BEIRUT: The employment of nine staff working for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East — who were alleged by Israel to have aided Hamas in the Oct. 7 attacks — was ended in an “exceptional, swift decision” even before corroborating the allegations against them, said the agency’s chief on Friday.
UNRWA’s Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini explained that he followed a “reverse due process” in terminating the contracts, and did not probe Israel’s claims before the dismissals, reported The Guardian on Friday.
Addressing a press conference in Jerusalem, Lazzarini said: “No, the investigation is going on now,” when asked if he had probed whether there was any evidence against the staff.
“I could have suspended them, but I have fired them. And now I have an investigation, and if the investigation tells us that this was wrong, in that case at the UN we will take a decision on how to properly compensate (them),” he was quoted as saying. The termination decision was due to the explosive nature of the claims, he added.
He said the agency was already facing “fierce and ugly attacks” at a time when it was providing aid to nearly 2 million Palestinians in Gaza.
Lazzarini said: “Indeed, I have terminated without due process because I felt at the time that not only the reputation but the ability of the entire agency to continue to operate and deliver critical humanitarian assistance was at stake if I did not take such a decision.”
Discussing the allegations, the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told a press conference on Thursday: “When there were indications that Hamas had infiltrated UNRWA, I acted immediately in order to guarantee that we do whatever is necessary for UNRWA to be able to avoid any kind of infiltration by Hamas.”
According to the UN chief, the organization received allegations in relation to 12 names, and those allegations were credible.
Guterres said: “Now, if the allegations are credible, you are dealing with a high risk. And when you are dealing with a high risk, and you have rules and regulations that allow you to do so, you, I believe, should do what I did — which was to terminate immediately the contracts based on the so-called best interests of the organization, which is what the rules and regulations allow me to do.”
He elaborated that the investigation team was immediately on the ground, and added: “And if I had made any mistake, it can be corrected in the future.”
He stressed the organization could not run the risk of not acting immediately as the accusations were related to criminal activities that were dangerous.
Guterres revealed that he was surprised to read in the press that the military and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Israel were unwilling to share information with the UN.
He said: “Even worse, I read in the press that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs didn’t expect me to act. I mean, I can’t imagine that this was a trap.”
According to The Guardian’s report, the UN’s Office of Internal Oversight Services is investigating the allegations and is due to report its preliminary findings within weeks. A separate independent review of the agency’s risk management processes is being led by the former French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna.
Lazzarini said the agency was operating in a “hostile” environment and it had faced new “restrictions” since Israel’s allegations were made public.
Israeli claims against UNRWA staff were not corroborated before employment was terminated, says Lazzarini
https://arab.news/2n9uv
Israeli claims against UNRWA staff were not corroborated before employment was terminated, says Lazzarini
- Organization’s commissioner general said ‘No, the investigation is going on now,’ when asked if he had probed whether there was any evidence
- Decision to fire staff was due to the explosive nature of the claims
UAE president receives call from Syria’s new leader
- Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan affirmed that the UAE supports the Syrian people’s aspirations for security and peace
LONDON: UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan received a call from Ahmed Al-Sharaa, the leader of the new Syrian administration, on Sunday.
During the call, both sides discussed ways to enhance relations between the two countries in areas of mutual interest.
Sheikh Mohamed emphasized the UAE’s unwavering support for Syria’s independence and sovereignty over its territory, the Emirates News Agency reported.
The UAE supports the Syrian people’s aspirations for security, peace, and a dignified life, he added.
Syria destroys millions of captagon pills, other drugs
- Officials find100 million pills of the amphetamine-like stimulant captagon
- Production and trafficking of the drug flourished under ousted President Bashar Assad
DAMASCUS: Syrian security forces destroyed seized drugs Sunday including around 100 million pills of the amphetamine-like stimulant captagon — whose production and trafficking flourished under ousted president Bashar Assad, an official said.
A 2022 AFP investigation found that Syria under Assad had become a narco state, with the $10-billion captagon industry dwarfing all other exports and funding both his regime and many of his enemies.
“We destroyed large quantities of narcotic pills,” said official Badr Youssef, including “about 100 million captagon pills and 10 to 15 tons of hashish” as well as raw materials used to produce captagon.
He spoke from the Damascus headquarters of the defunct Fourth Division where the drugs were seized. The Fourth Division, a notorious branch of the Syrian army, was controlled by Assad’s brother Maher.
The official SANA news agency said “the anti-narcotics department of the (interior) ministry is destroying narcotic substances seized at the headquarters of the Fourth Division.”
An AFP photographer saw security personnel in a Fourth Division warehouse load dozens of bags filled with pills and other drugs into trucks, before taking them to a field to be burned.
