AFP Asia Business

Syria’s President Ahmed al-Sharaa arrived in the United States on Saturday for a landmark official visit, his country’s state news agency reported, a day after Washington removed him from a terrorism blacklist.Sharaa, whose rebel forces ousted longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad late last year, is due to meet US President Donald Trump at the White House on Monday.It’s the first such visit by a Syrian president since the country’s independence in 1946, according to analysts.The interim leader met Trump for the first time in Riyadh during the US president’s regional tour in May.US envoy to Syria Tom Barrack said earlier this month that Sharaa would “hopefully” sign an agreement to join the international US-led alliance against the Islamic State (IS).The United States plans to establish a military base near Damascus “to coordinate humanitarian aid and observe developments between Syria and Israel”, a diplomatic source in Syria told AFP.The State Department’s decision Friday to remove Sharaa from the blacklist was widely expected.State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said Sharaa’s government had been meeting US demands including on working to find missing Americans and on eliminating any remaining chemical weapons.”These actions are being taken in recognition of the progress demonstrated by the Syrian leadership after the departure of Bashar al-Assad and more than 50 years of repression under the Assad regime,” Pigott said. The spokesman added that the US delisting would promote “regional security and stability as well as an inclusive, Syrian-led and Syrian-owned political process.”- Transformation -Sharaa’s Washington trip comes after his landmark visit to the United Nations in September — his first time on US soil — where the ex-jihadist became the first Syrian president in decades to address the UN General Assembly in New York.On Thursday, Washington led a vote by the Security Council to remove UN sanctions against him.Formerly affiliated with Al-Qaeda, Sharaa’s group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), was delisted as a terrorist group by Washington as recently as July.Since taking power, Syria’s new leaders have sought to break from their violent past and present a moderate image more tolerable to ordinary Syrians and foreign powers.The White House visit “is further testament to the US commitment to the new Syria and a hugely symbolic moment for the country’s new leader, who thus marks another step in his astonishing transformation from militant leader to global statesman,” International Crisis Group US program director Michael Hanna said.Sharaa is expected to seek funds for Syria, which faces significant challenges in rebuilding after 13 years of brutal civil war.In October, the World Bank put a “conservative best estimate” of the cost of rebuilding Syria at $216 billion. 

Israel identified on Saturday the latest hostage remains sent back from Gaza by Palestinian militants, leaving only five more bodies to be returned under the US-brokered truce that halted the two-year war.  The Israeli military identified the body handed over on Friday as that of volunteer ambulance driver Lior Rudaeff, who was killed in the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack that triggered the Gaza war.The Israeli-Argentinian was 61 at the time of the bloody cross-border attack and one of five armed civilians killed while trying to defend his community, the Nir Yitzhak kibbutz. His death was confirmed by Israeli authorities in May 2024 and his name was put on the list of 20 living and 28 dead former hostages that Hamas agreed to return under the terms of the October ceasefire.The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, a campaign group representing the Israeli families caught up in the crisis, welcomed Rudaeff’s homecoming.”Lior’s return provides some measure of comfort to a family that has lived with agonising uncertainty and doubt for over two years,” it said. “We will not rest until the last hostage is brought home.”Five more bodies remain to be returned — those of three Israelis and one Thai national seized in the October 7 attack, and that of Israeli officer Hadar Goldin, who died in combat in 2014 during a previous Gaza conflict.- ‘Bringing back Hadar’ -Several Israeli networks, including Channel 12, cited Hamas sources in reporting that the group had recovered Goldin’s remains in a tunnel in a part of the southern city of Rafah under Israeli army control.Hamas has issued no official comment.Israel’s military chief Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir met with Goldin’s family on Saturday and “updated them on the information known to the IDF so far”, the military said, without specifying what the information was.Zamir “emphasised his commitment and the IDF’s commitment to bringing back Hadar and all the fallen hostages”, it added.At the start of the truce last month, Hamas quickly returned 20 surviving hostages and Israel released hundreds of Palestinian detainees.Under the stark mathematics of the ceasefire deal, for every dead Israeli hostage returned the bodies of 15 slain Palestinians are handed back.Accordingly, on Saturday the Nasser Medical Centre in Khan Yunis announced the “arrival of the bodies of 15 martyrs from the Gaza Strip which had been held” by Israel — bringing the number returned to 300.The Palestinian bodies were returned to the hospital by the Red Cross, as in previous transfers. The Palestinian remains have been returned unidentified and many have been consigned to mass graves. Gaza’s health ministry, which operates under Hamas authority, said that among the 300 bodies received, only 89 have been identified so far.The 15 received on Saturday “had gunshot wounds… and signs suggesting injuries caused by explosions”, said Ahmed Dhair, head of a committee to receive the bodies.AFP footage showed medics at Nasser Medical Centre bringing the corpses in large white body bags.- ‘Every last one’ -Israel has accused Hamas of dragging its feet in returning the bodies of deceased hostages, while the Palestinian group says the process is slow because many are buried beneath Gaza’s bombed-out rubble.The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu once again demanded that Hamas “uphold its commitments” and return the last five bodies.”We will not compromise on this and will spare no effort until we return all of the deceased hostages, every last one of them,” it said.Hamas’s October 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures. The Israeli military’s retaliatory campaign has since killed 69,169 Palestinians, also mostly civilians, according to Gaza’s health ministry.The ministry, whose figures are considered reliable by the UN, does not specify the number of fighters killed within this total.According to the Israeli army, 479 soldiers have been killed in the campaign in Gaza since the start of the ground offensive at the end of October 2023.

