ROME: As the US works on its military withdrawal from Afghanistan, members of the global coalition fighting the Daesh group met Monday to plot future steps against the extremist group.
The meeting came just a day after the US launched airstrikes against Iran-backed militias near the Iraq-Syria border.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio were co-chairing the gathering of senior officials from the seven-year-old, 83-member bloc. Participants were taking stock of their current efforts to ensure the complete defeat of IS, whose remnants still pose a threat in Iraq and Syria and have shown signs of surging in parts of Africa.
Amid significant other international priorities, including taming the coronavirus pandemic and stepping up the fight against climate change, the coalition is hoping to stabilize areas liberated from IS, repatriate and hold foreign fighters accountable for their actions and combat extremist messaging.
Blinken and Di Maio urged representatives of the 77 other countries and five organizations that make up the coalition not to drop their guard despite the destruction of the extremist group’s hold over broad swaths of territory in Iraq and Syria.
“Daesh can still be a threat and attract support,” Di Maio said. He appealed for special attention to be paid to Africa, notably in the Sahel region, where IS is gaining traction and called for the coalition to create a special mechanism to deal with that threat.
Blinken noted that despite their defeat, IS elements in Iraq and Syria “still aspire to conduct large-scale attacks.”
“Together, we must stay as committed to our stabilization goals as we did to our military campaign that resulted in victory on the battlefield,” he said.
Blinken announced a new US contribution of $436 million to assist displaced people in Syria and surrounding countries and called for a new effort to repatriate and rehabilitate or prosecute some 10,000 IS fighters who remain imprisoned by the Syrian Defense Forces.
“This situation is simply untenable,” Blinken said. “It just can’t persist indefinitely.”
He also announced sanctions against Ousmane Illiassou Djibo, a native of Niger, who is a key leader of the Daesh affiliate in the greater Sahara. Djibo was designated a global terrorist, meaning that any assets he may have in the US are frozen and Americans are barred from any transactions with him.
Monday’s meeting was the first the coalition has had at a senior level that has been held in-person since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
In addition to the meeting on IS, foreign ministers of countries concerned with the broader conflict in Syria were to meet in Rome on Monday ahead of a critical vote at the United Nations on whether to maintain a humanitarian aid corridor from Turkey. Russia has resisted reauthorizing the channel amid stalled peace talks between the Syrian government and rebel groups.
Last week, the UN special envoy for Syria, Geir Pederson, said there were worrying signs that Daesh may be getting stronger in the country and called for a boost in cooperation to counter it. Pederson has also joined calls for new international talks on ending Syria’s civil war.
Since the Syrian conflict erupted in March 2011, numerous high-level gatherings aimed at ending the fighting and guiding the country to a political transition have failed to have any lasting impact.
The UN, US, Russia and many other countries support a December 2015 Security Council resolution endorsing a road map to peace in Syria that calls for a new constitution followed by UN-supervised elections.
Nations chart future steps against Daesh extremists
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Nations chart future steps against Daesh extremists
- US Secretary of State Antony Blinken noted that despite their defeat, Daesh elements in Iraq and Syria “still aspire to conduct large-scale attacks"
In Blinken call, Turkiye backs moves to ease Syria tension
- The flareup has also seen pro-Turkish militants groups attacking both government forces and Kurdish YPG fighters in and around the northern Aleppo province over the weekend, a Syrian war monitor said
ISTANBUL: Turkiye’s top diplomat and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke Sunday about the “rapidly developing” conflict in Syria where militants have made gains.
Blinken and Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan discussed by telephone “the need for de-escalation and the protection of civilian lives and infrastructure in Aleppo and elsewhere,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement.
The call came after Syrian militants and their Turkish-backed allies launched their biggest offensive in years, seizing control of Syria’s second-largest city Aleppo from forces loyal to President Bashar Assad.
According to a Turkish foreign ministry source, Fidan told Blinken Ankara was “against any development that would increase instability in the region” and said Turkiye would “support moves to reduce the tension in Syria.”
