BEIRUT: Syrian fashion designer Manal Ajaj shocked her audience at a show she presented on Wednesday by dressing young Lebanese male models in army uniforms of the Syrian regime.
Lebanon, which hosts 1 million Syrian refugees, has tried to stay neutral in the Syrian conflict.
And it was only 12 years ago that the Syrian Army ended its three-decade presence in Lebanon after the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafiq Al-Hariri.
The audience included Ajaj’s friends, Lebanese and foreign celebrities, and media figures. “This is the second show for Ajaj in Beirut,” Johnny Fadlallah, whose company L.I.P.S. Management organized the event, told Arab News.
“I didn’t understand what happened at the end of the show. I was engaged with preparations at the backstage. I heard some criticism and some praise for the show, and most critical people were from the media. They asked me why Ajaj was a fanatic supporter of the Syrian regime,” he said, adding that her show last year focused on Syrian suffering under Daesh.
“I don’t understand politics. I simply support the party of beauty and fashion. I know Ajaj is a supporter of the Syrian regime. She lives in the UAE, but she has a workshop in Damascus.”
Lebanese fashion journalist Hadia Sinno told Arab News: “I was surprised, like many others, about what happened at the end of the show, when young men came on the catwalk wearing Syrian Army uniforms.”
Designer causes anger by dressing models in Syrian regime uniforms
Designer causes anger by dressing models in Syrian regime uniforms
Jordanian intelligence thwarts plots threatening national security
AMMAN: Officials at Jordan's General Intelligence Department said on Tuesday they had foiled a series of plots targeting the kingdom’s national security, the Jordan News Agency reported.
According to a statement carried by JNA, the GID arrested 16 individuals suspected of “planning acts of chaos and sabotage.”
Authorities said the department had been monitoring the group’s activities since 2021.
The foiled plans reportedly involved the manufacture of missiles using both locally sourced materials and imported components, as well as the possession of explosives and firearms.
Investigators also uncovered a missile that had been concealed and prepared for deployment.
In addition to the weapons cache, the suspects were allegedly engaged in efforts to develop drones, recruit and train individuals within the country, and send others abroad for further training.
All individuals arrested have been referred to the State Security Court for legal proceedings, the GID confirmed.
Nations call for immediate end to ‘horrific’ Sudan war
- UK’s foreign minister David Lammy tells Sudan conference in London of a 'lack of political will' to end the conflict
- Germany, France, EU and African Union co-host event but warring sides did not attend
LONDON: The UK led international calls Tuesday for a swift end to the devastating war in Sudan, hosting a gathering of world officials with fresh pledges of humanitarian aid as the conflict which has cost thousands of lives entered its third year.
The war erupted on April 15, 2023 in a bitter power struggle between rival generals leading Sudan’s regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) — neither of whom were present at the conference.
More than 13 million people have been uprooted and tens of thousands killed, with both sides accused of committing atrocities.
It has created what the United Nations describes as the world’s worst hunger and displacement crises.
“We simply cannot look away,” the UK’s foreign minister David Lammy said as he opened the talks among counterparts from around 15 countries, denouncing what he called “a lack of political will” to end the fighting.
“We have got to persuade the warring parties to protect civilians, to let aid in and across the country, and to put peace first,” he said, adding it would take “patient diplomacy.”
Various peace efforts have so far failed to lead to a ceasefire.
The continued fighting has fueled fears the tensions will spill over Sudan’s borders and stir further instability in the impoverished Horn of Africa region.
“There can be no military solution in Sudan, only an immediate, unconditional secession of hostilities,” said the African Union’s commissioner for political affairs, Bankole Adeoye.
“This, we believe, must be followed by an all-inclusive dialogue to end the war.”
The war has “shattered the lives of millions of children across Sudan,” said Catherine Russell, executive director of UNICEF, which estimated 2,776 children had been killed or maimed in 2023 and 2024.
A UN-backed assessment has concluded that famine is now blighting parts of the country.
Britain’s foreign ministry said more than 30 million people were in desperate need, and 12 million women and girls were in danger of gender-based violence.
