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Russia, US to name negotiators on ending Ukraine war

Russia and the United States on Tuesday agreed to establish teams to negotiate a path to ending the war in Ukraine after talks that drew a strong rebuke from Kyiv over its exclusion.Washington noted European nations would have to have a seat at the negotiating table “at some point”, following the first high-level official Washington-Moscow talks since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.Some European leaders, alarmed by President Donald Trump’s overhaul of US policy on Russia, fear Washington will make serious concessions to Moscow and re-write the continent’s security arrangement in a Cold War-style deal.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky slammed his nation’s exclusion from the Riyadh gathering, which lasted more than four hours.He said that any talks aimed at ending the war should be “fair” and involve European countries, including Turkey — which offered to host negotiations.”This will only be feeding Putin’s appetite,” a Ukrainian senior official requesting anonymity told AFP, referring to the launch of talks without Ukraine.Trump for his part said he was “much more confident” of a deal after the Riyadh talks, telling reporters Tuesday at his Mar-a-Lago estate: “I think I have the power to end this war.”He also chided Kyiv for complaining about being cut out of discussions.”Today I heard, oh, well, we weren’t invited. Well, you’ve been there for three years”, Trump said, referring to the war. “You should have never started it. You could have made a deal.”- ‘Heard each other’ -US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov agreed to “appoint respective high-level teams to begin working on a path to ending the conflict in Ukraine as soon as possible”, the State Department said.Washington added that the sides had also agreed to “establish a consultation mechanism” to address “irritants” to the US-Russia relationship, noting the sides would lay the groundwork for future cooperation.Yuri Ushakov, President Vladimir Putin’s foreign policy aide, confirmed the negotiating teams’ appointment but said it was “difficult” to discuss a date for a potential Trump-Putin meeting.Trump said he would “probably” meet with Putin before the end of the month, but did not elaborate.Riyadh marks a diplomatic coup for Moscow, which had been isolated for three years under the previous US administration of Joe Biden.Moscow’s economic negotiator, Kirill Dmitriev, said Western attempts to isolate Russia had “obviously failed”.”We did not just listen but heard each other, and I have reason to believe the American side has better understood our position,” Lavrov told reporters.The veteran diplomat noted that Russia opposed any deployment of NATO-nation troops to Ukraine as part of an eventual ceasefire.European allies publicly diverged this week over whether they would be open to sending truce peacekeepers to Ukraine.UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he was prepared to consider committing British soldiers.French President Emmanuel Macron told a regional newspaper Tuesday that while Paris was not “preparing to send ground troops, which are belligerent to the conflict, to the front”, it was considering sending “experts or even troops in limited terms, outside any conflict zone”.Meanwhile German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said any debate on the matter was “completely premature”.Macron said he would host another round of talks Wednesday with European and non-European nations.Russia sketched out some of its perspectives on future talks, arguing that settling the war required a reorganisation of Europe’s defence agreements.Moscow has long called for the withdrawal of NATO forces from eastern Europe, viewing the alliance as an existential threat on its flank.Before invading Ukraine in February 2022, Moscow had demanded NATO pull out of central and eastern Europe.Warning that Russia was attempting to divide the West, the top EU diplomat Kaja Kallas told Rubio on X, “let’s not walk into their traps”, adding that peace can be achieved “on Ukraine’s terms”.Rubio briefed key European ministers on the Riyadh talks Tuesday, acknowledging Europe would need to be involved at some point.”There are other parties that have sanctions” on Russia, Rubio told them. “The European Union is going to have to be at the table at some point because they have sanctions as well.”- ‘How to start negotiations’ – The negotiations at Riyadh’s Diriyah Palace began without visible handshakes. Both Moscow and Washington had cast Tuesday’s meeting as the beginning of a potentially lengthy process and downplayed prospects of a breakthrough.Trump says he wants to end the war, but has presented no concrete plan. During the election campaign he boasted that he could do it in one day.Washington has told both sides that concessions will have to be made if any talks materialise.Russia on the eve of the summit said there cannot be even a “thought” on it giving up territory seized from Ukraine. The Kremlin on Tuesday said Ukraine had the right to join the European Union, but not the NATO military alliance.It also said Putin was “ready” to negotiate with Zelensky “if necessary”. 

