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Syria reboots interior ministry as Damascus seeks to reassure West

Syrian authorities on Saturday announced an interior ministry restructuring that includes fighting cross-border drug and people smuggling as they seek to improve ties with Western nations that have lifted sanctions.Keen to reboot and rebuild nearly 14 years after a devastating civil war broke out, the new authorities in Damascus have hailed Washington’s lifting of US sanctions.The move was formalised Friday after being announced by President Donald Trump on a Gulf tour this month during which he shook hands with Syria’s jihadist-turned-interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa.Spokesman Noureddine al-Baba said the interior ministry restructure included reforms and creating “a modern civil security institution that adopts transparency and respects international human rights standards”.It includes setting up a citizens’ complaints department and incorporating the police and General Security agency into an Internal Security command, he told a press conference.A border security body for Syria’s land and sea frontiers will be tasked with “combating illegal activities, particularly drug and human smuggling networks”, Baba said.The restructure includes “strengthening the role of the anti-drug department and further developing its importance within Syria and abroad” after the country became a major exporter of illicit stimulant captagon, he added.Another department will handle security for government facilities and foreign missions, as embassies reopen in Syria following Bashar al-Assad’s ouster in December.A tourism police body will secure visitors and sites as the war-torn country — home to renowned UNESCO World Heritage sites — seeks to relaunch tourism.- ‘Of critical importance’ -Syria’s foreign ministry welcomed Washington’s lifting of sanctions, calling the move “a positive step in the right direction to reduce humanitarian and economic struggles in the country”.Turkish foreign ministry spokesperson Oncu Keceli said the recent US and European Union steps to lift sanctions were “of critical importance in efforts to bring stability and security to Syria”.The European Union announced the lifting of its economic sanctions on Syria earlier this month.Sharaa met President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday on his third visit to Turkey since taking power on a visit to discuss “common issues”, Syria’s presidency said.Ankara is a major backer of Syria’s new authorities, who are negotiating with Kurdish forces that control swathes of the northeast and that Turkey considers “terrorists”.A government delegation made a first visit Saturday to the notorious Al-Hol camp in the northeast that hosts families of suspected Islamic State (IS) group jihadists.Trump said he wanted to give Syria’s new rulers “a chance at greatness” after their overthrow of Assad.While in Istanbul, Sharaa met with the US ambassador to Turkey, who doubles as Washington’s Syria envoy.In a statement, Tom Barrack said: “President Trump’s goal is to enable the new government to create the conditions for the Syrian people to not only survive but thrive.”He added that it would aid Washington’s “primary objective” of ensuring the “enduring defeat” of IS.US sanctions were first imposed on Syria in 1979 under the rule of Bashar al-Assad’s father Hafez.They were sharply expanded after the bloody repression of anti-government protests in 2011 triggered Syria’s civil war.The new administration has been looking to build relations with the West and roll back sanctions, but some governments expressed reluctance, pointing to the Islamist past of leading figures. – ‘Recovery and reconstruction’ -The sanctions relief extends to the new government on condition that Syria does not provide safe haven for terrorist organisations and ensure security for religious and ethnic minorities, the US Treasury Department said.Concurrently, the US State Department issued a 180-day waiver for the Caesar Act to make sure that sanctions do not obstruct foreign investment in Syria.The 2020 legislation severely sanctioned any entity or company cooperating with the now ousted government.US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the waiver would “facilitate the provision of electricity, energy, water and sanitation, and enable a more effective humanitarian response across Syria”.However, Rubio cautioned that Trump “has made clear his expectation that relief will be followed by prompt action by the Syrian government on important policy priorities”.He said lifting the sanctions aims to promote “recovery and reconstruction efforts”.Syria’s 14-year civil war killed more than half a million people and ravaged its infrastructure.The interior ministry’s spokesman said around a third of the population had been under suspicion by the Assad government’s feared intelligence and security services.Analysts say a full lifting of sanctions may take time, as some US restrictions are acts that need to be reversed by Congress.Syrian authorities also need to ensure an attractive environment for foreign investment.