Israel identified on Saturday the latest hostage remains sent back from Gaza by Palestinian militants, leaving only five more bodies to be returned under the US-brokered truce that halted the two-year war.  The Israeli military identified the body handed over on Friday as that of volunteer ambulance driver Lior Rudaeff, who was killed in the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack that triggered the Gaza war.The Israeli-Argentinian was 61 at the time of the bloody cross-border assault and one of five armed civilians killed while trying to defend his community, the Nir Yitzhak kibbutz. His death was confirmed by Israeli authorities in May 2024 and his name was put on the list of 20 living and 28 dead former hostages that Hamas agreed to return under the terms of the October ceasefire.Five more bodies remain to be returned: four seized in the October 7 attack — three Israelis and one Thai — as well as the remains of a soldier who died in combat in 2014 during a previous Gaza conflict.The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, a campaign group representing the Israeli families caught up in the crisis, welcomed Rudaeff’s homecoming.”Lior’s return provides some measure of comfort to a family that has lived with agonising uncertainty and doubt for over two years,” it said. “We will not rest until the last hostage is brought home.”The first phase of the Gaza ceasefire deal brokered last month by US President Donald Trump paved the way for a hostage and prisoner exchange.- Bombed out rubble -Hamas quickly returned 20 surviving hostages and Israel released hundreds of Palestinian detainees.Under the stark mathematics of the ceasefire plan, for every Israeli hostage returned the bodies of 15 slain Palestinians will be handed back.Accordingly, on Saturday the Nasser Medical Centre in Khan Yunis announced the “arrival of the bodies of 15 martyrs from the Gaza strip which had been held” by Israel — bringing the number returned to 300.The Palestinian bodies were returned to the hospital by the Red Cross, as in previous transfers. The Palestinian remains have been returned unidentified and many have been consigned to mass graves. Israel has accused Hamas of dragging its feet in returning the bodies of deceased hostages, while the Palestinian group says the process is slow because many are buried beneath Gaza’s bombed-out rubble.The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu once again demanded Hamas “uphold its commitments” and return the last five bodies.”We will not compromise on this and will spare no effort until we return all of the deceased hostages, every last one of them,” it said.- Mostly civilians -Hamas’s October 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures. The Israeli military’s retaliatory campaign has since killed 69,169 Palestinians, again mostly civilians, according to Gaza’s health ministry, which operates under Hamas authority.  The ministry, whose figures are considered reliable by the UN, does not specify the number of fighters killed within this total.According to the Israeli army, 479 soldiers have been killed in the campaign on Gaza since the start of the ground offensive at the end of October 2023.