BEIRUT: Daesh and the Syrian regime continued to play cat and mouse in the historic Syrian city of Palmyra on Thursday as President Bashar Assad’s forces claimed they had completed the recapture of the city with the help of Russian air power.
The oasis city has traded hands several times during Syria’s six-year civil war and become a symbol of Daesh’s wanton destruction of priceless cultural heritage in areas under its control.
Bolstered by airstrikes and ground troops from their ally Moscow, Syrian forces battled through the desert for weeks to reach Palmyra.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu informed President Vladimir Putin of Palmyra’s recapture, a Kremlin spokesman told news agencies in Moscow.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based monitoring group, said the terrorists had withdrawn from the desert city but not before mining several areas.
“The Syrian Army is still clearing neighborhoods of mines and has not spread out into the whole city yet,” said its director, Rami Abdel Rahman.
Meanwhile, a senior member of the main Syrian opposition said the prospects for progress after a week of peace talks in Geneva were “very dim.”
“We are convinced that there is no military solution, we are going for a political solution,” Basma Kodmani, a negotiator for the High Negotiations Committee (HNC), told a side event in Geneva.
“But there is no prospect as you can tell from the end of this second week or 10 days of talks here in Geneva. The prospects are very dim.”
Russia accused the HNC of “sabotaging” sputtering talks and questioned their ability to reach a deal.
“The results of the first days of the intra-Syrian dialogues, as before, raise questions over the ability of the Syrian opposition representatives to reach a deal,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.
Syrian regime negotiator Bashar Al-Jaafari accused the opposition of holding talks hostage because of their reported refusal to unify under one opposition delegation and include terrorism on agenda.
“Counter-terrorism operations will continue until the last inch of territory from our country is retaken from the foreign terrorists who are wreaking havoc,” Al-Jaafari said.
The lead negotiator said he hoped US President Donald Trump would correct the “catastrophic” errors of his predecessor Barack Obama to become a reliable partner against “devilish” Iran.
“The people in Syria paid a high price because of the catastrophic mistakes made by the Obama administration,” Nasr Al-Hariri told reporters in a briefing after meeting UN mediator Staffan de Mistura.
“Obama lied and he did not keep any of the promises he made for the Syrian people. He drew red lines that he erased himself, he kept silent on crimes committed by Bashar Assad.”
Hariri said: “We reiterated the devilish role that Iran is playing through hundreds of thousands of fighters on the Syrian soil.”
Trump’s administration has so far done little to suggest it is willing to engage in finding a political solution for Syria.
“Their policy is still unknown,” said a Western diplomat at the talks. “They are almost not here.”
While Western envoys were coordinating with the Syrian opposition in Geneva, the US envoy kept his head down and left after a few days to deal with other issues.
“The US is not a direct participant in the UN-led talks,” a spokesperson for the US Mission in Geneva said. “The US remains committed to any process that can result in a political resolution to the Syrian crisis.”
When asked during a White House briefing this week about the talks, spokesman Sean Spicer gave no clear answer on how Washington saw the process or Assad’s role.
Hariri said the opposition had common ground with Trump because both wanted to fight terrorism and curtail Iranian influence. Washington, he said, should support the opposition.
Separately, Al-Qaeda confirmed that a US-led coalition drone strike had killed senior leader Abu Al-Khayr Al-Masri in Syria.
A statement issued by the militant group’s Maghreb and Arabian Peninsula branches said he died in a “treacherous” drone strike it described as a “new crime by America and the crusader coalition.”
Cat-and-mouse game over Syria’s Palmyra continues
Cat-and-mouse game over Syria’s Palmyra continues
Syria signs $800m agreement with DP World to bolster ports infrastructure
- Deal focuses on developing multi-purpose terminal at Tartous
DUBAI: Syria’s General Authority for Land and Sea Ports on Sunday signed a $800 million agreement with UAE’s DP World to bolster Syrian ports infrastructure and logistical services, Syrian state news agency SANA reported.
The agreement follows on from a memorandum of understanding signed between the two sides in May.
The deal with DP World, a subsidiary of UAE investment company Dubai World, focuses on developing a multi-purpose terminal at Tartous on Syria’s Mediterranean coast and cooperation in setting up industrial and free trade zones.
