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French magistrates this summer issued a new arrest warrant against ousted Syrian president Bashar al-Assad over deadly chemical attacks in 2013, a judicial source said on Thursday.This means France has now put out three separate arrest warrants against the former dictator exiled in Russia, who ruled Syria from 2000 until he was toppled last year after more than 14 years of devastating civil war.French investigators have since 2021 been looking into suspected Syrian government chemical attacks on Adra and Douma outside Damascus on August 4-5, 2013, and in Eastern Ghouta on August 21.Around 450 people were hurt in the first attack, while American intelligence says over 1,000 were killed with sarin nerve gas in East Ghouta, a suburb of Syrian capital Damascus.Magistrates had in 2023 issued an arrest warrant in the chemical attacks case while Assad was still president, but the country’s highest court in July annulled it over it being ordered while his presidential immunity still applied.This new arrest warrant issued after his fall from power replaces the previous one. It accuses him of complicity in crimes against humanity and complicity in war crimes in the chemical attack case.Also in the same case, magistrates issued a warrant against Talal Makhlouf, the former commander of the Syrian Republican Guard’s 105th Brigade, the judicial source said.Assad and his family fled to Russia, according to Russian authorities, after Islamist-led fighters seized power on December 8.Two other French warrants are already out for Assad’s arrest.One was issued in January for suspected complicity in war crimes for a bombing in the Syrian city of Deraa in 2017 whose victims included a French-Syrian civilian.And another was issued in August over the bombardment of a press centre in the rebel-held city in 2012 that killed two journalists.Marie Colvin, 56, an American working for The Sunday Times of Britain, and French photographer Remi Ochlik, 28, were killed on February 22, 2012 by the explosion in the eastern city of Homs, which is being investigated by the French judiciary as a potential crime against humanity as well as a war crime.Ahead of Syria’s new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa visiting Russia last week, a Syrian government official told AFP that the new president would ask President Vladimir Putin to hand over Assad.But after the meeting neither Sharaa nor Putin publicly mentioned extraditing Assad, who Russia says it is protecting on “humanitarian grounds”.Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov confirmed early last week that the ousted Syrian leader was still living in Moscow.The Syrian civil war, which erupted in 2011 with Assad’s brutal repression of anti-government protests, killed over half a million people.

US Vice President JD Vance said Thursday that Israel would not move to annex the occupied West Bank, after Washington warned that such a step could jeopardise a fragile US-brokered truce in Gaza.Israeli lawmakers on Wednesday advanced two bills paving the way for West Bank annexation, days after President Donald Trump secured a ceasefire deal aimed at ending Israel’s two-year offensive in Gaza, launched after Hamas’s October 2023 attacks.”If it was a political stunt it was a very stupid political stunt and I personally take some insult to it,” Vance said, as he wrapped up his three-day visit to Israel.”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.”The vote was boycotted and criticised by Likud, the right-wing party of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, although far-right members of his ruling coalition support annexation.Ahead of his arrival later on Thursday, Washington’s top diplomat, Marco Rubio, warned that annexation moves risked undermining the fragile ceasefire in Gaza.He said they were “threatening for the peace deal,” as he boarded a plane for Israel.”At this time, it’s something that we… think might be counterproductive,” Rubio said.Asked about increased violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank, Rubio said: “We’re concerned about anything that threatens to destabilise what we’ve worked on.”- Red line -Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967, and violence there has surged since the start of the war in Gaza.