LONDON: British Foreign Secretary David Lammy said on Monday that the UK has sent senior officials to meet with Syria’s new leadership.
It follows the fall earlier this month of the Assad regime to militants, including Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS), which has its roots in Al-Qaeda.
HTS has renounced extremism but remains proscribed as a terrorist group by several Western countries, including the UK and the United States.
“I can confirm today that we have sent a delegation of senior UK officials to Damascus this week for meetings with the new Syrian interim authorities and members of civil society groups in Syria,” he said.
Lammy added at a press conference in London that the team would reiterate Britain’s “support for the principles that have been set out — an inclusive transitional political process that is Syria-led and Syria-owned.”
The UK’s top diplomat said sending the delegation “underlines our commitment to Syria.”
Lammy also noted a weekend announcement of £50 million (60.4 million euro) in humanitarian aid for Syria, alongside funding to “help secure chemical weapons stockpiles” in the war-ravaged country.
UK sends senior officials to meet ‘interim Syrian authorities’
https://arab.news/29ajv
UK sends senior officials to meet ‘interim Syrian authorities’
- “We have sent a delegation of senior UK officials to Damascus this week for meetings with the new Syrian interim authorities,” Lammy said
Russia says Syrians must decide future of their country
Russia’s Foreign Ministry said on Monday it was up to Syrians to determine their own future and called for an “inclusive” government taking account of the country’s diverse ethnic and religious interests.
A ministry statement said Moscow was closely watching the situation more than a week after the fall of President Bashar Assad, long backed by Moscow, and as power becomes consolidated under commander Ahmed Al-Sharaa.
“We believe that the path to a sustainable normalization of the situation in Syria lies in creating an inclusive dialogue among Syrians based on achieving national accord and moving forward with the complex process of a political settlement,” the statement said. “For Russia, it is important that the future of Syria be set out by Syrians themselves. We believe that the relations of friendship and mutual respect between the peoples of our countries for decades will continue to develop constructively.”
It noted that Muslims had lived side-by-side in Syria for centuries with Christians, including the Damascus-based Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East, which has close ties with the Russian Orthodox Church.
The Kremlin said on Monday that no final decisions had yet been taken on the future of Russia’s military bases in Syria and that it was in contact with those in charge of the country.
Four Syrian officials told Reuters at the weekend that Russia was pulling back its military from the front lines in northern Syria and from posts in the Alawite Mountains but was not leaving its two main bases.
Assad, granted asylum in Russia, issued his first statement since being toppled from power, saying he was evacuated from the Hmeimim base on Dec. 8 as it came under drone attack, after leaving Damascus that morning with rebel fighters closing in.
Ukrainian PM: Russian gas transit deal will not be extended after Dec 31
- Shmyhal says Ukraine ready to discuss transit of gas from anywhere else
- Slovak PM says gas transit critical for all Europe
Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said on Monday a deal enabling the transit of Russian gas through his country would not be extended beyond the end of the year, as some European countries stepped up their search for needed supplies.
Shmyhal, writing on the Telegram messaging app after speaking to Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, said Ukraine was willing to discuss transit of gas of any origin except Russian.
“To this effect, if the European Commission officially approaches Ukraine about the transit of any gas other than Russian, we naturally will discuss it and are ready to reach an appropriate agreement,” Shmyhal said.
“I stressed that Ukraine’s agreement with Russia on gas transit comes to an end on 1st January 2025 and will not be extended.”
Shmyhal said much had already been done over the past year to ensure a sufficient supply of energy, particularly gas, to EU countries.
Ukraine, locked in a 33-month-old war with Russia, has said for months that it was unlikely the gas transit contract would be extended.
Slovakia and other countries receiving gas from Russia, transited via pipelines in Ukraine, are in talks to try to avoid those flows stopping when the agreement runs out.
Before the two prime ministers spoke, Fico had said that maintaining gas transit was not just a bilateral matter for Ukraine’s neighbors but an issue for the whole EU.
Fico said last week he aimed to secure continued eastern supplies to avoid paying more in transit fees from other suppliers. Slovakia has a long-term contract with Russian giant Gazprom.
Slovakia’s Economy Minister Denisa Sakova said earlier in Brussels that European countries and companies had a combined demand for around 15 billion cubic meters of Russian gas next year via Ukraine and were in talks to secure new supplies.
