Syrian Kurds say will help implement US-Turkey ‘safe zone’
Syrian Kurds say will help implement US-Turkey ‘safe zone’/node/1544826/middle-east
Syrian Kurds say will help implement US-Turkey ‘safe zone’
SDF chief Mazloum Kobani, left, and Brig. Gen. Nicholas Pond, 2nd left, a representative of the US-led coalition, attend a meeting in the northwestern Syrian city of Hasakah. (AFP)
Syrian Kurds say will help implement US-Turkey ‘safe zone’
Buffer area sought to ‘limit any uncoordinated military operations,’ coalition says
Updated 25 August 2019
AFP Reuters
HASAKAH/SYRIA, BEIRUT: Syria’s Kurds would support the implementation of a US-Turkey deal to set up a buffer zone in their areas along the Turkish border, they said on Saturday.
The “safe zone” agreed by Ankara and Washington earlier this month aims to create a buffer between the Turkish border and Syrian areas controlled by the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG).
The YPG have played a key role in the US-backed battle against Daesh in Syria, but Ankara views them as “terrorists.”
On Saturday, Mazloum Kobani, the head of the YPG-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), said his alliance would back the deal.
“We will strive to ensure the success of (US) efforts toward implementing the understanding ... with the Turkish state,” he said.
“The SDF will be a positive party toward the success of this operation,” he told journalists in the northeastern town of Hasakah.
US Central Command said late on Friday that the SDF — which expelled Daesh from their last patch of territory in eastern Syria in March — had destroyed outposts in the border area.
“The SDF destroyed military fortifications” on Thursday, it said in a statement on Twitter.
“This demonstrates (the) SDF’s commitment to support implementation of the security mechanism framework.”
On Wednesday, the US and Turkish defense ministers “confirmed their intent to take immediate, coordinated steps to implement the framework,” said a statement by the US Department of Defense.
Also on Saturday, a representative of the US-led coalition fighting Daesh said the buffer area sought to “limit any uncoordinated military operations.”
“We believe that this dialogue is the only way to secure the border area in a sustainable manner,” Brig. Gen. Nicholas Pond said.
On Aug. 7, Turkish and US officials agreed to establish a joint operations center to oversee the creation of the “safe zone.”
Little is known about its size or how it will work, but Ankara has said there would be observation posts and joint patrols.
Damascus has rejected the agreement as serving “Turkey’s expansionist ambitions.”
Syrian Kurds have established an autonomous region in northeast Syria amid the country’s eight-year war. But as the fight against Daesh winds down, the prospect of a US military withdrawal had stoked Kurdish fears of a long-threatened Turkish attack.
Turkey has already carried out two offensives into Syria in 2016 and 2018, the second of which saw it and allied Syrian rebels overrun the Kurdish enclave of Afrin in the northwest.
Meanwhile, a car bomb exploded in the Syrian city of Idlib on Saturday, a war monitor said, as regime airstrikes hit its outskirts in a government offensive on the last major opposition bastion.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and opposition-run Orient News said a car blew up in the Al-Qusoor neighborhood.
The Observatory said the blast killed two and wounded at least 11.
The city and the surrounding Idlib province in northwest Syria form part of the last big rebel stronghold in Syria.
A new push by Syrian government and Russian forces to take the area has seen heavy strikes and advances this week in the south of Idlib province and nearby Hama, prompting a new civilian exodus. Hundreds of people have been killed in the campaign since late April, the United Nations says.
On Friday Russia-backed Syrian troops reclaimed a cluster of towns they had lost early in the eight-year-old war, driving out the last rebel fighters from the Hama countryside.
Idlib city itself has largely been spared air strikes since a major bombing campaign on the territory began in late April, but on Saturday its outskirts were hit from the air, the Observatory and opposition media said.
Heavy strikes continued to hit the south of Idlib province, including around Maarat al-Numan, a city that has been a sanctuary for families fleeing former rebel areas around the country. This week tens of thousands fled to Syria’s border with Turkey as the fighting advanced.
DUBAI: “Where is the world?” That was the chilling closing caption shared by 11-year-old Yaqeen Hammad in one of the final videos she posted on social media, just days before she was killed on May 23 by an Israeli airstrike on Deir Al-Balah in Gaza.