Lammy unveiled $159 million in new aid for Sudan, with the EU pledging more than $591 million to address the crisis, and Germany putting up some $142 million.
France also announced an extra $57 million in humanitarian aid this year.
“How can we forget the world’s largest humanitarian crisis?” asked German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock.
During a visit to a refugee camp, she said she heard “horrific reports of women and children being raped” while people were dying of hunger.
Germany and France as well as the European Union and the 55-member African Union are co-hosting the conference with the British government in London.
Ministers from some 14 other countries including Saudi Arabia and the United States were attending, the Foreign Office said, along with high-level representatives from bodies such as the United Nations.
Sudan’s government has protested that it was not invited to participate, soliciting a rebuke from Khartoum.
But the German foreign ministry said both the Sudanese army and the RSF militia were unwilling to come to the table.
Sudan has accused the United Arab Emirates of supporting the paramilitary forces with arms shipments. Those fighters and the Gulf state deny the charges.
In a statement Tuesday, the UAE issued “an urgent call for peace” and accused both sides of “committing atrocities.” It said a senior foreign ministry official would attend the London conference.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot stressed “the unity of Sudan must be preserved” and there could be no unilateral government imposed on civilians.
The conflict pits the regular army of Sudan’s de facto leader Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan against the RSF led by his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.
It was triggered when relations between Burhan and Dagalo soured following a 2021 coup that ousted the transitional government put in place after the 2019 overthrow of longtime leader Omar Al-Bashir.
The RSF are rooted in Darfur and control much of its territory, as well as parts of Sudan’s south.
The army reclaimed the capital Khartoum last month, and holds sway in the east and north, leaving Africa’s third-largest country divided in two.
Algerian expulsion of French officials ‘will have consequences’: French FM
- Jean-Noel Barrot said the move was “regrettable” and warned it “will not be without consequences“
- Algeria’s foreign ministry said it had declared the 12 persona non grata
PARIS: France’s foreign minister on Tuesday slammed Algeria’s decision to expel 12 French officials and warned of a riposte, as tensions mounted between Paris and its former North African colony.
Jean-Noel Barrot said the move was “regrettable” and warned it “will not be without consequences,” adding that if “Algeria chooses escalation, we will respond with the greatest firmness.”
Algeria’s foreign ministry said it had declared the 12 persona non grata after the arrest in France of an Algerian consular official, a “vile act” it blamed on French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau.
For decades, ties between France and Algeria have gone through diplomatic upheavals, and the fresh row comes at a delicate time in relations, underscoring the difficulties in repairing ties.
On Friday, French prosecutors indicted three Algerians, including a consular official, on suspicion of involvement in the 2024 abduction of an opponent of the Algerian government, Amir Boukhors, in a Paris suburb.
The men, who are also being prosecuted for “terrorist” conspiracy, were placed in pre-trial detention.
Lebanon says Israeli strike on south kills one
- A “drone strike carried out by the Israeli enemy on a vehicle in the town of Aitarun killed one person ,” the health ministry said
- Israel has continued to strike Lebanon since the November 27 ceasefire
BEIRUT: Lebanon’s health ministry said an Israeli strike killed one person in the country’s south on Tuesday, the latest such attack despite a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.
A “drone strike carried out by the Israeli enemy on a vehicle in the town of Aitarun killed one person and wounded three others including a child,” the health ministry said in a statement.
Israel has continued to strike Lebanon since the November 27 ceasefire that largely halted more than a year of hostilities with the Iran-backed Hezbollah group, including two months of all-out war.
The United Nations Human Rights Office said Tuesday that at least 71 civilians have been killed by Israeli forces in Lebanon since the ceasefire came into effect.
The truce accord was based on a UN Security Council resolution that says Lebanese troops and United Nations peacekeepers should be the only forces in south Lebanon, and calls for the disarmament of all non-state groups.
Under the truce, Hezbollah was to withdraw fighters from south of Lebanon’s Litani River and dismantle any remaining military infrastructure there.
