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After 14 years of destruction, Syria must be swiftly rebuilt to bring stability to the country and the wider region, a top UN official in the war-ravaged nation told AFP.Reconstruction is one of the most significant challenges facing Syria’s new Islamist authorities after the overthrow of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad last December.”The international community should definitely rush into rebuilding Syria,” Rawhi Afaghani, the UN Development Programme’s deputy representative in Syria, told AFP this week during a visit to Geneva. “Being able to help the country to rebound and come out of this war and come out of this destruction is for the Syrians themselves, but also for the stability and the good of the whole region,” he said in the interview.The Syrian civil war, which erupted in 2011 with Assad’s brutal repression of anti-government protests, killed over half a million people and devastated the country’s infrastructure.The World Bank this week estimated that Syria’s post-war reconstruction could cost up to $216 billion.Afaghani said he could not put a price tag on rebuilding Syria, but described the needs as “massive”.Across the country, he said governors had told him about the massive need for housing, schools, and health centres, as well as electricity and water.Complicating the clean-up efforts are the vast quantities of unexploded ordnance littering the entire country, including within mountains of rubble that need to be cleared, he said.- ‘Tensions’ -More than one million Syrian refugees have already returned from abroad and nearly double as many have returned to their places of origin after being displaced inside the country, UN figures show.While those returns are a good sign, Afaghani warned that they were “putting a lot of pressure on the infrastructure, on the transportation, on the education, on the bakeries”.”People are returning to destroyed houses or houses that are actually occupied by other people,” he said.Afaghani warned that the strain on infrastructure “could lead to community tensions”.At the same time, he said the lack of infrastructure, services and jobs was dissuading many Syrians who want to return home from doing so.”We thought there would be a much higher rate of return,” he acknowledged, pointing out that most of those who have returned from abroad had left often difficult conditions in neighbouring Jordan and Lebanon.From Europe, “we don’t see that massive return”, he said.Afaghani voiced hope that swift reconstruction could usher in “a stable Syria”, which in turn would draw more returns from Europe.”Those are high-skilled people — they can rebuild Syria,” he said.Those returnees, he insisted, could also “be a big, good influence in the whole region from an economic perspective, and from a peace-building perspective”.

US President Donald Trump has pardoned the convicted Binance co-founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, the White House press secretary said Thursday, accusing Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden of behaving in a “very hostile” manner toward the crypto industry.Binance was created in 2017, and swiftly became the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by volume, turning Zhao into a billionaire.Following …

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US President Donald Trump issued a stark warning to Israel over annexing the West Bank in an interview published Thursday, as visiting Secretary of State Marco Rubio voiced confidence that a US-backed ceasefire in Gaza would hold.Trump’s remarks were made to Time magazine by telephone on October 15 — just days after the Gaza truce plan he spearheaded took effect — but were only published on Thursday.”It won’t happen,” Trump said when asked about calls in Israel to annex the Palestinian West Bank, which has been occupied by Israel since 1967. “It won’t happen because I gave my word to the Arab countries.”He added: “Israel would lose all of its support from the United States if that happened.”Israeli lawmakers on Wednesday advanced two bills paving the way for West Bank annexation, leading to condemnation Thursday from US Vice President JD Vance, who was in Israel at the time and who echoed Trump’s comments.When asked on Thursday if he was concerned by the votes, Trump told reporters at the White House: “Don’t worry about the West Bank. Israel’s not going to do anything with the West Bank.”The United States remains Israel’s most important military and diplomatic supporter.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party boycotted and criticised the vote, though members of his ruling coalition support annexation.Arab and Muslim countries, which the US has been courting to provide troops and money for a stabilisation force in Gaza — a key element of Trump’s ceasefire plan — have warned that annexation of the West Bank is a red line.In a joint statement carried by Saudi state media on Thursday, more than a dozen such states including Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Turkey condemned the Israeli parliament’s vote.Rubio, one of a string of top US officials to visit Israel in recent days, had warned before his arrival that the annexation moves were “threatening” to the fragile ceasefire in Gaza.But he expressed confidence in the truce after meeting with Netanyahu on Thursday.”We feel confident and positive about the progress that’s being made. We’re clear-eyed about the challenges, too,” said Rubio, just hours after Vance wrapped up his own three-day visit.- ‘Very stupid’ -As he ended his trip, Vance hit out at the votes in Israel’s parliament in favour of examining two annexation bills, which mean they will be brought forward for further readings. “If it was a political stunt it was a very stupid political stunt and I personally take some insult to it,” Vance said.”The West Bank is not going to be annexed by Israel, the policy of the Trump administration is that the West Bank will not be annexed by Israel, that will continue to be our policy.”Netanyahu, standing next to Rubio after their meeting Thursday, was quick to avoid any suggestion of tension with Washington, calling the secretary an “extraordinary friend of Israel” and saying that the back-to-back visits were part of a “circle of trust and partnership”.Violence has surged in the West Bank since the war began in Gaza with Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack.According to the Ramallah-based Palestinian health ministry, Israeli troops and settlers have killed nearly 1,000 Palestinians, including militants and civilians, since October 2023.Over the same period, at least 43 Israelis, including members of the security forces, have died in Palestinian attacks or Israeli operations, official figures show.The Palestinian Authority exercises limited self-rule in parts of the West Bank.- ‘Tough task’ -The Gaza truce faced its toughest test on Sunday, when Israeli forces launched strikes in Gaza after two soldiers were killed. The strikes killed at least 45 Palestinians, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.Gaza’s Nasser Hospital said that one person was killed in an Israeli drone strike on Thursday in the Khan Yunis area.During his visit, Vance warned that disarming Hamas and rebuilding Gaza would be a “very, very tough task”.Under Trump’s 20-point peace plan, an international security force drawn from Arab and Muslim allies would oversee Gaza’s transition as Israeli troops withdraw.Delegations from Hamas and its rival Fatah, meanwhile, met in Egypt to discuss post-war arrangements for Gaza, Egypt’s state-linked Al-Qahera News reported on Thursday.- ‘Not enough food’ -In Gaza, civilians displaced by two years of war continued to struggle.”We were afraid of dying during the war, and now we’re afraid of living after it,” said Maher Abu Wafah, 42.”Our lives and our children’s future are slipping away before our eyes. We just want a stable life.”The World Health Organization said on Thursday there had been little improvement in the amount of aid going into Gaza since the ceasefire took hold — and no observable reduction in hunger.”The situation still remains catastrophic because what’s entering is not enough,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters, lamenting that “there is no dent in hunger because there is not enough food”.

Oil prices jumped more than five percent Thursday after US President Donald Trump targeted Russia’s key oil industry with new sanctions in a bid to end the war in Ukraine.The surge in crude prices came as major US equity indices rebounded from the prior day’s pullback after the White House confirmed a plan for Trump to …

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The company behind bringing Asian e-commerce giant Shein to a landmark Parisian department store suffered another setback Thursday as Disneyland Paris abandoned plans to open a pop-up boutique.Anger has been boiling since fast-fashion giant Shein announced earlier this month that it would open its first permanent physical store in November at BHV Marais, an iconic …

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