The signing ceremony was attended by Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa.
Last month, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order terminating a US sanctions program on Syria, paving the way for an end to the country’s isolation from the international financial system and for the rebuilding of its economy shattered by the civil war.
The removal of US sanctions will also clear the way for greater engagement by humanitarian organizations working in Syria, easing foreign investment and trade as the country rebuilds.
Closing Bell: Saudi main index ends lower at 11,253
- Parallel market Nomu edged down 41.88 points to close at 27,437.62
- MSCI Tadawul Index fell 0.19% to 1,442.43
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul All Share Index slipped on Sunday, shedding 24.01 points, or 0.21 percent, to close at 11,252.90.
The total trading turnover on the benchmark index stood at SR4.04 billion ($1.08 billion), with 98 stocks advancing and 148 declining.
The Kingdom’s parallel market Nomu edged down by 41.88 points to close at 27,437.62, while the MSCI Tadawul Index fell 0.19 percent to 1,442.43.
The best-performing stock on the main market was SHL Finance Co., with its share price rising 9.98 percent to SR21.26. Al Sagr Cooperative Insurance Co. followed, gaining 6.47 percent to SR14.80, while Fawaz Abdulaziz Alhokair Co. climbed 5.80 percent to SR33.20.
Zamil Industrial Investment Co. recorded the steepest decline of the day, with its share price falling 2.75 percent to SR46.00.
On the announcement front, Almoosa Health Co. said it signed an SR192 million contract with MASAH Specialized Construction Co. to carry out preliminary construction and foundation work for the Almoosa Specialist Hospital project in Al-Hofuf.
In a press statement, the company said the financial impact of the 14-month contract will be reflected after the completion of the hospital’s construction. The company added that there are no related parties involved in the deal.
Almoosa Health’s share price inched up 0.12 percent to close at SR165.00.
Sports Club Co. completed its retail offering ahead of its planned listing on the Kingdom’s main market. Saudi Fransi Capital, the lead manager, financial adviser, bookrunner, and underwriter for the IPO, confirmed the development.
According to a statement, 259,690 investors participated in the retail subscription period, with a final offer price of SR7.50 per share. Saudi Fransi Capital added that retail orders totaled approximately SR247.7 million, representing an oversubscription rate of 533.6 percent.
Asian garment industry braces for higher US tariffs
- High tariffs might force companies to shut down or move to countries that offer lower tariff rates
- The US is negotiating a deal with India, while reciprocal tariff for Pakistan hasn’t been announced
Dhaka/Phnom Penh: Across Asia, unions and industry groups are raising alarms over the impact of higher tariffs by the United States on garment workers.
High tariffs might force companies to shut down or move to neighboring countries that offer lower tariff rates, resulting in a loss of jobs, they say.
“The potential loss of jobs will cut the income and ability for workers to sustain their daily lives,” said Ath Thorn, vice president of the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers’ Democratic Union, which represents 80,000 workers across 40 factories.
Several countries in Asia have gotten notice of new tariff rates imposed by the United States to take effect August 1, after a 90-day pause on tariffs came to an end.
Manufacturing hubs such as Bangladesh and Cambodia will face high tariffs of 35 percent and 36 percent respectively, while neighboring countries are still negotiating with the US government.
US President Donald Trump announced new tariffs through official letters posted on his social media platform, Truth Social, on July 8.
The US is the largest garment export destination for Bangladesh. The country’s exports to the US totaled $8.4 billion last year and of that, garments comprised $7.34 billion.
Also in 2024, Cambodia exported nearly $10 billion worth of goods to the US, which accounted for nearly 40 percent of the nation’s total exports, according to government customs statistics.
More than half of US imports from Cambodia were garments, footwear and travel goods such as luggage and handbags, a sector that makes up nearly half of the country’s export revenue and employs more than 900,000 workers.
Unions and industry groups warn that these workers could be hit hard with job losses if the high tariffs force companies to move to countries under lower tariff rates or shut down altogether.
While Cambodia is looking at a tariff rate reduction from 49 percent in April, anxiety permeates its garment industry, which employs hundreds of thousands of people and is one of the developing nation’s key economic pillars.
Meanwhile, the US and Vietnam have struck a trade agreement that set 20 percent tariffs on Vietnamese goods.
