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Syria leader signs constitutional declaration, hailing ‘new history’

Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa hailed the start of a “new history” for his country on Thursday, signing into force a constitutional declaration regulating its five-year transitional period and laying out rights for women and freedom of expression.The declaration comes three months after Islamist-led rebels toppled Bashar al-Assad’s repressive government, leading to calls for an inclusive new Syria that respects rights.It also follows a wave of violence that broke out on Syria’s Mediterranean coast last week, which a war monitor said saw security forces kill nearly 1,500 civilians, most of them members of the Alawite minority to which the Assad family belongs.Interim President Sharaa on Thursday said he hoped the constitutional declaration would mark the beginning of “a new history for Syria, where we replace oppression with justice… and suffering with mercy”, as he signed the document at the presidential palace.The new authorities had previously repealed the Assad-era constitution and dissolved parliament.The declaration sets out a transitional period of five years, during which a “transitional justice commission” would be formed to “determine the means for accountability, establish the facts, and provide justice to victims and survivors” of the former government’s misdeeds.According to a copy of the document shared by the presidency, “the glorification of the former Assad regime and its symbols” is forbidden, as is “denying, praising, justifying or downplaying its crimes”.Abdul Hamid al-Awak, a member of the committee that drafted the document, said it also enshrined “women’s right to participate in work and education, and have all their social, political and economic rights guaranteed”.The declaration maintains the requirement that the president of the republic must be a Muslim, with Islamic jurisprudence set out as “the main source” of legislation.It gives the president a sole exceptional power: declaring a state of emergency.Awak added that the people’s assembly, a third of which will be appointed by the president, would be tasked with drafting all legislation.- Cannot be impeached -Under the declaration, the legislature cannot impeach the president, nor can the president dismiss any lawmakers.Executive power would also be restricted to the president in the transitional period, Awak said, pointing to the need for “rapid action to confront any difficulties”.He added that the declaration also guarantees the “freedom of opinion, expression and the press”, and affirms the independence of the judiciary.Awak said a committee would be formed to draft a new permanent constitution.Sharaa, who led the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which spearheaded Assad’s overthrow, was appointed interim president in late January.He promised to issue the constitutional declaration to serve as a “legal reference” during the transition period.- ‘Proper implementation’ -The Kurdish-led administration in northeastern Syria sharply criticised the declaration, saying it “contradicts the reality of Syria and its diversity”.Earlier this week, the Syrian Democratic Forces — the Kurdish-led administration’s de facto army — struck a deal with the authorities in Damascus to be integrated into state institutions.But the administration on Thursday said the declaration “does not represent the aspirations of our people” and “undermines efforts to achieve true democracy”.The text of the declaration states: “Calls for division and separatism, requests for foreign intervention, or reliance on foreign powers are criminalised,” without offering specifics.It adds, however, that the government “seeks to coordinate with relevant countries and entities to support the reconstruction process”.A UN spokesman quoted special envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen as saying he “hopes the (constitutional) declaration can be a solid legal framework for a genuinely credible and inclusive political transition”, adding “proper implementation will be key”.The declaration comes a week after the deadly rash of violence on Syria’s coast, in what analysts described as the gravest threat so far to the transitional process.Mass killings mainly targeted Alawites, resulting in at least 1,476 civilian deaths at the hands of the security forces and their allies, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.In a statement, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Thursday: “Nothing can justify the killing of civilians”, calling for a credible investigation.He added the UN was ready to work with Syrians towards “an inclusive political transition that ensures accountability, fosters national healing, and lays the foundation for Syria’s long-term recovery”.Sharaa has vowed to prosecute those behind the bloodshed, with the authorities announcing several arrests.

