BEIRUT: A Russian force deployment on the Syria-Lebanon border this week in a Hezbollah stronghold sparked protests by the Lebanese militant group, prompting the force to withdraw from its positions only a day later in a rare sign of tension between the allies.
The Russian move was not expected as Moscow’s military police have been deploying in areas controlled by Syrian government forces and close to insurgent positions. The outskirts of the Syrian town of Qusair where the Russian troops set up three observation positions on Monday have been held by Hezbollah and Syrian troops since 2013, when they drove rebels from the area.
The Russian deployment and subsequent withdrawal shows that as rebels are being defeated in different parts of Syria, frictions could rise between Assad’s main foreign backers — Russia and Iran — and the militias Tehran backs throughout Syria.
“They came and deployed without coordination,” said an official with the so-called “Axis of Resistance” led by Iran, which includes Iran, Syria, Hezbollah and other groups fighting alongside President Bashar Assad’s forces.
“It’s better if they don’t come back. There is no work for them there. There is no Daesh or any other terrorist organization,” the official said, referring to the Daesh group and other insurgents that the Syrian government and its allies call terrorist organizations. “What do they want to observe?” he asked.
Asked if there is tension between Hezbollah and Russian troops, the official refused to comment, speaking to the Associated Press by telephone from Syria on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief reporters. He said that after the Russian troops left, Syrian forces belonging to the army’s 11th Division replaced them.
In 2013, Hezbollah openly joined the Syrian civil war along with Assad’s forces capturing the then rebel stronghold of Qusair in June that year after losing dozens of its battle-hardened fighters.
The Russian deployment outside Qusair came after Israeli warplanes struck the nearby Dabaa air base on May 24, according to Syrian activists who said Hezbollah arms depots were hit. There was no word on casualties.
The Israeli military is believed to be behind dozens of airstrikes in recent years against Hezbollah, Iran, and Syrian military positions. The US and Israeli governments have viewed Iran’s role in Syria as a threat to Israel and have threatened action.
Although there have been no reports of frictions between Russian and Iranian or Iran-backed fighters in Syria, calls for Tehran to end its military presence in Syria have been on the rise in recent weeks.
At a meeting with Assad, who visited the Russian city of Sochi last month, Russian President Vladimir Putin noted that a political settlement in Syria should encourage foreign countries to withdraw their troops.
Putin’s envoy for Syria, Alexander Lavrentyev, later commented that the Russian leader’s statement was aimed at the United States and Turkey, along with Iran and Hezbollah. It marked a rare instance in which Moscow suggested Iran should not maintain a permanent military presence in the country.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a list of demands last month for a new nuclear deal with Iran, including the pullout of its forces from Syria. Israel has also warned it will not accept a permanent Iranian military presence in Syria.
Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mikdad however has said on Russia’s Sputnik news agency that “this topic is not even on the agenda of discussion, since it concerns the sovereignty of Syria.”
A top Iranian security official said that Tehran will maintain an advisory role in Syria and continue to support “resistance groups.” The secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Ali Shamkhani meanwhile told Al-Jazeera TV that as long as Syria faces a “terrorist” threat and Damascus requests its presence, “we will stay in Syria.”
And for his part, Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said in a speech Friday that “if the whole world tried to impose on us a withdrawal from Syria they will not be able to make us leave,” adding that his group would only leave at the request of the Syrian government.
The tensions come amid escalation in the country’s southwest near the border with Israel, where in early May Iran struck Israeli positions in the Golan Heights in retaliation for repeated airstrikes in Syria.
On May 10, Israel unleashed a heavy bombardment against what it said were Iranian military installations in Syria. It said it was retaliation for an Iranian rocket barrage on its positions in the Golan. It was the most serious military confrontation between the two bitter enemies to date.
Israel has been mostly using Lebanon’s airspace to strike targets inside Syria in an apparent move to avoid any conflict with Russia’s warplanes that fly over Syria. Russia has a major air base near Syria’s coast from where warplanes have been taking off to strike at insurgents throughout Syria.
“There is an increasing evidence that shows that Russia has turned a blind eye to Israel’s airstrike in Syria against Iran’s military presence,” said Fawaz Gerges, professor of Middle Eastern politics at the London School of Economics. “This is a direct message that Russia does not want Iran to have a hegemonic position in Syria.”