Yaqeen’s story has been thrown into particular focus this week as the world marks International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression on June 4, a reminder not only of those lost but of the futures stolen.
As Gaza’s youngest social media influencer, Yaqeen was known for the uplifting videos she created and her work alongside her brother at Ouena, a local nonprofit organization dedicated to humanitarian relief and development.
Yaqeen’s followers will remember her for her infectious optimism and volunteer work with displaced families. Just days before she died, she posted survival tips to help others endure life under siege.
Now she has become a haunting symbol of the toll the war between Israel and Hamas is taking on young people.
Yaqeen Hammad was killed in an Israeli airstrike on May 23, drawing renewed attention to the plight of Gaza’s children. (Social Media)
More than 50,000 children have been killed or injured since the latest conflict began, according to the UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF. Thousands more have been orphaned or displaced by the ongoing violence.
Israeli authorities launched military operations in Gaza in retaliation for the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel, during which 1,200 people were killed, the majority of them civilians, and about 250 were taken hostage, many of them non-Israelis.
Despite repeated international efforts to broker a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, the ruling authority in Gaza, the continuing conflict has devastated the Palestinian enclave, creating one of the worst humanitarian disasters in the world.
FASTFACT
Every year on June 4, International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression acknowledges the pain that children around the world suffer. Many of these children are victims of physical, mental, and emotional abuse.
For those children who survive long enough to see an enduring ceasefire, what kind of future awaits them?
“We are losing a generation before our eyes, condemning patients to die from hunger, disease and despair — deaths that could have been prevented,” American trauma surgeon Dr. Feroze Sidhwa told the UN Security Council on May 28.
He delivered a searing account of what he witnessed during two volunteer missions in Gaza, the first in 2024, the second in March and April this year, at Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis. Sidhwa said he has worked in several conflict zones, including Haiti and Ukraine, but nothing compared to what he witnessed in Gaza.
“I operated in hospitals without sterility, electricity or anesthetics,” he told council members. “Children died, not because their injuries were unsurvivable but because we lacked blood, antibiotics and the most basic supplies.”
He stressed that during his five weeks in Gaza he had not treated a single combatant.
“Most of my patients were preteen children, their bodies shattered by explosions and torn by flying metal,” he said, describing six-year-old patients with bullets in their brains, and pregnant women whose pelvises had been shattered by airstrikes.
“Civilians are now dying not just from constant airstrikes, but from acute malnutrition, sepsis, exposure and despair,” he added, noting that in the time between his two visits he had observed a sharp decline in the general health of patients, many of whom were too weak to heal as a result of hunger.
According to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, almost 71,000 cases of acute malnutrition, including 14,100 severe cases, are expected in Gaza between April 2025 and March 2026. As of May 29 this year, about 470,000 people in Gaza were facing imminent famine, the UN said, and the entire population was suffering from severe food insecurity. One in five children under the age of 5 years old is severely malnourished, and more than 92 percent of infants and pregnant or breastfeeding women are not receiving adequate nutrition.
As of May 29 this year, about 470,000 people in Gaza were facing imminent famine, the UN said, and the entire population was suffering from severe food insecurity. (AFP)
Despite global pressure on Israeli authorities to allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza, access for relief workers remains limited. The UN Relief and Works Agency said deliveries are sporadic and some areas are unreachable as a result of fighting.
The day after Yaqeen was killed, Gaza was struck by another tragedy. On May 24, an Israeli airstrike hit the home of Dr. Alaa Al-Najjar, a pediatrician in Khan Younis who had long devoted her life to saving children, while she was on duty treating the wounded at Nasser Medical Complex.
Nine of her 10 children were killed in the blast. The youngest was just 7 months old, the eldest only 12. Her husband Hamdi, also a doctor, and their 11-year-old son, Adam, were pulled from the rubble with critical injuries. Hamdi died in hospital on May 31.