He also said “the political process between the regime and the opposition should be finalized” to ensure peace in Syria while insisting that Ankara would “never allow terrorist activities against Turkiye nor against Syrian civilians.”
The flareup has also seen pro-Turkish militant groups attacking government forces and Kurdish People’s Defense Units (YPG) fighters in and around Aleppo, a Syrian war monitor said.
Turkiye sees the YPG as an offshoot of the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has led a decades-long insurgency against Ankara.
The Syria offensive began Wednesday, the same day a truce between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah came into effect.
More than 400 people have so far been killed in the offensive, most of them combatants, a Syrian war monitor said.
The State Department said the two also discussed “humanitarian efforts in Gaza and the need to bring the war to an end” as well as efforts to secure the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas.
Fidan said Israel “should keep its promises in order for the Lebanon ceasefire to become permanent” and called for a ceasefire in Gaza “as soon as possible.”
The pair also discussed Ukraine and South Caucasus, the source said.
Russia says helping Syrian army ‘repel’ insurgents in three northern provinces
- Russia launched airstrikes on militant targets in Aleppo for the first time since 2016
MOSCOW: Russia on Sunday said it was helping the Syrian army “repel” armed insurgents in three northern provinces, as Moscow seeks to support the government led by its ally Bashar al-Assad.
An Islamist-dominated militant alliance launched an offensive against the Syrian government on Wednesday, with Syrian forces losing control of the city of Aleppo on Sunday, according to a war monitor.
“The Syrian Arab Army, with the assistance of the Russian Aerospace Forces, is continuing its operation to repel terrorist aggression in the provinces of Idlib, Hama and Aleppo,” the Russian military said in a briefing on its website.
“Over the past day, missile and bombing strikes were carried out on places where militants and equipment were gathered,” it said in the same briefing, without saying where or by whom.
It said at least “320 militants were destroyed.”
Russia announced earlier this week that it was bombing militant targets in the war-torn country, with Russian warplanes striking parts of Aleppo — Syria’s second city — for the first time since 2016, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Moscow is Syrian leader Assad’s most important military backer, having turned the tide of the civil war in his favor when it intervened in 2015.
Jordanian, Iraqi FMs discuss Gaza, Syria conflicts
- The ministers urged the international community to take “effective and immediate” measures to address Palestinian crisis
AMMAN: Jordan’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Ayman Safadi spoke on the phone with Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein on Sunday to discuss strengthening bilateral ties and addressing pressing regional issues, Jordan News Agency reported.
According to a statement from Jordan’s Foreign Ministry, they stressed the urgency of halting Israel’s aggression in Gaza and ensuring the swift and comprehensive delivery of humanitarian aid to the Palestinian territory.
The ministers urged the international community to take “effective and immediate” measures to address the crisis, Jordan News Agency reported.
They also expressed concern over the conflict in Syria, emphasizing the importance of a political resolution that ensures the country’s stability, territorial integrity and sovereignty while safeguarding its citizens and eliminating terrorism.
Safadi and Hussein reaffirmed their commitment to ongoing communication and coordination to address regional challenges.
Bleak Christmas in Bethlehem as families quit West Bank
- Tourists usually pour in, but Gaza war keeps them away; locals look to emigrate as situation worsens
WEST BANK: For a second year running, there is no Christmas cheer in Bethlehem, with tourists shunning the Palestinian city and many residents seeking a way out as the Gaza war grinds on.
Bethlehem’s Manger Square in front of the Church of the Nativity is largely deserted and souvenir shops are shuttered.
Once again, there are no plans to put up the traditional light-festooned Christmas Tree in the ancient settlement that is venerated by Christians as the birthplace of Jesus and now sits in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
“During these difficult times that our Palestinian cities are going through, especially in the Gaza Strip, it is difficult to show any signs of joy and happiness,” said Issa Thaljieh, an Orthodox priest who ministers at the Nativity Church.