Russia and Iran have been the main backers of Assad but Moscow also has close relations with Israel whose Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Russia several times over the past two years. On one trip last month, he stood close to Putin while attending a massive parade for Russian troops marking victory in World War II.
Russia has been reportedly mediating for Iranian troops and Hezbollah fighters to withdraw from areas close to the Israeli border where Syrian troops are expected to launch an offensive against rebels.
“What happens after is not Russia’s problem: Iran will fight Israel for centuries. Netanyahu won’t be satisfied with Iran’s exit from south-west Syria, he needs an Iran-free Syria, which is impossible now or ever,” said Maxim Suchkov, who edits Russia-Middle East coverage at online news website Al-Monitor and sits on the Russian International Affairs Council. “Neither Russia, nor anyone can ensure that.”
Since September 2015, Assad’s forces have been making strong gains on the ground against insurgents thanks to Russian air cover and ground forces mostly made up of Iran-backed fighters from Lebanon, Iraq and Afghanistan. Assad now controls more than half of Syria’s territories including the largest four cities.
Russian troops don’t appear to be leaving Syria, home to their only naval base outside the former Soviet Union, any time soon. The Russian parliament voted in December to extend Russia’s lease of the naval base in the Syrian city of Tartus for 49 years, following Vladimir Putin’s announcement of a partial pullout of Russian troops from the war-torn country.
“In the past three years, Russian and Iranian influence converged in Syria. They wanted to rescue the Assad regime,” Gerges said. “Now that we are witnessing the beginning of the end of the military phase, we are witnessing divergence of interest between Russia and Iran.”
Rare tensions between Assad’s backers as Syria’s war unwinds
Rare tensions between Assad’s backers as Syria’s war unwinds
- The Russian deployment and subsequent withdrawal shows that as rebels are being defeated in different parts of Syria, frictions could rise between Assad’s main foreign backers
- The Russian deployment outside Qusair came after Israeli warplanes struck the nearby Dabaa air base on May 24, according to Syrian activists who said Hezbollah arms depots were hit
Trump says Iran has ‘second chance’ to come to nuclear deal after Israeli strikes devastate Tehran
- Trump, in the hours before the Israeli attack on Iran, still appeared hopeful in public comments that there would be more time for diplomacy
- Iran late Friday launched hundreds of ballistic missiles toward Israel after firing dozens of drones earlier in the day
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump on Friday urged Iran to quickly reach an agreement on curbing its nuclear program as Israel vowed to continue its bombardment of the country.
Trumped framed the volatile moment in the Middle East as a possible “second chance” for Iran’s leadership to avoid further destruction “before there is nothing left and save what was once known as the Iranian Empire.”
The Republican president pressed on Iran as he met his national security team in the Situation Room to discuss the tricky path forward following Israel’s devastating strikes, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged to keep up for “as many days as it takes” to decapitate Iran’s nuclear program.
The White House said it had no involvement in the strikes, but Trump highlighted that Israel used its deep arsenal of weaponry provided by the US to target Iran’s main enrichment facility in Natanz and the country’s ballistic missile program, as well as top nuclear scientists and officials.
Trump said on his Truth Social platform that he had warned Iran’s leaders that “it would be much worse than anything they know, anticipated, or were told, that the United States makes the best and most lethal military equipment anywhere in the World, BY FAR, and that Israel has a lot of it, with much more to come — And they know how to use it.”
Just hours before Israel launched its strikes on Iran early Friday, Trump was still holding onto tattered threads of hope that the long-simmering dispute could be resolved without military action. Now, he’ll be tested anew on his ability to make good on a campaign promise to disentangle the US from foreign conflicts.
In the aftermath of the Israeli strikes, the US is shifting its military resources, including ships, in the Middle East as it looks to guard against possible retaliatory attacks by Tehran, according to two US officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.
The Navy has directed the destroyer USS Thomas Hudner to begin sailing toward the Eastern Mediterranean and has directed a second destroyer to begin moving forward, so it can be available if requested by the White House.
As Israel stepped up planning for strikes in recent weeks, Iran had signaled the United States would be held responsible in the event of an Israeli attack. The warning was issued by Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi even as he engaged in talks with Trump special envoy Steve Witkoff over Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program.
Friday’s strikes came as Trump planned to dispatch Witkoff to Oman on Sunday for the next round of talks with the Iranian foreign minister.