Injured Palestinian children are transported by ambulance to the Ahli Arab Hospital (Maamadani), after an Israeli strike hit a school in the Al-Tuffah neighbourhood in Gaza City on April 3, 2025. (AFP)
The Israel Defense Force said in response to initial reports of the strike that “an aircraft struck several suspects identified by IDF forces as operating in a building near troops in the Khan Younis area, a dangerous combat zone that had been evacuated of civilians in advance for their protection. The claim of harm to uninvolved individuals is being reviewed.”
Two days later, another child’s face captured the attention of the world. Ward Jalal Al-Sheikh Khalil, 7, emerged from the flames alone when Fahmi Al-Jarjawi School in Gaza City, a shelter for displaced families, was hit by an Israeli airstrike on May 26.
Her mother and two siblings were killed and her father is fighting for his life. In a now-viral video, Ward whispers through tears: “There was a shooting and all my siblings died.”
The Israeli military and Shin Bet, the country’s internal security service, issued a statement about the bombing of the school, in which they claimed the strike had targeted a compound used by Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
“The command and control center was used by the terrorists to plan and gather intelligence in order to execute terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF troops,” the army said. “Numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians.”
Illustrations of a little girl surrounded by flames, inspired by Ward’s escape from the school, quickly spread across social media, capturing the sense of grief and outrage over the suffering of children in Gaza.
INNUMBERS
1,309 children killed and 3,738 injured since the collapse of Gaza ceasefire on March 18.
50,000 children reportedly killed or injured since latest conflict began in October 2023.
(Source: UNICEF)
“In a 72-hour period this weekend, images from two horrific attacks provide yet more evidence of the unconscionable cost of this ruthless war on children in the Gaza Strip,” UNICEF’s regional director, Edouard Beigbeder, said on May 27.
“On Friday, we saw videos of the bodies of burnt, dismembered children from the Al-Najjar family being pulled from the rubble of their home in Khan Younis. Of 10 siblings under 12 years old, only one reportedly survived, with critical injuries.
“Early Monday, we saw images of a small child trapped in a burning school in Gaza City. That attack, in the early hours of the morning, reportedly killed at least 31 people, including 18 children.
“These children — lives that should never be reduced to numbers — are now part of a long, harrowing list of unimaginable horrors: the grave violations against children, the blockade of aid, the starvation, the constant forced displacement, and the destruction of hospitals, water systems, schools and homes. In essence, the destruction of life itself in the Gaza Strip.”
Children watch as others inspect the damage at the Fahmi Al-Jarjawi School in Gaza City on May 26, 2025, following an Israeli strike. (AFP)
Beyond the physical destruction, an invisible crisis is escalating. According to the War Child Alliance, nearly half of children in Gaza now exhibit suicidal thoughts as a result of the sheer weight of grief, trauma and loss. Aid workers report children as young as 5 years old asking why they survived when their siblings, parents or even entire families did not.
During his address to the UN Security Council, Dr. Sidhwa described the despair he witnessed among young patients during his time in Gaza, and asked: “I wonder if any member of this council has ever met a 5-year-old who no longer wants to live — let alone imagined a society in which so many young children feel that way.
“What astonishes me is not that some children in Gaza have lost the will to live, but that any still cling to hope.”
Even with the most immediate, basic means of survival out of reach for many in Gaza, mental health support remains a more distant concern, leaving an entire generation to navigate profound psychological scars alone. (AFP)
Mental health professionals warn that many children in the territory display symptoms of complex trauma, including persistent nightmares, bed-wetting, social withdrawal, and panic attacks triggered by the sound of planes or ambulances.
But with even the most immediate, basic means of survival out of reach for many in Gaza, mental health support remains a more distant concern, leaving an entire generation to navigate profound psychological scars alone.
“How many more dead girls and boys will it take?” asked Beigbeder, the UNICEF chief. “What level of horror must be livestreamed before the international community fully steps up, uses its influence, and takes bold, decisive action to force the end of this ruthless killing of children?”
Vast majority of Brits want full arms embargo on Israel: Poll
Just 16% oppose expelling the country from the UN
Palestine Solidarity Campaign: Survey ‘speaks to Israel’s growing isolation and the significant public support for sanctions’
Updated 40 min 28 sec ago
Arab News
LONDON: Around 80 percent of the British public support a full arms embargo on Israel, and just 16 percent oppose expelling the country from the UN, according to a poll conducted by Opinium.
