the fall of al-Assad
Syria will hold its first parliamentary elections since the fall of former President Bashar al-Assad, with voting scheduled to take place between 15 and 20 September, the head of the election organising body told state media on Sunday. Mohammed Taha al-Ahmad, chairman of the Higher Committee for People's Assembly Elections, confirmed the dates to the state-run SANA news agency. The elections will be held under the authority of interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa, who took power following a rapid rebel advance that ousted al-Assad in December. One-third of the 210 seats in the new assembly will be appointed directly by al-Sharaa, while the remaining two-thirds will be filled through provincial-level elections. In an interview with the Erem News website, committee member Hassan Al-Daghim said that electoral colleges would be established in each province to oversee the voting for the elected seats. A temporary constitution, signed by al-Sharaa in March, established a People's Committee to serve as a transitional parliament until a permanent constitution is enacted and full national elections are held, a process expected to take several years. The announcement comes amid heightened political uncertainty and deepening divisions over Syria's new leadership, particularly after a wave of violence, between the Bedouin and Druze communities, erupted in Suwayda earlier this month. Clashes between the two groups spiralled into heavy fighting that left hundreds dead and threatened to destabilise the postwar transition. Though Syrian government troops intervened, their actions have been criticised. Some government forces allegedly sided with the Bedouins, reportedly carrying out executions against Druze civilians and looting homes in Druze areas. The violence also drew in Israel, which launched airstrikes targeting Syrian government positions, including the Defence Ministry headquarters, citing the need to protect the Druze minority as justification for its intervention.
Gulf Insider
5 days ago
- Politics
- Gulf Insider
Turkey Commits Military Support To 'New' Post-Assad Syria With Saudis Pledging $4BN In Investment
Turkey and Saudi Arabia have indicated this week they are preparing to ramp up their investment and military support to post-Assad Syria, which is under the new regime of President al-Sharaa and his Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (rebranded Syrian al-Qaeda). These very countries helped spearhead the effort alongside US intelligence to remove Assad – who fled the country on December 8. Turkey's Defense Ministry announced on Wednesday that it will provide military assistance to Syria to help 'combat terrorism'. But the reality is that Turkey had long opened a 'jihadi highway' throughout years of the Syrian proxy war which helped cement the rise of ISIS and Syria becoming a hotbed of foreign fighters. Turkey claims Damascus is requesting urgent security assistance. 'In response to this request, we are continuing our efforts to offer training, consulting, and technical assistance to enhance Syria's defense capacity,' a Turkish defense official said. Ankara says its main objective is to uphold Syria's political unity and territorial integrity and to spearhead efforts toward long-lasting peace in the region. But the reality is that Turkey and Israel are in effect dividing of the spoils of post-Assad Syria, and Israel has been signaling its 'red line' over and against Turkish aims. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has recently pledged that Turkey's military will 'not allow terrorists to drag Syria back into chaos and instability.' Turkey has long occupied portions of northern Syria, precisely where terrorists have operated and conducted mass killings – particularly targeting Kurds and minority groups like Christians and Alawites. Regarding recent sectarian killings and unrest in Suwayda province and Israel's intensified strikes on Damascus, Turkish officials warned that these actions have exacerbated tensions between Druze groups and the Syrian government. But it is the HTS Syrian government which have committed the bulk of atrocities carried out against Druze civilians and even clerics. In the north, there's currently a deal underway for the Kurdish YPG – affiliated with the outlawed PKK – to lay down its arms, which it has been resistant to. At the same time there's a Pentagon presence in northern Syria and in the east, and the occupation shows no signs of withdrawing. Saudi Arabia too is eyeing greater participation in the supposedly 'new Syria' – now that Assad has exited: Saudi Arabia's investment minister led a business delegation travelling to Syria on Wednesday, where they were expected to sign deals worth around $4 billion as part of Riyadh's efforts to support the country's post-war recovery. The Gulf kingdom has been a crucial supporter of interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa's government, which came to power after toppling longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in December and is now seeking to rebuild Syria after a 14-year civil war. Of course, this was largely the plan all along – for regional powers to 'divide and rule' Syria, after it was brought to its knees after years of proxy war and unprecedented US-led sanctions. Meanwhile the US promptly removed these posters… From a US and Israeli perspective, this was to break the so-called 'Iran/Shia axis' in the region which heavily supported Lebanese Hezbollah. The CIA dubbed this operation 'Timber Sycamore' – according to earlier confirmation in The New York Times and others.