Slovakia is hoping a deal could cover gas deliveries for two or three years. The EU has set a target of stopping using Russian fossil fuels by 2027.
Moldova, Ukraine’s small ex-Soviet western neighbor, has also been in talks to secure supplies from Gazprom and, with the expiry of the transit deal imminent, is considering securing Russian gas through Turkiye, Bulgaria and Romania.
Ukrainian officials have said talks have also taken place on exploring the possibility of shipping gas from Azerbaijan to European countries via Ukraine.
Teenage shooter kills student, teacher at Wisconsin school, police say
- Police chief says shooter found dead, was student at school
- Three dead, six injured and taken to area hospitals, police say
A teenage student killed a fellow student and a teacher at a Wisconsin school on Monday before police found the suspect dead at the scene of the latest shooting to devastate a US campus, authorities said.
Police did not publicly identify any of the victims at the Abundant Life Christian School, a private institution that teaches some 400 students from kindergarten through 12th grade,
At least six other people were wounded, according to police. Two students had life-threatening injuries; four other people had non-life threatening injuries.
The shooter, who used a handgun in the attack and was a student at the school, was found dead inside the school by officers, who immediately went into the school on arrival. The shooter was not identified, including by age or by gender.
No officers fired their weapons when they responded, police said.
There was as yet no known motive for the violence, which authorities said took place in one spot inside the school. The shooter’s family was cooperating with the investigation, police said.
Earlier, police said five people were killed in the shooting, but later said that information was incorrect.
Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes, a former public school history teacher, said the shooting took place just before 11 a.m. local time.
“Today is a sad, sad day, not only for Madison, but for our entire country, where yet another police chief is doing a press conference to speak about violence in our community,” Barnes told reporters.
Barnes added: “Every child, every person in that building, is a victim, and will be a victim forever. These types of trauma don’t just go away.”
Video posted from the scene on social media showed a massive emergency response, including police, ambulance and fire vehicles.
Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway told an afternoon news conference that “we need to do better in our country and our community to prevent gun violence.”
Abundant Life Christian School wrote on its social media: “Prayers Requested! Today, we had an active shooter incident at ALCS. We are in the midst of following up. We will share information as we are able.”
Members of a Facebook group for the school’s alumni expressed horror and offered prayers. Several people began organizing a donation and gift card drive for staff members and others affected by the attack.
“It is horrifying watching this happen in a place that was safe for so many of us,” one woman, Kristen Navis, wrote. “I am praying for all, the tragedy of life lost in this manner is almost incomprehensible.”
Gun control and school safety have become major political and social issues in the US where the number of school shootings has jumped in recent years.
There have been 322 school shootings this year in the US, according to the K-12 School Shooting Database website. That is the second highest total of any year since 1966, according to that database — topped only by last year’s total of 349 such shootings.
The epidemic of shootings has afflicted public and private schools alike in urban, suburban and rural communities.
Some have taken place in Christian schools, though far more have taken place at public schools. In March 2023, a former student at Covenant School, a private academy in Nashville, killed three children and three adults before being shot dead by law enforcement officers.
Earlier this month, two students aged 5 and 6 were shot at Feather River Adventist School near Oroville, California, by a gunman who later died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
The White House said President Joe Biden had been briefed on the shooting, and White House officials were in touch with local officials in Madison to provide any support needed.
Canada deputy PM quits in tariff rift with Trudeau
- Trudeau flew to Florida last month to dine with Trump at Mar-a-Lago and try to head off the tariff threat, but nothing yet indicates Trump is changing his position
OTTAWA: Canada's Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland quit Monday in a surprise move after disagreeing with Justin Trudeau over US President-elect Donald Trump's tariff threats.
The resignation of Freeland, 56, who also stepped down as finance minister, marked the first open dissent against Prime Minister Trudeau from within his cabinet, and may threaten his hold on power.
Liberal leader Trudeau lags 20 points in polls behind his main rival, Conservative Pierre Poilievre, who has tried three times since September to topple the government and force a snap election.
"Our country today faces a grave challenge," Freeland said in her resignation letter to Trudeau, pointing to Trump's planned 25 percent tariffs on Canadian imports.
"For the past number of weeks, you and I have found ourselves at odds about the best path forward for Canada."