On December 8, Islamist-led rebels ousted Assad after a lightning offensive that lasted less than two weeks. The army and Assad’s security apparatus collapsed as the new authorities seized control of Damascus.
On Saturday, SANA reported that authorities had seized “a huge warehouse belonging to the former regime” in the coastal city of Latakia. It said the factory “specialized in packing captagon pills into children’s toys and furniture.”
On Sunday, an AFP photographer visited the warehouse near the port and saw security personnel dismantling children’s bicycles that contained the small white pills.
Captagon pills had also been hidden inside objects such as doors, shisha water pipes and car parts, he reported.
Abu Rayyan, a security official in Latakia, said that “about 50 to 60 million captagon pills” had been seized that “belonged to the Fourth Division.”
“This is the largest such warehouse in the area,” he said.
Abu Rayyan said the drugs had been packed for export from Latakia “to neighboring countries,” and that they would be destroyed.
Syrian defense minister rejects Kurdish proposal for its own military bloc
- Defense minister aims to bring anti-Assad factions into unified command
- Kurdish SDF has proposed retaining own bloc in armed forces
DAMASCUS: Syria’s new defense minister said on Sunday it would not be right for US-backed Kurdish fighters based in the country’s northeast to retain their own bloc within the broader integrated Syrian armed forces.
Speaking to Reuters at the Defense Ministry in Damascus, Murhaf Abu Qasra said the leadership of the Kurdish fighters, known as the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), was procrastinating in its handling of the complex issue.
The SDF, which has carved out a semi-autonomous zone through 14 years of civil war, has been in talks with the new administration in Damascus led by former rebels who toppled President Bashar Assad on Dec. 8.
SDF commander Mazloum Abdi has said one of their central demands is a decentralized administration, saying in an interview with Saudi Arabia’s Asharq News channel last week that the SDF was open to integrating with the Defense Ministry but as “a military bloc,” and without dissolving.
Abu Qasra rejected that proposal on Sunday.
“We say that they would enter the Defense Ministry within the hierarchy of the Defense Ministry, and be distributed in a military way — we have no issue there,” said Abu Qasra, who was appointed defense minister on Dec. 21.
“But for them to remain a military bloc within the Defense Ministry, such a bloc within a big institution is not right.”
One of the minister’s priorities since taking office has been integrating Syria’s myriad anti-Assad factions into a unified command structure.
But doing so with the SDF has proved challenging. The US considers the group a key ally against Daesh militants, but neighboring Turkiye regards it as a national security threat.
Abu Qasra said he had met the SDF’s leaders but accused them of “procrastinating” in talks over their integration, and said incorporating them in the Defense Ministry like other ex-rebel factions was “a right of the Syrian state.”
Abu Qasra was appointed to the transitional government about two weeks after Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, the Islamist group to which he belongs, led the offensive that ousted Assad.
He said he hoped to finish the integration process, including appointing some senior military figures, by March 1, when the transitional government’s time in power is set to end.
Asked how he responded to criticism that a transitional council should not make such appointments or carry out such sweeping changes of the military infrastructure, he said “security issues” had prompted the new state to prioritize the matter.
“We are in a race against time and every day makes a difference,” he said.
The new administration was also criticized over its decision to give some foreigners, including Egyptians and Jordanians, ranks in the new military.
Abu Qasra acknowledged the decision had created a firestorm but said he was not aware of any requests to extradite any of the foreign fighters.
Aid trucks arrive at Israeli-controlled Kerem Shalom crossing ahead of Gaza entry, two sources say
CAIRO: About 200 aid delivery trucks, including 20 carrying fuel, began arriving on Sunday at the Israeli-controlled Kerem Shalom crossing ahead of entry into the Gaza Strip, two Egyptian sources told Reuters.
A ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas in Gaza took effect on Sunday morning after a nearly three-hour delay, pausing a 15-month-old war that has shaken up the Middle East.
The aid trucks were using the Kerem Shalom entry point pending completion of maintenance at the Rafah border crossing into southern Gaza from Egypt, the sources said.
Israeli hardline minister Ben-Gvir quits government over Gaza deal
- The Otzma Yehudit party is no longer part of the ruling coalition
JERUSALEM: Hardline Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and two other ministers from his nationalist-religious party have resigned from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet over the Gaza ceasefire deal, their party said on Sunday.
The Otzma Yehudit party is no longer part of the ruling coalition but has said it will not try to bring down Netanyahu’s government.
In a statement, it called the ceasefire deal a “capitulation to Hamas” and denounced what it called the “release of hundreds of murderers” and the “renouncing of the (Israeli military’s) achievements in the war” in Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu retains a slim majority in the Israeli parliament despite their resignation.