Iraq’s first ever director in Cannes wins best feature debut

Hasan Hadi, the first filmmaker from Iraq to be selected for the prestigious Cannes Festival, on Saturday won a top prize for his childhood adventure under economic sanctions in “The President’s Cake”.His first feature-length film follows nine-year-old Lamia after her school teacher picks her to bake the class a cake for President Saddam Hussein’s birthday or risk being denounced for disloyalty.It is the early 1990s, the country is under crippling UN sanctions, and she and her grandmother can barely afford to eat.The pair set off from their home in the marshlands into town to try to track down the unaffordable ingredients.Hadi dedicated his Camera d’Or award, which honours first-time directors, to “every kid or child around the world who somehow finds love, friendship and joy amid war, sanctions and dictatorship.”You are the real heroes,” he said.He later shared the stage with dissident Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi, who won the festival’s Palme D’Or top prize for his “It Was Just an Accident”, the tale of five ordinary Iranians confronting a man they believed tortured them in jail. “The President’s Cake” has received excellent reviews since premiering last week in the Directors’ Fortnight section. Cinema bible Variety called it a “tragicomic gem”.Deadline said it was “head and shoulders above” some of the films in the running for the festival’s Palme d’Or top prize, and “could turn out to be Iraq’s first nominee for an Oscar”.- Palestinian films -Also from the Middle East, Palestinian director Tawfeek Barhom received his award for his short film “I’m Glad You’re Dead Now”.After giving thanks, he took the opportunity to mention the war in Gaza.”In 20 years from now when we are visiting the Gaza Strip, try not to think about the dead and have a nice trip,” he said.US President Donald Trump sparked controversy this year by saying he wanted to turn the war-ravaged Palestinian territory into the “Riviera of the Middle East”.Outside the main competition, Gazan twin brothers Arab and Tarzan Nasser on Friday received a directing award in the Certain Regard parallel section for “Once Upon A Time In Gaza”.One of them dedicated the award to Palestinians, especially those living in their homeland of Gaza, which they left in 2012.He said that, when they hesitated to return to Cannes to receive the prize, his mother had encouraged him to go and tell the world about the suffering of people in Gaza.”She said, ‘No, no, no, you have to go. Tell them to stop the genocide’,” he said.Amnesty International last month said Israel was carrying out a “live-streamed genocide” against Palestinians in Gaza, claims Israel dismissed as “blatant lies”.

Dissident Iranian filmmaker Panahi wins Cannes top prize

Iranian dissident director Jafar Panahi won the Palme d’Or top prize at the Cannes film festival on Saturday, using his acceptance speech to urge his country to unite for “freedom”.The latest film from the 64-year-old, “It Was Just an Accident”, tells the tale of five ordinary Iranians confronting a man they believed tortured them in jail. The core of the provocative and wry drama examines the moral dilemma faced by people if they are given an opportunity to take revenge on their oppressors.Panahi, who was banned from making films in 2010 and has been imprisoned twice, used his own experiences in jail to write the screenplay.”Let’s set aside all problems, all differences. What matters most right now is our country and the freedom of our country,” he told the VIP-studded audience on the French Riviera. The leading light in the Iranian New Wave cinema movement has vowed to return to Tehran after the Cannes Festival, despite the risks of prosecution. When asked on Saturday evening if he was worried about flying home, he replied: “Not at all. Tomorrow we are leaving.”Iran was shaken by the “Women, Life, Freedom” protests in 2022 sparked by after the death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini after she was arrested for allegedly flouting dress rules for women.The demonstrations were quashed in a crackdown that saw thousands detained, according to the United Nations, and hundreds shot dead by security forces, according to activists.- Fairytale -Among the other Cannes awards, Brazil’s Wagner Moura — best known for playing Pablo Escobar in “Narcos” — picked up the best actor award for his performance in police thriller “The Secret Agent”.Its director, Kleber Mendonca Filho, also won the best director prize, making it a good evening for Brazil.France’s Nadia Melliti continued her fairytale fortnight in Cannes by clinching the gong for best actress.Melliti, who had never appeared in a film before, plays a 17-year-old Muslim girl struggling with her homosexuality in Hafsia Herzi’s “The Little Sister”.The keen football player of Algerian descent was spotted by a casting agent near a shopping mall in central Paris.”Sentimental Value” by Norway’s Joachim Trier, a moving family drama given a 19-minute standing ovation on Thursday, picked up the second prize Grand Prix.- Sabotage -Saturday’s closing ceremony was the final act of a drama-filled day in Cannes that saw the glitzy seaside resort suffer a more than five-hour power cut.The outage knocked out traffic lights and had visitors and locals scrambling for paper money because cash machines were out-of-order and restaurants were unable to process card payments.Local officials said a suspected arson attack on a substation and vandalism of an electricity pylon had caused the disruption.  “Who is going to do my hair? There’s no electricity, oh my God, I’m like in a panic attack,” Mahra Lutfi, Miss Universe UAE, told AFP as she prepared to walk the red carpet. German director Mascha Schilinski joked that she had “had difficulty writing her speech” because of the black-out as she accepted a special jury prize for her widely praised “Sound of Falling”.- Politics -Panahi has won a host of prizes at European film festivals and showcased his debut film “The White Balloon” in Cannes in 1995 which won an award for best first feature. The head of the Cannes 2025 jury, French actress Juliette Binoche, paid tribute to “It Was Just an Accident”.”This is a film that emerges from a place of resistance, a place of survival, and it felt essential to bring it put it on top today,” she told reporters afterwards.Iran’s state IRNA news agency hailed Panahi’s award, which is the second for an Iranian director.”The world’s largest film festival made history for Iranian cinema,” it report, recalling the first win in 1997 by Abbas Kiarostami, who was also banned and jailed.Panahi has always refused to stop making films and his efforts to smuggle them out to foreign distributors and film festivals has become the stuff of legend.A year after being handed a 20-year ban on filmmaking in 2010 he dispatched a documentary with the cheeky title “This is Not a Film” to the Cannes Festival on a flash drive stashed in a cake.”I’m alive as long as I’m making films. If I’m not making films, then what happens to me no longer matters,” he told AFP this week. 