Witkoff still plans to go to Oman this weekend for talks on Tehran’s nuclear program, but it’s unclear if the Iranians will participate, according to US officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private diplomatic discussions.
The president made a series of phone calls Friday to US television news anchors to renew his calls on Iran to curb its nuclear program.
CNN’s Dana Bash said Trump told her the Iranians “should now come to the table” and get a deal done. And Trump told NBC News that Iranian officials are “calling me to speak” but didn’t provide further detail.
Trump also spoke Friday with British Prime Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron about the evolving situation, as well as Netanyahu.
Meanwhile, oil prices leapt and stocks fell on worries that the escalating violence could impact the flow of crude around the world, along with the global economy.
Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Virginia, offered rare words of Democratic praise for the Trump administration after the attack “for prioritizing diplomacy” and “refraining from participating” in the military strikes. But he also expressed deep concern about what the Israeli strikes could mean for US personnel in the region.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who’s on Democrats’ shortlist for top 2028 White House contenders, said if Israel can set back Iran’s nuclear program with the strikes “it’s probably a good day for the world.”
“But make no mistake: We do not want an all-out war in the Middle East,” Shapiro said. “That’s not only bad for the Middle East, it’s destabilizing for the globe, and it’s something that I hope will not occur.”
Iran late Friday launched hundreds of ballistic missiles toward Israel after firing dozens of drones earlier in the day. The US military assisted Israel intercept the missiles fired by Iran in the retaliatory attack.
Trump, in the hours before the Israeli attack on Iran, still appeared hopeful in public comments that there would be more time for diplomacy.
But it was clear to the administration that Israel was edging toward taking military action against Iran. The State Department and US military on Wednesday directed a voluntary evacuation of nonessential personnel and their loved ones from some US diplomatic outposts in the Middle East.
Before Israel launched the strikes, some of Trump’s strongest supporters were raising concerns about what another expansive conflict in the Mideast could mean for the Republican president, who ran on a promise to quickly end the brutal wars in Gaza and Ukraine.
Trump has struggled to find an endgame to either of those conflicts and to make good on two of his biggest foreign policy campaign promises.
And after criticizing President Joe Biden during last year’s campaign for preventing Israel from carrying out strikes on Iranian nuclear sites, Trump found himself making the case to the Israelis to give diplomacy a chance.
The push by the Trump administration to persuade Tehran to give up its nuclear program came after the US and other world powers in 2015 reached a long-term, comprehensive nuclear agreement that limited Tehran’s enrichment of uranium in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.
But Trump unilaterally withdrew the US from the Obama administration-brokered agreement in 2018, calling it the “worst deal ever.”
The way forward is even more clouded now.
“No issue currently divides the right as much as foreign policy,” Charlie Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA and an ally of the Trump White House, posted on X on Thursday. “I’m very concerned based on (everything) I’ve seen in the grassroots the last few months that this will cause a massive schism in MAGA and potentially disrupt our momentum and our insanely successful Presidency.”
Netanyahu calls on Iranians to unite against ‘evil and oppressive regime’
- “As we achieve our objective, we are also clearing the path for you to achieve your freedom,” he said
- Iran called the attack “a declaration of war” and threatened to retaliate by opening “the gates of hell” on Israel
JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on Iranians Friday to unite against what he described as an “evil and oppressive regime,” telling them Israel was engaged in “one of the greatest military operations in history.”
“The time has come for the Iranian people to unite around its flag and its historic legacy, by standing up for your freedom from the evil and oppressive regime,” Netanyahu said in a video statement after Israel struck over 200 military and nuclear sites in the Islamic republic.
“We are in the midst of one of the greatest military operations in history, Operation Rising Lion,” he added.
“As we achieve our objective, we are also clearing the path for you to achieve your freedom,” he said, referring to Israeli strikes that hit targets across Iran, including nuclear sites, killing several top military commanders and nuclear scientists.
“The regime does not know what hit them, or what will hit them. It has never been weaker,” Netanyahu said in his video published shortly after a salvo of Iranian missiles reached Israel.
“This is your opportunity to stand up and let your voices be heard,” he said.
Netanyahu also promised that “more is on the way,” having said earlier that Israel’s attack on Iran would “continue for as many days as it takes.”
Iran called the attack “a declaration of war” and threatened to retaliate by opening “the gates of hell” on Israel.
It first sent about 100 drones toward Israel, many of which were intercepted before reaching the country.