France probes 2012 reporters’ deaths in Syria as crime against humanity

The French judiciary is investigating the 2012 deaths of reporters in Syria as a possible crime against humanity, anti-terror prosecutors told AFP on Tuesday.Prominent US journalist Marie Colvin and French photographer Remi Ochlik were killed by an explosion in the east of the war-torn country in what a US court later ruled was an “unconscionable” attack that targeted journalists on the orders of the Syrian government.The French judiciary had been treating the alleged attack as a potential war crime, but on December 17 widened the investigation to a possible crime against humanity, a charge for which French courts claim universal jurisdiction regardless of locations or nationalities involved.The anti-terror prosecutors’ office told AFP that new evidence pointed to “the execution of a concerted plan against a group of civilians, including journalists, activists and defenders of human rights, as part of a wide-ranging or systematic attack”.Colvin — a renowned war correspondent whose career was celebrated in a Golden Globe-nominated film “A Private War” — was killed in the Syrian army’s shelling of the Baba Amr Media Center in Homs on February 22, 2012.- ‘A great step forwards’ -The federal court in the US capital, which in 2019 ordered Syria to pay $302.5 million over her death, said in its verdict that Syrian military and intelligence had tracked the broadcasts of Colvin and other journalists covering the siege of Homs to the media centre.They then targeted it in an artillery barrage that killed Colvin and Ochlik.French investigators also believe that both were “deliberately targeted”.In addition, they told AFP, they extended the probe to cover suspected Syrian government “persecution” of civilians, including Colvin and Ochlik, as well as British photographer Paul Conroy and French reporter Edith Bouvier — who were wounded in the attack — and Syrian translator Wael Omar, as well as “other inhumane acts” committed against Bouvier.One of Bouvier’s lawyers, Matthieu Bagard, said the new probe “opens the door to treat a certain number of procedures against journalists in armed conflict zones as crimes against humanity”.His lawyer colleague, Marie Dose, called the shift in the investigation “a great step forwards for war reporters”.”The Colvin family calls on the new Syrian government to cooperate with international investigators to hold the perpetrators of atrocities like the murder of Marie Colvin accountable,” Scott Gilmore, the lawyer for the journalist’s sister Cathleen Colvin, told AFP.Clemence Bectarte, a lawyer for Ochlik’s family, said she now expected judges to issue arrest warrants “for the high-ranking political and military officials whose involvement has been established”.In March 2012, France opened a probe for murder into the death of Ochlik and for attempted murder over the injury of Bouvier, both French nationals.- ‘Deliberately targeted’ -The probe was widened into potential war crimes in October 2014, and in 2016 non-French plaintiffs joined the legal action.”This wasn’t a case of us being in the wrong place at the wrong time,” said Bouvier in 2013. “We were deliberately targeted.”In 2016, then-Syrian president Bashar al-Assad claimed that Colvin was “responsible” for her own death.”It’s a war and she came illegally to Syria,” he said, accusing the reporter of working “with the terrorists”.The battle of Homs, Syria’s third city, was part a civil war triggered by the repression of a 2011 revolt against Assad’s government.Colvin, who was 56 and working for the Sunday Times when she died, was known for her fearless reporting and signature black eye patch which she wore after losing sight in one eye in an explosion during Sri Lanka’s civil war.Assad was ousted in December after rebels led by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) Islamist group seized control of Damascus, ending more than 50 years of his family’s iron-fisted rule.