Business Recorder
22-07-2025
- 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
The Mainichi
20-07-2025
- Politics
- The Mainichi
Syria's leader urges Bedouin tribes to commit to a ceasefire ending clashes with the Druze
DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) -- Syria's interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa urged Sunni Muslim Bedouin tribes Saturday to "fully commit" to a ceasefire aimed at ending clashes with Druze-linked militias that left hundreds dead and threatened to unravel the country's postwar transition. Despite the call, clashes continued in the southern province of Sweida. Government forces that were initially sent to restore order but effectively sided with the Bedouins against the Druze were redeployed to halt renewed fighting that erupted Thursday in the southern province of Sweida. The violence also drew airstrikes against Syrian forces by neighboring Israel before a truce was reached. In his second televised address since the fighting started, al-Sharaa blamed "armed groups from Sweida" for reigniting the conflict by "launching retaliatory attacks against the Bedouins and their families." He also said Israeli intervention "pushed the country into a dangerous phase." Israel had launched dozens of airstrikes on convoys of government fighters and even struck the Syrian Defense Ministry headquarters in central Damascus, saying it was in support of the Druze, who form a substantial community in Israel and are seen as a loyal minority, often serving in the Israeli military. Reports had surfaced of Syrian government-affiliated fighters executing Druze civilians and looting and burning homes over the four-day violence. Ceasefire agreed to early Saturday The U.S. envoy to Syria, Tom Barrack, announced that Israel and Syria had agreed to a ceasefire early Saturday. Al-Sharaa made no direct reference to the agreement in his speech, but said "American and Arab mediations stepped in" to restore calm. Addressing the Bedouins, al-Sharaa said they "cannot replace the role of the state in handling the country's affairs and restoring security." He also said: "We thank the Bedouins for their heroic stances but demand they fully commit to the ceasefire and comply with the state's orders." Meanwhile, a prominent Druze leader, Sheikh Hikmat Al-Hijri, who opposes the current government and has distanced himself from the two ceasefires announced on Tuesday and Wednesday, said that an agreement brokered under the sponsorship of guarantor states contained several measures aimed at de-escalating tensions in Sweida. They include the deployment of checkpoints outside the province's administrative borders to contain clashes and prevent infiltration, a 48-hour ban on entry by any party into border villages, and safe, guaranteed passage for remaining members of the Bedouin tribes still inside the province. Sharaa reiterated that Sweida "remains an integral part of the Syrian state, and the Druze constitute a fundamental pillar of the Syrian national fabric," vowing to protect all minorities in Syria. He also thanked the United States for its "significant role in affirming its support for Syria during these difficult times," as well as Arab countries and Turkey, which mediated Wednesday's truce. More than half of the roughly 1 million Druze worldwide live in Syria. Most of the other Druze live in Lebanon and Israel, including in the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Mideast War and annexed in 1981. Entire communities have fled the fighting The U.N. estimates more than 87,000 people have been displaced in Sweida province since July 12 due to heavy shelling, sniper fire and abductions. Entire communities have fled on foot, with many now crammed into overcrowded schools, churches and public buildings under dire conditions, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a report. Infrastructure damage has cut electricity, water and telecommunications in much of the area, it said. The main hospital in Sweida was operating at just 15% capacity due to staff shortages and a lack of fuel. The security situation is also endangering humanitarian workers. The White Helmets, also known as the Syrian Civil Defense, reported that one of its emergency team leaders went missing on July 16 while responding to a call for help from a U.N. team, OCHA said. Shoring up the ceasefire agreement Meanwhile, Jordan, Syria, and the U.S. agreed on a set of practical steps to bolster the ceasefire, including the deployment of Syrian security forces and the release of detainees from all sides, Jordan's Foreign Ministry said on Saturday. The announcement came after a meeting between Barrack, Syria's Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani and his Jordanian counterpart Ayman Safadi. For his part, Syria's Minister of Information Hamza Al-Mostafa on Saturday said the first phase of the ceasefire, expected to take 48 hours, involves deploying internal security forces to key areas to prevent clashes. He acknowledged ongoing fighting in Sweida and said every ceasefire "begins fragile." Subsequent phases will open humanitarian crossings and gradually restore state institutions and security to ensure a return to normalcy, al-Mostafa said in a press conference in Damascus. Al-Mostafa acknowledged that some security personnel committed violations after deploying in Sweida. He rejected reports that the violence in Sweida was "premeditated operation" by the Syrian government. "The armed groups present in Sweida insisted on a provocative approach, rejecting any solutions and relying on a closed-off model that disregards Syria's unity," Al-Mostafa said. He accused Al-Hijri and his supporters of being "armed with Israeli support" and blamed them for "steering the situation toward its current state," despite previous government attempts to reach an agreement. Al-Mostafa also denied that Syria and Israel are in direct peace talks. "All discussions that are happening with Israel are fixated on one issue related to the urgent Israeli withdrawal from the areas that it occupied and advanced in after Dec. 8 and its commitment to the 1974 agreement of disengagement," he said. Signs of unrest in Damascus But even as officials called for calm, signs of unrest spread to the capital. On Friday, men armed with sticks stormed a peaceful protest outside Syria's parliament in Damascus, beating demonstrators and tearing up a banner that read, "Syrian blood should not be shed by Syrians," according to one of the organizers. The protest was held in response to the deadly clashes in Sweida, which journalist and filmmaker Zein Khuzam described as a grim echo of the 2011 Syrian civil war. "We felt like we needed to do something," Khuzam told The Associated Press. "We started receiving help messages from our friends in Sweida, that they are trapped there." The demonstration began Thursday as a spontaneous act by Khuzam and two others, who stood in front of parliament holding signs, including slogans rejecting Israeli interference. Photos of the protest circulated online, drawing a larger crowd the next day. Khuzam said the group noticed a man acting suspiciously on Friday. After making a phone call, he left, and shortly afterward, the attackers arrived in cars, some with women inside who cheered them on, she said. She added that guards outside the parliament stood by as someone fired shotgun rounds to disperse the crowd. "People are still carrying the traumas of Assad's actions during such peaceful protests," she said. "In that moment, it felt like history was repeating itself. It is very, very sad."