With a neighbor next door with a significantly lower tariff, many companies may choose to leave Cambodia, said Yang Sophorn, president of the Cambodian Alliance of Trade Unions, which represents thousands of women who support their families as garment workers.
The fear is echoed by experts in Bangladesh, which faces a 35 percent tariff.
Selim Raihan, a professor of economics at the Dhaka University, said if tariff rates on Bangladesh’s competitors like India, Indonesia and Vietnam prove to be lower, Bangladesh would face a serious competitive disadvantage.
Such a disadvantage could make supply chain decision-making more difficult and erode the confidence of buyers and investors, Raihan said.
“As production costs rise and profit margins shrink due to the tariff, many garment factories may be forced to scale back operations or shut down entirely,” Raihan said.
In Bangladesh, the 35 percent tariff announced by the US is more than twice the current 15 percent rate on Bangladeshi goods.
“With more than doubling tariff rates, can you imagine how the cost of the products will rise?” asked Mohiuddun Rubel, a former director of Bangladesh’s garment manufacturers’ association BGMEA and now additional managing director at textile maker Denim Expert Ltd.
The question is what happens to the tariffs for main competitor countries like India and Pakistan, said Rubel.
The US is negotiating a trade deal with India, while reciprocal tariff rates for Pakistan have not been announced yet.
OUTSIZED EFFECT ON WOMEN
Potential layoffs within the garment industry will have an outsized effect on women workers, which Sophorn said would cripple entire families.
“If these women lose their jobs because high tariffs force factories to shut, it will not only impact Cambodia’s economy, but now children may not be able to go to school and aging parents may not be able to afford medicine,” Sophorn said.
“The situation for women garment workers is already bad, but it will get worse if these tariffs were to come into effect.”
Many of the women she represents have taken bank loans to support their families and work in the garment industry to pay off their debts.
“If they lose their job, it means they will lose everything,” Sophorn said.
Tariffs would directly affect a sizable chunk of the four million workers in Bangladesh’s garment industry, most of whom are women from low income and rural backgrounds, Raihan said.
Thorn suggested Cambodia continue negotiations to get the tariffs down or find other ways to export more products, generate more income and create more work.
“If not, we will face problems,” he said.
Kabul’s water crisis: How unsustainable foreign aid projects made it worse
- Afghan capital, a city of 6.5 million people, is expected to run out of water by 2030
- Kabul has not had a comprehensive water management plan since 1978
KABUL: As Kabul makes global headlines for being on the brink of running out of water, experts say the crisis stems not only from natural and local causes, but also decades of unsustainable foreign projects and mismanagement of aid.
About one-third of Afghanistan’s population — around 12.5 million people — lack reliable access to water, according to the latest data from the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan.
In the country’s capital, the situation is even worse, with the UN expecting that by 2030 its aquifers could dry up — a projection that has been in international media since last month, as that would make Kabul the first modern city to run out of water.
“Without urgent action, like bringing in surface water from other basins, Kabul risks facing a severe crisis, potentially a ‘Day Zero’ like Cape Town experienced a few years ago,” Obaidullah Rahimi, an Afghan scholar whose doctoral research at the University of Kaiserslautern-Landau focuses on urban water management, told Arab News.
“The city’s groundwater can only cover about 44 million cubic meters — enough for just 2 million people at a modest per capita consumption of 50 liters per person per day.”
This means that less than 30 percent of Kabul’s 6.5 million residents have access to the WHO’s basic water requirement to ensure minimum essential needs for health, hygiene, and basic consumption.
Years of excessive and unregulated groundwater extraction, combined with prolonged drought, shrinking rainfall, and the thinning of the Hindu Kush snowpack — the primary natural source for the city’s rivers and aquifers —have pushed Kabul to the edge.
But these problems are not new and have only worsened as they have not been addressed over the two decades, when Afghanistan was occupied by foreign forces following the US invasion in 2001.
Despite the billions of dollars that entered the country in foreign development projects, Kabul’s water management systems were hardly touched.
“A significant portion of this aid was spent on short-term, small-scale projects without considering future impacts on the water balance of the Kabul basin and failed to establish large-scale water conservation infrastructure that could maintain and preserve this balance,” Rahimi said.