Hamas, Israel agree return of six hostages, bodies held in Gaza

Hamas and Israel announced a deal Tuesday for the release of six living hostages from Gaza and the return of four captives’ bodies — including, the militants said, the remains of two young boys seen as national symbols back home.The family of hostages Shiri Bibas and her sons Ariel and Kfir, the last remaining Israeli children held in Gaza, said they were “in turmoil” at the news, noting they had still received no “official confirmation” of their loved ones’ deaths.Thirty-three Israeli hostages were due for release under the first phase of the fragile Gaza truce that took effect last month, with 19 freed so far in exchange for more than 1,100 Palestinian prisoners. Of the remaining 14, Israel says eight are dead.Hamas “decided to release on Saturday, February 22, the remaining living (Israeli) prisoners whose release was agreed in the first phase, numbering six”, the group’s top negotiator Khalil al-Hayya said in a televised address.The group also “decided to hand over four bodies on Thursday, among them (those of) the Bibas family”, Hayya added.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office subsequently confirmed that during indirect negotiations in Cairo, “agreements were reached” for the six living hostages to be handed over on Saturday, in addition to four bodies on Thursday and four more next week.A Bibas family statement said it had been “in turmoil following (the) Hamas spokesperson’s announcement about the planned return of our Shiri, Ariel, and Kfir this Thursday”.The trio were abducted during Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that sparked the Gaza war, with Ariel and Kfir coming to symbolise the hostages’ plight for many Israelis. Their father Yarden Bibas was also taken hostage separately, and was released alive during a previous hostage-prisoner exchange.Hamas has previously said that Shiri Bibas and the children were killed in an Israeli air strike in November 2023, but Israel has not confirmed their deaths.”Until we receive definitive confirmation, our journey is not over,” the family statement said.- ‘Reluctantly hopeful’ -The bodies due to be handed over on Thursday are the first to be returned to Israel by Hamas since the war began.Israel’s military issued a statement on Tuesday urging the public not to take notice of what it called “unverified rumours” about the hostages, without elaborating.Israeli campaign group the Hostages and Missing Families Forum published the names of the six living hostages due for release on Saturday, saying it “welcomes with profound joy the return of Eliya Cohen, Tal Shoham, Omer Shem Tov, Omer Wenkert, Hisham Al-Sayed and Avera Mengistu”.Shoham’s family said it had been informed he was scheduled for release, adding: “While we are reluctantly hopeful, we remain cautious and pray that Tal will return safely.”Five Thais held in Gaza since the October 2023 attack have also been released outside the scope of the truce deal.The truce has held despite both sides trading accusations of violations, and despite the strain placed on it by US President Donald Trump’s widely condemned plan to take control of devastated Gaza and relocate its population.Saudi Arabia is set to host the leaders of Egypt, Jordan, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates on Friday to present their own plan for Gaza’s reconstruction while ensuring that Palestinians remain on their land.Trump floated Egypt and Jordan as possible destinations for displaced Gazans, but both countries rejected the idea. After the Saudi meeting, Egypt will host an extraordinary Arab League meeting on Gaza on March 4.For Palestinians, any forced displacement evokes memories of the “Nakba”, or catastrophe — the mass exile of their ancestors during Israel’s creation in 1948.- ‘Demilitarisation’ -Israel, meanwhile, demanded on Tuesday the “complete demilitarisation of Gaza”, with Foreign Minister Gideon Saar saying it would “not accept the continued presence of Hamas or any other terrorist groups” in the Palestinian territory.Saar also said Israel would begin negotiations “this week” on the truce’s second phase, which aims to lay out a more permanent end to the war. Phase one is due to expire on March 1.Qatar, a key mediator in the Gaza conflict, said on Tuesday that Palestinians must decide the territory’s future.”It is a Palestinian question on who represents the Palestinians in an official capacity and also the political groups and parties in the political sphere,” said foreign ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari.Hamas’s 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,211 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 48,291 people in Gaza, the majority of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory that the United Nations considers reliable.Of 251 people seized in the Hamas attack, 70 remain in Gaza, including 35 the Israeli military says are dead.Israel’s military said that in southern Gaza on Tuesday, soldiers fired on a man after he ignored warning shots. A hospital source in Khan Yunis said it had received the body of a 15-year-old.