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 been killed in Palestinian attacks or Israeli operations, official figures show.The United States remains Israel’s primary military and diplomatic supporter, and Rubio until recently had steered clear of criticising annexation moves championed by Netanyahu’s far-right allies.But a number of Arab and Muslim countries, which Washington has been courting in a bid to provide troops and money for a stabilisation force in Gaza, have warned that the West Bank’s annexation was a red line.Hamas’s moderate rivals in the Palestinian Authority exercise limited self-rule in parts of the West Bank.- Daily threats to truce -Rubio is the latest in a string of top US officials to visit Israel to shore up the ceasefire, which he said would face challenges.”Every day there’ll be threats to it, but I actually think we’re ahead of schedule in terms of bringing it together, and the fact that we made it through this weekend is a good sign,” Rubio said.He continued, “now we have to make sure that it continues and that we continue to build upon it.”The 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.The Israeli military told AFP that it conducted a strike that killed a “terrorist who was approaching troops” after crossing the yellow line — where troops are stationed.During his visit, Vance warned that disarming Hamas while rebuilding Gaza would be a challenge.”We have a very, very tough task ahead of us, which is to disarm Hamas but rebuild Gaza, to make life better for the people of Gaza, but also to ensure that Hamas is no longer a threat to our friends in Israel,” Vance said Wednesday.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.US troops would not be deployed inside Gaza.- ‘Children’s future slipping away’ -In a briefing, Foreign Minister Gideon Saar accused Hamas of delaying the return of remaining hostage bodies “in order to delay the second phase of laying down its arms”.The group says it needs time to recover them from under the rubble of the Gaza Strip.In the Palestinian territory, 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.”A senior UN official warned Wednesday of “generational” impacts in Gaza from malnutrition among pregnant women and babies, urging a surge of aid to help prevent potential lifelong health issues.Andrew Saberton, deputy executive director of the UN Population Fund, said 11,500 pregnant women face “catastrophic” conditions, with starvation posing severe risks to both mothers and newborns.

Saudi Arabia has appointed a conservative cleric in his nineties as its top religious leader, state media said, sticking with tradition even as rapid social changes upend the previously cloistered kingdom.Sheikh Saleh bin Fawzan bin Abdullah Al-Fawzan was named the grand mufti of Saudi Arabia by royal decree, the official SPA news agency reported late on Wednesday.Fawzan, who has made controversial comments on child marriage and minority Shiite Muslims, succeeds the conservative Abdulaziz al-Sheikh, who died in September after more than 20 years in the role.In 2011, Fawzan publicly opposed a minimum age for marriage, after the justice ministry moved to stamp out the practice of marrying off pre-pubescent girls.In 2017, Human Rights Watch cited the Sunni cleric as calling Shiite Muslims “brothers of Satan” in a recorded question-and-answer session.He was appointed on the recommendation of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto Saudi ruler who has ushered in sweeping reforms in a bid to diversify the economy of the world’s biggest oil exporter.Saudi Arabia is the birthplace of Islam and is home to its holiest sites, including the Kaaba at Mecca’s Grand Mosque — the black cubic structure that Muslims worldwide pray towards each day.However, the deeply conservative kingdom has sought to modernise since Prince Mohammed was appointed heir to the throne by his father King Salman, now 89, in 2017.Under his direction, the power of Saudi Arabia’s influential clerics has diminished and the once-feared morality police have been muzzled.Many women now forgo veils and head-coverings in urban centres, non-Muslim tourists are allowed, and since 2018, women can legally drive.Despite these changes, in a country where 69 percent of the Saudi population is aged under 35, Fawzan’s nomination is not surprising, said Umar Karim, a Saudi policy expert at the University of Birmingham in England.It is in line with “the established Saudi religious policy of selecting the most senior and well respected alim (religious scholar) within the council as the successor”, Karim told AFP.”While the social atmosphere has changed and is changing, the modalities of the religious field and its workings remain the same,” he added.”The revolutionary changes which have defined Saudi statecraft of past several years don’t impinge upon the hierarchy of religious establishment even if its composition has been altered slowly,” Karim said.