The drones were followed by dozens of missiles, some of which caused physical damage in Israeli cities, and injured at least seven people, according to first responders.
Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has failed in its mission, UN says
- Medics say hospitals are inundated with people wounded while trying to obtain food amid hunger crisis
GENEVA: The US and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has been a failure from a humanitarian standpoint, the UN said on Friday.
The UN and major aid groups have refused to cooperate with the foundation over concerns it was designed to cater to Israeli military objectives.
“GHF, I think it’s fair to say, has been, from a principled humanitarian standpoint, a failure,” Jens Laerke, spokesman for the UN humanitarian agency OCHA, told a press briefing in Geneva.
“They are not doing what a humanitarian operation should do, which is providing aid to people where they are, safely and securely.
“We have the operation ready to roll with food and other supplies ready. We have them in the region; they are pre-cleared by the Israelis.
“We need the borders open to get in, and of course, we need the safety and security and some resemblance of law and order inside Gaza to distribute it.”
An officially private effort with opaque funding and backed by Israel, GHF began operations on May 26 after Israel completely cut off supplies into Gaza for more than two months, sparking warnings of mass famine.
GHF claimed on Thursday it had distributed nearly 2.6 million meals on Thursday and more than 18.6 million to date.
The Palestinian Authority said internet and fixed-line communication services were down in Gaza on Thursday following an attack on the territory’s last fiber optic cable, which it blamed on Israel.
“There was and still is a massive comms blackout,” said Laerke.
“If there is no communication, it really is damaging” for aid services, he said.
“There is an active effort to try to fix it, of course, and everybody is looking into that, because things kind of ground to a halt when these things happen.”
The distribution of food and basic supplies in the blockaded and war-ravaged Gaza has become increasingly fraught and perilous, exacerbating the territory’s deep hunger crisis.
The GHF said a bus carrying its staff to a distribution site near the southern city of Khan Younis was “brutally attacked by Hamas” around 10 p.m. on Wednesday.
Israel charged that Hamas was “weaponizing suffering in Gaza” after the US and the GHF accused the Palestinian group of killing its aid workers in the territory.
Asked to respond to the GHF accusation, the Hamas government media office in Gaza said GHF was a “filthy tool” of Israeli forces and was being used to “lure civilians into death traps.”
Dozens of Palestinians have been killed while trying to reach GHF distribution points since they began operating in late May, according to Gaza’s civil defense agency.
The agency said another 21 people were killed while waiting for aid on Thursday, adding that they were among 29 people across the territory who were killed by Israeli fire.
Contacted by AFP about reports of a deadly incident near an aid distribution point close to the Netzarim corridor in central Gaza, the Israeli military said it had “conducted warning shots hundreds of meters from the aid distribution site, prior to its opening hours.”
Gaza medics have said hospitals are being inundated with people wounded while trying to obtain food.
At Gaza City’s Al-Shifa Hospital on Wednesday, the emergency department said it had received dozens of people who had been killed or wounded while waiting for aid in recent days, including 200 in a single day.
“Many Gazans went to the Nabulsi and Netzarim areas to receive aid and were shot at and shelled with tanks,” said Mutaz Harara, head of Al-Shifa’s emergency department.
But with few medical supplies and no operating theaters, “many patients died while waiting for their turn,” he said.
The war has caused major damage to infrastructure across Gaza, including water mains, telecommunication cables, power lines, and roads.
Cholera spreads to 13 states in Sudan, including Darfur
- Funding cuts create overcrowded and unsanitary conditions that increase risks, WHO official warns
GENEVA: The World Health Organization warned on Friday that cholera cases in Sudan are set to rise and could spread to neighboring countries, including Chad, which hosts hundreds of thousands of refugees from Sudan’s civil war in crowded conditions.
The more than two-year-old war between the Sudanese army — which took full control of Khartoum state this week — and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces has spread hunger and disease and destroyed most health facilities. Drone attacks in recent weeks have interrupted electricity and water supplies in the capital, Khartoum, driving up cases there.
FASTFACT
Dr. Shible Sahbani, WHO Representative for Sudan, called for humanitarian corridors and temporary ceasefires to allow mass vaccination campaigns against cholera and other disease outbreaks, such as Dengue fever and malaria.
“Our concern is that cholera is spreading,” Dr. Shible Sahbani, WHO Representative for Sudan, said in Geneva by video link from Port Sudan.