Around three-quarters of respondents want public sector pensions to disengage from investments linked to Israel.
The findings come in the aftermath of Co-op members voting at their annual general meeting last week for the supermarket to stop selling Israeli products. Two-thirds of those surveyed by Opinium back similar boycotts by other UK supermarkets.
Ben Jamal, director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, said in a statement: “The polling … speaks to Israel’s growing isolation and the significant public support for sanctions.
“By continuing to arm and support Israel even as it enacts a genocide and a policy of forced starvation, the British government is holding on to an increasingly fringe position, completely out of sync with public opinion, and with the views of those who supported it at the last election.”
On Wednesday, thousands of activists are set to form a kilometer-long cordon around the Houses of Parliament in London, linked by a stretch of red fabric, to call for an end to UK military aid to Israel and the imposition of sanctions on the country.
Jamal said: “Those bringing the demand for an arms embargo to Parliament … in a symbolic red line are doing so knowing that the demand is supported by the majority of their fellow citizens.”
The PSC said in a press release: “For nearly 3 months Israel imposed a total blockade preventing all humanitarian assistance, resulting in deaths by starvation, widespread malnutrition and hunger amongst 2.3 million people.
“Israel has now imposed a severely limited and militarised aid operation, condemned by international aid organisations, that has resulted in scores of Palestinians being shot dead as they search for food.”
Israel army says projectiles launched from Syria fell in open areas, intercepts Yemen missile
Two projectiles fell near two Israeli settlements in the occupied Golan Heights
Updated 7 min 3 sec ago
AFP
JERUSALEM: The Israeli military said two projectiles launched from Syria crossed into Israeli territory on Tuesday, but fell without causing damage near two settlements in the occupied Golan Heights.
“Following the sirens that sounded in Haspin and Ramat Magshimim at 21:36, two projectiles were identified crossing from Syria into Israeli territory and fell in open areas,” the military said in a statement.
Haspin and Ramat Magshimim are both located in the southern Golan Heights, a territory which Israel occupied from Syria in 1967 and annexed in 1981.
Israeli media reported that Tuesday’s projectiles were the first fired from Syria into Israeli territory since the fall of longtime Syrian leader Bashar Assad in December.
Following Assad’s overthrow, Israel moved its forces into the UN-patrolled demilitarized zone in the Golan Heights and has carried out hundreds of strikes against military targets in Syria.
Israel says its strikes aim to stop advanced weapons from reaching Syria’s new authorities, whom it considers jihadists.
In a statement on Sunday, Israel’s military said its troops were continuing “defensive operations in southern Syria” to “dismantle terrorist infrastructure and protect the residents of the Golan Heights.”
Syria and Israel have technically been at war since 1948.
Yemeni missile
In a separate incident, Tel Aviv said it intercepted a missile launched from Yemen on Tuesday, with a series of explosions heard over Jerusalem.
"Following the sirens that sounded a short while ago in several areas in Israel, a missile launched from Yemen was intercepted," the Israeli military said.
Yemen’s Houthi militants have repeatedly launched missiles and drones at Israel since the Gaza war broke out in October 2023 with Palestinian militant group Hamas’s attack on Israel.
Tuesday’s interception was the third in as many days.
Israel’s Magen David Adom emergency medical service said no injuries were reported.
The Houthis claimed responsibility for a missile attack on Monday, which they said had targeted Israel’s main airport near Tel Aviv.
Israel has carried out several strikes in Yemen in retaliation for the attacks, including on ports and the airport in the capital Sanaa.
Libya’s eastern-based parliament passed budget for its development fund
The budget of $12.71 billion will be spread equally over three years
Updated 03 June 2025
Reuters
BENGHAZI: Libya’s eastern-based parliament voted on Tuesday to approve a budget for its development and reconstruction fund, a parliament spokesperson and member said, although it is unclear if the money will be forthcoming given the country’s divisions.
The budget of 69 billion Libyan dinar ($12.71 billion) will be spread equally over three years, lawmaker Tarek Jroushi told Reuters, adding that the funds will be overseen by the parliament.