Israel defence minister confirms air strike in Damascus

Defence Minister Israel Katz confirmed the Israeli Air Force conducted a strike in Damascus on Thursday, with the military saying it had hit a “command centre” of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group.A war monitor reported one person killed, with Syrian state media saying the strike had targeted a building in the capital.Islamic Jihad fought alongside Hamas against Israel in Gaza before a fragile truce began in January.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed that such strikes would be carried out across the region against “whoever attacks us”.”There will be no immunity for Islamic terrorism against Israel,” Katz said in a statement. “We will not allow Syria to become a threat to the state of Israel.” The Israeli military said the “command centre was used to plan and direct terrorist activities by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad” against Israel.A source in Islamic Jihad said a building belonging to the group had been hit by Israeli jets, adding there were “martyrs and wounded” in the strike.Ismail Sindawi, Islamic Jihad’s representative in Syria, told AFP the targeted building had been “closed for five years and nobody from the movement frequented it”. Israel was just sending a message, Sindawi said.Syria’s official news agency SANA reported that three civilians were wounded, including one woman in a critical condition. It said the strike targeted an office that had been “abandoned since the liberation of Damascus”, when Islamist-led rebels toppled president Bashar al-Assad in December.An AFP photographer saw the facade of the three-storey building completely destroyed and flames coming out from a balcony.Netanyahu vowed to carry out more such strikes if needed.”We attacked an Islamic Jihad headquarters in the heart of Damascus. We did this because we have a clear policy: Whoever attacks us or plans to attack us — we strike them,” Netanyahu said in a video statement.”And this applies not only in Syria but everywhere, including Lebanon,” where Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah engaged in more than a year of hostilities until a ceasefire was reached in November.- Hundreds of air strikes -On Thursday evening, the Israeli military said it had carried out a strike in eastern Lebanon.”A short while ago, the IDF (military) conducted a strike on infrastructure at a site used by Hezbollah for manufacturing and storing strategic weapons in the Beqaa area in Lebanon,” the military said in a statement.In November, Israel and Hezbollah agreed to a US-French mediated truce that has largely halted more than a year of fighting between the two sides, including two months of full-blown war in which Israel sent in ground troops.While the ceasefire continues to hold, Israel has periodically carried out air strikes in Lebanon that it says are to prevent Hezbollah from rearming or returning to the area along its northern border.Since Assad’s overthrow, Israel has also carried out hundreds of air strikes in Syria and deployed troops to a UN-patrolled buffer zone on the strategic Golan Heights.Netanyahu has previously said southern Syria must be completely demilitarised, warning that his government would not accept the presence of the forces of the new authorities near its territory.The strike in Damascus came just before Syria’s leader Ahmed al-Sharaa hailed the start of a “new history” for his country, signing into force a constitutional declaration regulating a five-year transitional period and laying out rights for women and freedom of expression.Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar has repeatedly warned that world leaders should be wary of the new leadership in Syria, warning that a “jihadist group” was now ruling the country.Sharaa was the head of the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which led the toppling of Assad and has its roots in the Syrian branch of Al-Qaeda. It has since sought to moderate its image, but is still listed as a terrorist organisation by the United States and other governments.After years of diplomatic isolation under Assad, diplomats from the West and Syria’s neighbours have reached out to Syria’s new rulers. Even before Assad’s fall, during the Syrian civil war that broke out in 2011, Israel carried out hundreds of strikes in the country, mainly on government forces and Iranian-linked targets.

Turkey insists foreign fighters be expelled from Syria: source

Turkey’s top diplomat travelled to Damascus on Thursday as Ankara said foreign fighters must be expelled from Syria, after an agreement spearheaded by the war-torn country’s new authorities to disband armed groups.Flanked by Turkey’s defence minister and its spy chief, Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan was paying a “working visit” to Syria, the ministry said in a statement, without further details.Fidan was due to meet with Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, who led the Islamist HTS group that overthrew Bashar al-Assad in December, according to state-run TRT television. It is his second visit to Damascus after he became the first foreign minister to travel there, two weeks after Assad’s ouster.The visit comes three days after Syria’s new authorities forged an agreement with the head of the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to integrate the autonomous Kurdish administration into the national government.The move seeks to disband armed groups and establish government control over the entire country after more than 13 years of civil war. The SDF, seen as essential in the fight against Islamic State (IS) jihadists, is dominated by the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG).Ankara views the YPG as an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), an outlawed group dominated by ethnic Kurds in Turkey that has waged an insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984.”As Turkey, we remain determined to fight against terrorism,” a Turkish defence ministry source said. “There’s no change in our expectations for an end to terrorist activities in Syria, for terrorists to lay down their weapons and for foreign terrorists to be removed from Syria,” the source added.- ‘Step in right direction’ -Turkey, which has pressed Syria’s new leaders to address the issue of the YPG’s control over substantial parts of northern Syria, is closely watching the process of integrating the SDF into the Syrian government. “We’ll see how the agreement is to be implemented… in the field,” the defence ministry source said. “We will closely follow its positive or negative consequences.” Since 2016, Turkey has carried out a series of military ground operations in Syria to force Kurdish forces away from its border.President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday that the full implementation of the agreement would serve peace and security, and benefit all Syrians. “We see every effort to cleanse Syria of terrorism as a step in the right direction,” he said. The United States — which had allied with the SDF to battle the Islamic State group, to the dismay of Turkey — also welcomed the agreement in Syria.Turkey will host a regional summit in April to discuss anti-IS operations, a Turkish diplomatic source told AFP. The agreement comes two weeks after jailed PKK founder Abdullah Ocalan called for the group to lay down its weapons and disband. The PKK, designated as a “terror” group by Turkey, the European Union and the United States, announced a ceasefire after Ocalan’s historic call, saying: “None of our forces will carry out any armed operation unless they are attacked.”Ankara has said that if the promises are not kept, Turkish forces will continue their current anti-PKK military operations. 