He said that cholera had reached 13 states in Sudan, including North and South Darfur, which border Chad, and that 1,854 people had already died in the latest wave as the dangerous rainy season sets in.
“We assume that if we don’t invest in the prevention measures, in surveillance, in the early warning system, in vaccination and in educating the population, for sure, the neighboring countries, but not only that, it can maybe spread to the sub-region,” he said.
He called for humanitarian corridors and temporary ceasefires to allow mass vaccination campaigns against cholera and other disease outbreaks, such as Dengue fever and malaria.
Cholera, a severe, potentially fatal diarrheal disease, spreads quickly when sewage and drinking water are not treated adequately.
Sahbani said that this posed a high risk for Sudanese refugees, including some who had survived attacks on a displacement camp in Darfur, and who are living in cramped, makeshift border sites on the Chadian side of the border.
“In overcrowded, unsanitary conditions, a potential outbreak could be devastating,” said François Batalingaya, UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Chad, at the same briefing, describing the conditions for some 300,000 people stranded there with few aid services due to funding shortages.
The disease has not yet been confirmed in Chad, although a WHO spokesperson said that suspected cases had been reported in Geneina, Sudan, just 10 km away.
Sahbani also said that disease surveillance was low on the Libyan border and that it could possibly spread there.
Case fatality rates have fallen in recent weeks in and around the capital, Khartoum, thanks to an oral cholera vaccination campaign that started this month, Sahbani said.
UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher said Sudan had become a grim example of impunity and the world’s indifference.
Fletcher called on “all with influence” to do more to safeguard civilians and to enable humanitarian aid to reach millions in the war-shattered country.
Despite repeated international pledges to protect Sudan’s people, “their country has become a grim example of twin themes of this moment: indifference and impunity,” he said in a statement.
Fletcher, the UN’s Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, underlined that half of Sudan’s population, some 30 million people, need lifesaving aid in the world’s largest humanitarian crisis.
“Indiscriminate shelling, drone attacks, and other air strikes kill, injure, and displace people in staggering numbers. The health system has been smashed to pieces, with cholera, measles, and other diseases spreading,” he said.
The human cost of the war, including “horrific” sexual violence, has been repeatedly condemned, “but talk has not translated into real protection for civilians or safe, unimpeded and sustained access for humanitarians,” he said.
“Where is the accountability? Where is the funding?“
Macron says UN conference on Israel-Palestinian issue postponed after attack on Iran
- Postponed for logistical reasons as members of Palestinian Authority could not travel to New York
PARIS/RIYADH: A United Nations conference hosted by France and Saudi Arabia to work toward a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians has been postponed after Israel launched a military attack on Iran, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday.
Two sources had earlier told Reuters that the conference would be postponed after Israel’s attacks because logistically it would be difficult for countries in the region to attend.
Israel launched a huge wave of airstrikes across Iran on Friday, targeting Iran’s huge underground nuclear site, reportedly killing its entire top echelon of military commanders and nuclear scientists in the biggest ever direct attack between the foes.
“This postponement cannot undermine our determination to move forward with the implementation of the two-state solution,” Macron told a news conference.
“Whatever the circumstances, I have stated my determination to recognize the State of Palestine.”
Macron said logistically the Palestinian Authority and Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman were simply not able to travel given the military escalation in the region.
He said the meeting would be rescheduled as quickly as possible.
France and Saudi Arabia had been set to host the gathering between June 17-20 in New York, aiming to lay out the parameters for a roadmap to a Palestinian state, while ensuring Israel’s security.
Macron, who had been set to attend on June 18, has previously suggested France could recognize a Palestinian state in Israeli-occupied territories at the conference, a move opposed by Israel.
US President Donald Trump’s administration sent a diplomatic cable earlier this week to discourage governments around the world from attending the conference, according to a US cable seen by Reuters.
It had also warned of possible consequences for those who took measures against Israel, raising pressure on the participants and making Macron’s potential decision to recognize a Palestinian state more complicated.
Macron could still at one point go ahead with becoming the first Western heavyweight to recognize a Palestinian state, but the desire in Paris is to have a collective momentum.
Diplomats say this could lend greater weight to a movement hitherto dominated by smaller nations generally more critical of Israel.
Macron’s stance has shifted amid Israel’s intensified Gaza offensive and escalating violence against Palestinians by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, and there is a growing sense of urgency in Paris to act now.