Rescuers say 9 children of Gaza doctor couple killed in Israeli strike

Gaza’s civil defence agency said Saturday that an Israeli strike in the southern city of Khan Yunis killed nine children of a pair of married doctors, with the Israeli army saying it was reviewing the reports.Israel has stepped up its campaign in Gaza in recent days, drawing international criticism as well as calls to allow in more supplies after it partially eased a total blockade on aid imposed on March 2.Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said the agency had retrieved “the bodies of nine child martyrs, some of them charred, from the home of Dr Hamdi al-Najjar and his wife, Dr Alaa al-Najjar, all of whom were their children”.He added that Hamdi al-Najjar and another son, Adam, were also seriously wounded in the strike on Friday, and that the family was taken to Nasser Hospital. A medical source at the hospital gave Adam’s age as 10 years old.Muneer Alboursh, director general of the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, said on X that the strike happened shortly after Hamdi Al-Najjar returned home from driving his wife, a paediatric specialist, to work at the same facility.”This is the reality our medical staff in Gaza endure. Words fall short in describing the pain,” he said, accusing Israel of “wiping out entire families”.Footage of the aftermath released by the civil defence agency showed rescuers recovering badly burned remains from the damaged home.Asked about the incident, the Israeli military said it had “struck a number of suspects who were identified operating from a structure” near its troops.”The Khan Yunis area is a dangerous warzone,” it added. “The claim regarding harm to uninvolved civilians is under review.”The army had issued an evacuation warning for the city on Monday. The children’s funeral took place at Nasser Hospital, AFP footage showed.- Fresh strikes -Bassal told AFP that Israeli strikes since the early hours had killed at least 15 people across Gaza as of Saturday afternoon.He said the dead included a couple killed with their two young children in a pre-dawn strike on a house in the Amal quarter of Khan Yunis.To the west of the city, at least five people were killed by a drone strike on a crowd of people that had gathered to wait for aid trucks, he added.At Nasser Hospital, tearful mourners gathered Saturday around white-shrouded bodies outside.”Suddenly, a missile from an F-16 destroyed the entire house, and all of them were civilians — my sister, her husband and their children,” said Wissam Al-Madhoun.”What did this child do to (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu?”In a statement, the military said that over the past day the air force had struck more than 100 targets across the territory.Israel resumed operations in Gaza on March 18, ending a two-month ceasefire.Gaza’s health ministry said Saturday that at least 3,747 people had been killed in the territory since then, taking the war’s overall toll to 53,901, mostly civilians.- ‘Attempt to sow panic’ -United Nations chief Antonio Guterres said on Friday that Palestinians were enduring “the cruellest phase” of the war in Gaza, where Israel’s lengthy blockade has led to widespread shortages of food and medicine.Limited aid deliveries to the Gaza Strip restarted on Monday for the first time since March 2.The Gaza City municipality, meanwhile, warned Saturday of “a potential large-scale water crisis” due to a lack of supplies needed to repair damaged infrastructure.Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel that triggered the war resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.Militants also took 251 hostages, 57 of whom remain in Gaza including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.Demonstrators gathered yet again in Tel Aviv on Saturday night for their regular protest calling for the captives’ freedom, carrying a giant banner that read “Save the hostages, end the war”.”We want the war to end now because we see… that the war will not lead to the release of the hostages, and that it will bring more death, more misery on both sides,” demonstrator Jonathan Adereth told AFP.Early Saturday morning, Israel’s National Cyber Directorate said it had received “numerous inquiries” regarding citizens “receiving phone calls in which recordings are played featuring the voice of a hostage, sounds of explosions and screams”.Israeli media said the calls featured audio apparently taken from a video of hostage Yosef Haim Ohana published by Hamas earlier this month.”This is an attempt to sow panic and confusion among the public,” the directorate said of the calls, adding “the matter is under investigation”.