Israel attack on Gaza IVF clinic a ‘genocidal act’: UN probe

A United Nations investigation concluded Thursday that Israel carried out “genocidal acts” in Gaza through the destruction of its main IVF clinic, maternity facilities and other reproductive healthcare facilities.The UN Commission of Inquiry said Israel had “intentionally attacked and destroyed” the Palestinian territory’s main fertility centre, and had simultaneously imposed a siege and blocked aid including medication for ensuring safe pregnancies, deliveries and neonatal care.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reacted by calling the findings “false and absurd”.In a statement, the UN commission said it found that Israeli authorities “have destroyed in part the reproductive capacity of Palestinians in Gaza as a group through the systematic destruction of sexual and reproductive healthcare”.It said this amounted to “two categories of genocidal acts” during Israel’s offensive in Gaza, launched after the attacks by Hamas militants on Israel on October 7, 2023.The United Nations’ genocide convention defines that crime as acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.Of its five categories, the inquiry said the two implicating Israel were “deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction” and “imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group”.- ‘Chronic lying’ -The three-person Independent International Commission of Inquiry was established by the UN Human Rights Council in May 2021 to investigate alleged international law violations in Israel and the Palestinian territories.Commission member Chris Sidoti explained that the crime of genocide concerned action and intention — both general and then specific — and the report had so far only looked at action.”We have not made any finding of genocide. We have identified a number of acts that constitute the categories of genocidal act under the law. We have not yet examined the question of genocidal purpose,” he told a press conference.”We’ll be soon in a position to deal comprehensively with the question of genocide,” he added, potentially later this year.Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem told AFP the report “confirms what has happened on the ground: genocide and violations of all humanitarian and legal standards”.He said it underscored “the urgent need to expedite the prosecution of its (Israel’s) leaders for these crimes and ensure their swift trial at the International Criminal Court”.Netanyahu branded the Human Rights Council an “anti-Israeli circus”. He said the UN “once again chooses to attack the state of Israel with false accusations, including absurd claims”.Israel’s mission in Geneva accused the commission of advancing a “predetermined and biased political agenda… in a shameless attempt to incriminate the Israel Defence Forces”.In response, Sidoti said Israel “continues to obstruct” the inquiry’s investigations and prevent access to Israel and the Palestinian territories.”They clearly do not read our documents. They clearly have an agenda that they pursue, totally devoid of any relationship to fact. It’s chronic lying,” he said.- Destruction of IVF clinic -The report said maternity hospitals and wards had been systematically destroyed in Gaza, along with the Al-Basma IVF Centre, the territory’s main in-vitro fertility clinic.It said Al-Basma was shelled in December 2023, reportedly destroying around 4,000 embryos at a clinic that served 2,000 to 3,000 patients a month.The commission found that the Israeli Security Forces intentionally attacked and destroyed the clinic, including all the reproductive material stored for the future conception of Palestinians.It concluded that the destruction “was a measure intended to prevent births among Palestinians in Gaza, which is a genocidal act”.- ‘Extermination’ -Furthermore, the report said the wider harm to pregnant, lactating and new mothers in Gaza was on an “unprecedented scale”, with an irreversible impact on the reproductive and fertility prospects of Gazans.Such underlying acts “amount to crimes against humanity” and deliberately trying to destroy the Palestinians as a group — “one of the categories of genocidal acts”, the commission concluded.The report concluded that Israel had targeted civilian women and girls directly, “acts that constitute the crime against humanity of murder and the war crime of wilful killing”.Women and girls died from complications related to pregnancy and childbirth due to the conditions imposed by the Israeli authorities impacting access to reproductive health care, “acts that amount to the crime against humanity of extermination”, it added.Sidoti said the next steps “certainly involve the courts”, and countries could take action themselves under international law.”If they waited for action by the Security Council they’d be waiting until hell froze over,” he said.