First elected to parliament in 2013, the former journalist joined Trudeau's cabinet two years later when the Liberals swept to power, holding key posts including trade and foreign minister, and leading free trade negotiations with the EU and the United States.
Most recently, Freeland had been tasked with helping lead Canada's response to the incoming Trump administration. As the first woman to hold the nation's purse strings, she had also been tipped as a possible successor to Trudeau.
Canada's main trading partner is the United States, with 75 percent of its exports each year going to its southern neighbor.
Trudeau flew to Florida last month to dine with Trump at Mar-a-Lago and try to head off the tariff threat, but nothing yet indicates Trump is changing his position.
In her resignation letter, Freeland said Trudeau wanted to shuffle her to another job, to which she replied: "I have concluded that the only honest and viable path is for me to resign from the cabinet."
She said the country needed to take Trump's tariffs threats "extremely seriously."
Warning that it could lead to a "tariff war" with the United States, she said Ottawa must keep its "fiscal powder dry."
"That means eschewing costly political gimmicks, which we can ill afford," she said, in an apparent rebuke of a recent sales tax holiday that critics said was costly and aimed at bolstering the ruling Liberals' sagging political fortunes.
Dalhousie University professor Lori Turnbull called Freeland's exit "a total disaster."
"It really shows that there is a crisis of confidence in Trudeau," she said. "And makes it much harder for Trudeau to continue as prime minister."
Until now, the cabinet has rallied around Trudeau as he faced pockets of dissent from backbench MPs, noted Genevieve Tellier, a professor at the University of Ottawa.
But Freeland's rejection of his economic policies poses "a big problem," she said, and shows his team is not as united behind him as some thought.
One by one, ministers trickled out of a cabinet meeting Monday past a gauntlet or reporters shouting questions. Some shouted back that they had "confidence in the prime minister," but most, looking solemn, said nothing.
Freeland's departure came just hours before she was scheduled to provide an update on the nation's finances, amid reports the government would blow past Freeland's deficit projections last spring.
"We simply cannot go on like this," Poilievre said. "The government is spiraling out of control... at the very worst time."
Housing Minister Sean Fraser, who also announced Monday he was quitting federal politics, described Freeland as "professional and supportive."
One of her closest friends and allies in cabinet, Anita Anand, told reporters: "This news has hit me really hard."
Freeland said she would run for reelection in the country's next parliamentary polls. A vote is scheduled to be held in October 2025 at the latest, but most analysts believe it will come sooner.
Trudeau has indicated that he plans to lead the Liberals into the next election.
Some local media suggested he might step down after Freeland's exit, but his office flatly rejected the reports as "absolutely not accurate."
Trump says Turkiye holds the key to Syria’s future
- Asked what he will do with those troops, Trump was vague, pointing instead to the strength of Turkiye’s military and highlighting his relationship with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan
PALM BEACH, Florida: US President-elect Donald Trump said on Monday that Turkiye will “hold the key” to what happens in Syria, where rebels backed by Ankara toppled the government of Bashar Assad earlier this month.
Making his first comments on how he views the NATO ally’s role in post-conflict Syria, Trump praised what he described as Turkiye’s “major military force” that he said “has not been worn out with war.”
By supporting the rebels, “Turkiye did an unfriendly takeover without a lot of lives being lost,” Trump told a press conference at his residence in Palm Beach, Florida.
“Right now, Syria has a lot of, you know, there’s a lot of indefinites ... I think Turkiye is going to hold the key to Syria,” Trump said.
Turkiye, which controls swathes of land in northern Syria after several cross-border incursions against the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, was a main backer of opposition groups aiming to topple Assad, who was backed by Iran and Russia, since the outbreak of the civil war in 2011.
Since Assad’s ouster, Washington and Ankara have held talks on countering any resurgence of Daesh militants in Syria. Washington has kept an estimated 900 troops in eastern Syria as a hedge against the militants.
Asked what he will do with those troops, Trump was vague, pointing instead to the strength of Turkiye’s military and highlighting his relationship with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan.
“Erdogan is somebody I got along with great ... He’s built a very strong, powerful army,” Trump said.
Appearing to allude to Turkiye’s Ottoman past, which included control over modern day Syria, Trump added: “They’ve wanted it for thousands of years, and he got it, and those people that went in are controlled by Turkiye, and that’s OK.”