Parliament spokesperson Abdullah Blheg earlier announced the approval of the budget in a post on X, without disclosing the budget amount.
The fund, established in February last year by the eastern-based House of Representatives, has independent financial status, according to the parliament gazette.
However it is unclear if the governor of the Tripoli-based Central Bank of Libya, Naji Issa, will hand over the money for the fund. The central bank, based in Tripoli, is the only internationally recognized depository for Libyan oil revenues, the country’s vital economic income.
The eastern development fund is headed by Belgasem Haftar, a son of military commander Khalifa Haftar.
The Benghazi-based government of Osama Hamad is allied to Haftar, who controls the east and large parts of the southern region of Libya.
The north African country’s separate Tripoli-based Government of National Unity is headed by interim Prime Minister Abdulhamid Al-Dbeibah, who was installed through a UN-backed process in 2021.
Bahrain elected to UN Security Council for 2026-2027 term, vows to be ‘voice for peace’
A world united in support of a Palestine state would be ‘great gift for humanity,’ says nation’s foreign minister
Bahrain dedicated to a 2-state solution to the Palestinian issue, he adds, and envisions a region free of nuclear weapons in which all peoples live side by side in peace
NEW YORK CITY: The UN General Assembly on Tuesday elected Bahrain to serve as a nonpermanent member of the UN Security Council for the term 2026-2027.
The country was elected alongside Colombia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Latvia and Liberia, all of which will serve two-year terms beginning Jan. 1, 2026.
The 15-member Security Council, which is responsible for maintaining international peace and security, consists of five permanent members — China, France, Russia, the UK and the US — plus 10 nonpermanent members elected by the General Assembly to serve staggered, two-year terms. The newly elected nations will therefore join five existing nonpermanent members whose terms conclude at the end of 2026: Denmark, Greece, Pakistan, Panama and Somalia.
The elections for nonpermanent members are conducted annually by secret ballot, with the seats distributed according to regional groupings. Candidates must secure a two-thirds majority of votes from the 193-member General Assembly to be elected.
Bahrain’s election was said to reflect the Gulf state’s expanding diplomatic profile and signal its readiness to contribute to efforts to address global and regional security challenges.
Following the announcement, the country’s foreign minister, Abdullatif bin Rashid Alzayani, expressed his gratitude and emphasized the commitment of his country to the goals of the UN.
“The results of today’s election reflect the unwavering trust and confidence member states have placed in Bahrain’s diplomatic efforts, underscoring our steadfast commitment to fostering peace, stability and collaboration on the global stage,” he told reporters in New York.
He thanked the leadership of Bahrain, including King Hamad and Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad, and the people of the country for their support, and said Bahrain aims to promote the values of dialogue, coexistence, mutual respect and consensus-building during its stint as a member of the Security Council.
“We will continue to be a voice for peace, a bridge for understanding and an advocate for solutions that resonate with the aspirations of all peoples seeking a peaceful and prosperous future,” Alzayani said.
Asked about Bahrain’s approach to regional issues, including Iran’s nuclear program, he reaffirmed his country’s commitment to support for negotiations that aim to achieve peace and security.
“The region seeks, and needs, to have peace and security,” Alzayani said. “We will work towards supporting successful negotiations and talks happening right now with the support and coordination of countries in the region.”
Bahrain envisions a region free of nuclear weapons, in which peoples of all religions and sects can live side by side in peace and prosperity, he added.
On the specific issue of the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, Alzayani stressed that his country remains dedicated to the pursuit of a two-state solution.
“Our priority is peace,” he said. “We firmly believe that the cornerstone for achieving peace in the region is resolving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.”
He called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, the release of all hostages and detainees, and humanitarian access to the territory. He also called for all parties to work toward a two-state solution that includes “a secured Israel and a viable Palestinian state.”
Bahrain will continue its diplomatic efforts to increase international recognition of Palestine and support the upcoming summit on the implementation of the two-state solution that will be co-chaired by Saudi Arabia and France, he added.
“If the world unites in supporting a peaceful, political, diplomatic solution, it will be a great gift for humanity,” Alzayani said.