Adding to the gloom, many local Christian families are also looking to escape, demoralized by both the tourist slump that has ravaged their economy, and the constant threat of violence hovering over the territory northeast of Gaza.
HIGHLIGHTS
• Once again, there are no plans to put up the traditional light-festooned Christmas Tree in the ancient settlement.
• Adding to the gloom, many local Christian families are also looking to escape, demoralized by both the tourist slump that has ravaged their economy.
“The emigration out of Bethlehem is increasing daily and monthly, and ... this has a negative impact on the city,” Thaljieh said.
Christian communities have been in decline across the Middle East for generations, and the West Bank is no exception.
In the last year of British rule over the region in 1947, some 85 percent of Bethlehem’s population were Christian. As of a 2017 census, the overall population of Bethlehem was 215,514 with only 23,000 Christians among them. That puts the percentage of Christians in Bethlehem in 2017 at around 10 percent.
Locals say the rate of departure has been gathering steam in recent months in the cradle of Christianity, with the economic lifeblood of the city no longer flowing and the Israeli occupation preventing freedom of movement around the territory.
Bethlehem resident Alaa Afteem, who runs a falafel restaurant, said one of his cousins had recently moved to Australia.
“Due to the bad living conditions and bad financial conditions, people have started looking for better opportunities for their children, for better education, for a better future,” he said.
Israel has built Jewish settlements, deemed illegal by most countries, across the territory. Israel disputes this, citing historical ties to the land. Several of its ministers live in settlements and favor their expansion.
Violence has surged across the hilly land since the start of the Hamas-Israel war in Gaza in October last year.
Hundreds of Palestinians — including armed fighters, stone-throwing youths and civilian bystanders — have died in clashes with Israeli security forces, while dozens of Israelis have been killed in Palestinian attacks, Israeli authorities say.
Difficult at the best of times, travel between West Bank cities has become increasingly fraught.
“There is no security if you are commuting between districts within the West Bank like between Bethlehem, Ramallah, Jericho, Hebron,” Afteem said.
Munther Isaac, a pastor at Bethlehem’s Lutheran Church, says local Muslim families have also been emigrating, squeezed by both financial problems and broader worries about the future.
“There is the fear that this war might extend to areas in the West Bank, especially after the arming of the settlers and the announcement of the possible annexation of the West Bank,” he said.
The West Bank has been transformed by the rapid growth of Jewish settlements over the past two years, with strident settlers pushing to impose Israeli sovereignty on the area.
Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said on X in October that since the start of the Gaza conflict more than 120,000 firearms had been distributed to Israeli settlers to protect themselves.
In Isaac’s church, the nativity scene has a figure of the baby Jesus lying in a pile of rubble. “We feel that this war will never end,” he said.
Jordan’s crown prince, Princess Rajwa visit speech therapy center in Amman
- Royal couple briefed on facility’s services
AMMAN: Jordan’s Crown Prince Hussein bin Abdullah, and Princess Rajwa Al-Hussein on Sunday visited the Seeds of Hope Center in Amman, which specializes in treating speech and language disorders in children and adults.
The royal couple, who welcomed their first child this year, toured the facility, which houses Jordan’s only space designed to provide multi-sensory experiences aimed at promoting relaxation and sensory integration. The visit also included a look at the center’s gym which is tailored to improve therapy outcomes for patients, the Jordan News Agency reported.
Aya Al-Jazi, the center’s director, briefed the couple on the facility’s services, which include evaluation and treatment of speech, language, and voice disorders, as well as support for swallowing difficulties.
Rehabilitation services are complemented by educational workshops and training programs for caregivers, schools, medical staff, and students.
The Seeds of Hope Center also leads social media awareness campaigns on hearing, speech, and rehabilitation sciences, aiming to foster deeper understanding.
The facility stresses practical skill-building and offers activities in art, cooking, and movement to help individuals of all ages develop independence and contribute actively to society.
The crown prince and princess thanked the center’s staff for their work in empowering individuals through specialized care and community-focused initiatives.