Dr. Ahmad Shah Frahmand, a geographic information systems and remote sensing expert specializing in mapping changes in water surface areas, said that also the way the projects were implemented, along with the lack of knowledge transfer, prevented them from having a lasting impact.
“International donors funded networks and pipelines across Kabul, often constructed by foreign contractors with little local involvement. But within just a few years, many of these systems fell into disrepair due to poor construction and a lack of oversight,” he told Arab News.
“One of the biggest failings was the focus on short-term fixes over long-term solutions. Aid money was frequently funneled into demonstration projects — temporary wells, pilot programs, or highly visible installations that offered quick results but little durability. Meanwhile, large-scale infrastructure like dams, reservoirs, and water treatment plants received far less attention and funding.”
According to Frahmand, less than 10 percent of the water sector budget was spent on training and maintaining local staff.
“Without skilled technicians, engineers, and maintenance crews, even well-built systems can crumble. And in Kabul, many already have,” he said.
A report published by the US Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction in 2020 — a year before the withdrawal of American-led forces from Afghanistan — estimated that at least 30 percent of reconstruction aid, or $19 billion, was lost to waste, fraud, and abuse.
Additional audits by the oversight agency suggested the true figure may have been 40 percent due to corruption and mismanagement.
As foreign donors have left the country and international sanctions have been slapped on it since 2021, when the Taliban took over after the US forces withdrew, there are no funds for big infrastructure projects, especially as Afghanistan is already facing several other humanitarian crises.
“In a country desperate for stable infrastructure, these funds could have transformed lives. Instead, many projects stalled, failed, or were quietly abandoned,” Frahmand said, highlighting how urgent redesigning Kabul’s water systems has been, as the city has not seen a comprehensive water management plan since 1978.
“Kabul’s infrastructure was never built for the population it now serves. The existing water supply system, designed decades ago for a much smaller population, can no longer meet basic demand. Millions of Kabul residents now rely on tankers, private vendors, or unsafe wells to access water.”
By 2030, as many as 2 million people could be forced to leave Kabul in search of water, according to projections by the UN refugee agency. Water loss could lead to the extinction of local fish species and a collapse of biodiversity in the region.
“The agricultural sector is already under immense pressure. The Food and Agriculture Organization forecasts a 40 percent drop in crop yields across Kabul province by 2035. For a population already grappling with food insecurity, this decline could tip entire communities into hunger and poverty,” Frahmand said.
“If urgent action is not taken, the coming decade could bring irreversible social, environmental, and economic consequences that reshape the city and the lives of those who remain in it.”
Japan Embassy in Riyadh partners with IOM to fund Yemen youth training
- Nakashima highlighted that this agreement may benefit a large number of people, especially IDPs, who are particularly affected by the situation
RIYADH: Japanese Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Yoichi Nakashima partnered with the International Organization for Migration to grant about $2.5 million in aid supporting vocational training for youth, including internally displaced persons in Yemen.
Signing the exchange notes in Riyadh on Sunday alongside Nakashima were Ashraf El Nour, head of the IOM office in Riyadh, and Mansour Bajash, undersecretary for political affairs at Yemen’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The Japanese envoy told Arab News that this cooperation is critical given the ongoing economic difficulties in Yemen, saying: “We made this decision to support the Yemeni people who are going through this exceptional time and to address urgently needed areas such as vocational training.”
He explained that Yemen faces rising unemployment due to the prolonged conflict. The country’s public technical and vocational training centers have significantly reduced their operations due to infrastructure damage and lack of funds.
Approximately 4.7 million IDPs — about one-seventh of the population — are unable to earn an income because they lack technical skills, making employment difficult.
Nakashima highlighted that this agreement may benefit a large number of people, especially IDPs, who are particularly affected by the situation.
This cooperation aims to rehabilitate technical and vocational training centers and provide capacity development training in three southern governorates: Aden, Lahj, and Taiz.
It is also expected to help increase employment opportunities for young people by expanding vocational training and enhancing economic resources.
A joint press statement from the embassies of Japan and Yemen noted that supporting peace and stability in Yemen, which borders the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, will contribute to securing sea lanes.
The government of Japan expressed its commitment to continue working proactively toward achieving peace and stability in Yemen, in cooperation with the UN and relevant countries.