Israel was to pull out all its forces from south Lebanon, but it continues to hold five positions that it deems “strategic.”
Lebanon’s army has been deploying in the south near the border as Israeli forces have withdrawn and has been dismantling Hezbollah sites.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said in an interview Monday with Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera that the army was “dismantling tunnels and warehouses and confiscating weapons bases” south of the Litani “with great professionalism and without any problem from Hezbollah.”
He also said the army was “carrying out its duties north of the Litani,” noting the army had located a warehouse in Jiyeh, around 20 kilometers (12 miles) south of Beirut and “confiscated its contents,” without specifying what, as well as carrying out activities in locations in east Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley.
“Even what the army is doing in some places north of the Litani, there has been no objection to, which is also a positive sign,” Aoun added.
A source close to Hezbollah told AFP on Saturday that the group had ceded to the Lebanese army around 190 of its 265 military positions identified south of the Litani.
Also Monday, the Lebanese military said a soldier was killed and three others wounded in an explosion in the country’s south, where Aoun said they had been dismantling mines in a tunnel.
Syria leader in Qatar for first time since Assad’s fall
- Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani met Syria’s interim President Ahmed Al-Sharaa on his arrival
- Qatar was one of the first Arab countries to back the armed rebellion led by Al-Sharaa
DOHA: Syria’s new president arrived in Qatar on Tuesday, state media said, for his first official visit to the Gulf state, a key backer of the new administration after longtime ruler Bashar Assad’s ouster.
The official Qatar News Agency reported Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani met Syria’s interim President Ahmed Al-Sharaa on his arrival at Doha’s Hamad International Airport.
Earlier, Syria’s foreign minister posted on X that he was accompanying Sharaa on his “first presidential visit to the country that has stood by Syrians from day one and has never abandoned them.”
Sharaa and Shaibani’s Qatar trip comes on the heels of a Sunday visit to the United Arab Emirates, where they met Emirati President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, who expressed his country’s support for Syria’s reconstruction.
Sharaa’s Islamist group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham led the alliance that ousted Assad from power on December 8.
His new administration has received support from several countries including key backers Turkiye and Qatar, as well as multiple Arab states.
Qatar was one of the first Arab countries to back the armed rebellion that erupted after Assad’s government crushed a peaceful uprising in 2011. Unlike other Arab nations, Doha did not restore diplomatic ties with Syria under Assad.
The new authorities have engaged in a flurry of diplomatic activity since taking power, and Sharaa has visited several Arab countries as well as Turkiye.
Meanwhile, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun departed Beirut on Tuesday for Doha, his office said, on his first visit to the Gulf country since his January election.
“The visit will continue until tomorrow afternoon, Wednesday, and will include a bilateral meeting between President Aoun and the Emir of Qatar, as well as expanded talks involving both the Qatari and Lebanese delegations,” Aoun’s presidential office said.
A day earlier, Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam met with Sharaa in Damascus in an effort to reboot ties between the two neighbors.
Beirut and Damascus have been seeking to improve relations since the overthrow of Assad, whose family dynasty exercised control over Lebanese affairs for decades and has been accused of assassinating numerous officials in Lebanon who expressed opposition to its rule.
Middle East analyst Andreas Krieg said since the fall of the Assad government, Qatar had emerged as “the most important interlocutor with the Al-Sharaa government in the Arab world, at least after Turkiye.”
He said the gas-rich Gulf emirate was a “diplomatic force multiplier to the Al-Sharaa government in Syria” and would be able to connect Syrians back to Lebanon “which is, for both countries, extremely important.”
Sheikh Tamim visited Damascus in January, becoming the first head of state to visit since Assad’s ouster.
Doha has pledged to support the rehabilitation of Syria’s infrastructure, and in January announced an agreement to provide Syria with 200 megawatts of power, gradually increasing production.
Syrian authorities are seeking assistance including from wealthy Gulf states for reconstruction after nearly 14 years of war.
Qatar is one of the providers of financial and in-kind support to the Lebanese army and pledged support for reconstruction in February after the recent confrontation between Hezbollah and Israel.