Top US diplomat Marco Rubio warned that Israel’s moves towards annexing the occupied West Bank risked undermining a fragile US-brokered truce in Gaza, as he headed to Israel on Thursday.Israeli lawmakers on Wednesday advanced two bills paving the way for West Bank annexation, days after President Donald Trump secured a ceasefire deal aimed at ending Israel’s two-year offensive in Gaza, launched after Hamas’s October 2023 attacks.”I think the president’s made clear that’s not something we can be supportive of right now,” Rubio said of annexation as he boarded his plane for a visit to Israel.Annexation moves are “threatening for the peace deal,” he told reporters, acknowledging the Israeli lawmakers’ latest steps.”At this time, it’s something that we… think might be counterproductive,” Rubio said.Asked about increased violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank, Rubio said: “We’re concerned about anything that threatens to destabilise what we’ve worked on.”Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967, and violence there has surged since the start of the war in Gaza.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 been killed in Palestinian attacks or Israeli operations, official figures show.The United States remains the primary military and diplomatic supporter of Israel, and Rubio until recently had steered clear of criticising annexation moves championed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right allies.But a number of Arab and Muslim countries, which Washington has been courting in a bid to provide troops and money for a stabilisation force in Gaza, have warned that annexation of the West Bank was a red line.Hamas’s moderate rivals in the Palestinian Authority exercise limited self-rule in parts of the West Bank.- Daily threats to truce -Rubio is the latest in a string of top US officials to visit Israel to shore up the ceasefire, following Vice President JD Vance, who was due to conclude his own trip later on Thursday.Rubio did not rule out that the ceasefire would face threats.”Every day there’ll be threats to it, but I actually think we’re ahead of schedule in terms of bringing it together, and the fact that we made it through this weekend is a good sign,” Rubio said.”This was a historic peace deal that President Trump delivered on, and now we have to make sure that it continues and that we continue to build upon it.”The truce faced its toughest test 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.Witnesses reported artillery fire in Khan Yunis on Thursday but no casualties.During his visit, Vance warned that disarming Hamas while rebuilding Gaza would be a challenge.”We have a very, very tough task ahead of us, which is to disarm Hamas but rebuild Gaza, to make life better for the people of Gaza, but also to ensure that Hamas is no longer a threat to our friends in Israel,” Vance said Wednesday.The vice president inaugurated the new Civil-Military Coordination Centre (CMCC) in southern Israel, where US and allied forces will work with Israeli counterparts to monitor the truce and coordinate aid deliveries.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.The force would not have US troops deployed inside Gaza.Netanyahu, facing criticism from his far-right allies for accepting the ceasefire before Hamas was destroyed, defended the agreement, calling it a success that “put the knife up to Hamas’s throat” while isolating the group regionally.- ‘Children’s future slipping away’ -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.”As the US diplomatic visits continued, the International Court of Justice issued an advisory opinion urging Israel to ensure Palestinians’ access to essential goods and humanitarian aid.Israel dismissed the ruling as a “political attempt” to pressure it under the guise of law.A senior UN official warned Wednesday of “generational” impacts in Gaza from malnutrition among pregnant women and babies, urging a surge of aid to help prevent potential lifelong health issues.Andrew Saberton, deputy executive director of the UN Population Fund, said 11,500 pregnant women face “catastrophic” conditions, with starvation posing severe risks to both mothers and newborns.

Indonesia vowed Thursday to play an “active role” in global sports after the IOC urged federations not to stage events there following the country’s ban on Israeli gymnasts.The International Olympic Committee’s executive board said Wednesday it would “recommend to all international federations not to host any international sports events or meetings in Indonesia” until it provided guarantees over access for all participants in competitions.The board said it also ended dialogue with the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation on hosting any future Olympic events.It came after Indonesia denied visas for Israelis to compete at the on-going world artistic gymnastics championships in Jakarta, citing support for the Palestinians.In a show of defiance, Sports and Youth Minister Erick Thohir said Thursday that Jakarta was aware its ban on Israelis “carries consequences”.But he wrote on X: “Indonesia will continue to play an active role in various sports events at the Southeast Asian, Asian and global levels, so that Indonesian sports can serve as an ambassador and a reflection of the nation’s strength in the eyes of the world.”We… adhere to the principle of maintaining security, public order and public interest in every international event organised.””On that basis, Indonesia has taken steps to avoid the arrival of the Israeli delegation at the Gymnastics World Championships.”Indonesia’s National Olympic Committee declined to comment on the IOC move because it said discussions were ongoing.Israel’s gymnastics federation appealed against the ban to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), but it was rejected.In July 2023 Indonesia pulled out of hosting the World Beach Games following controversy over Israel’s participation. In March that year, Indonesia lost the hosting rights to the FIFA Under-20 World Cup after two governors objected to Israel’s participation.Both of those occurred before war between Israel and armed group Hamas broke out in Gaza, where there is currently a ceasefire in place.