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Syria authorities name Sharaa interim president: state media

Syria’s new authorities announced Wednesday that Ahmed al-Sharaa, who took the helm after Bashar al-Assad’s ouster last month, has been appointed interim president and tasked with forming a transitional legislature, state media reported.A rebel alliance led by Sharaa’s Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) ousted Assad on December 8 after a lightning offensive, ending five decades of his family’s iron-fisted rule, with a transitional government previously installed to steer the country until March 1.Sharaa was appointed “as the country’s president in the transitional phase”, state news agency SANA reported, quoting military official Hassan Abdel Ghani, without specifying a timeframe, adding that he would also represent the country “in international forums”.Sharaa was tasked with forming “a temporary legislative council… until a permanent constitution for the country is decided”, SANA said, adding that the Assad-era parliament had been dissolved and the 2012 constitution suspended.The announcements came during a conference on “the victory of the Syrian revolution” that was also attended by Sharaa, Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani and the heads of armed factions.Abdel Ghani also announced the dissolution of all armed groups involved in Assad’s ouster, as well as the former government’s army and security agencies.”All military factions and political and civil revolutionary bodies are dissolved and integrated into state institutions”, SANA reported Abdel Ghani as saying.- ‘Civil peace’ -He also announced “the dissolution of the defunct regime’s army”, security agencies “and all the militias it established, and the formation of a new security apparatus that preserves citizens’ security” and the “reconstruction of the Syrian army”.The Syrian army has effectively collapsed, along with the other instruments of Assad’s rule.The Baath party which ruled Syria for decades was also dissolved, SANA reported.In a speech at the event, Sharaa set out Syria’s priorities as “filling the power vacuum, preserving civil peace, rebuilding state institutions and working to construct a development-oriented economy”, SANA said.”The mission of the victorious is heavy, and their responsibility is immense,” Sharaa added.Last month, he said it could take four years before elections could be held, and up to three years to rewrite the country’s constitution.Authorities had previously spoken of a national dialogue conference that would bring together Syrians of all political stripes, but SANA made no mention of any such conference on Wednesday.Civil war broke out in Syria after Assad suppressed peaceful anti-government protests in 2011. The conflict has killed more than 500,000 people and displaced millions more.HTS, rooted in Syria’s Al-Qaeda branch, is proscribed as a terrorist organisation by many governments including the United States, though it has recently sought to moderate its rhetoric and vowed to protect Syria’s religious and ethnic minorities.Since Assad’s ouster, a succession of Western diplomats have visited Syria to call for an inclusive transition.bur-tgg-kam-lk/lg/kir

Aid experts dismiss Trump’s ‘Gaza condoms’ spending claim

US aid experts on Wednesday rejected Donald Trump’s claim that the United States had spent $50 million to fund condoms for the war-battered Gaza Strip, which the president has sought to make a poster child for wasteful spending.”We identified and stopped $50 million being sent to Gaza to buy condoms for Hamas,” Trump told reporters, referring to the militant group that has ruled the Palestinian territory for nearly two decades.”And do you know what’s happened to them? They’ve used them as a method of making bombs.”Trump offered no evidence to back his claim, which prompted both vehement rejections and ridicule from relief agencies and experts.The United States sent no condoms to any part of the Middle East since 2019, according to a detailed report last year from the US Agency for International Development (USAID).Its only family planning contribution to the region was a small shipment of injectable and oral contraceptives worth $45,680 that was sent to Jordan in 2023, the report said.International Medical Corps, a humanitarian aid organization, said it received about $68 million from USAID for its Gaza operations since October 7, 2023 — the day Hamas launched a major attack on Israel –- which paid for two field hospitals providing lifesaving care.”No US government funding was used to procure or distribute condoms,” the organization said in a statement.- ‘Dangerous’ -On Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed the $50 million expenditure was discovered in Trump’s first week by the budget office and the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) led by tech billionaire Elon Musk.She called it a “preposterous waste of taxpayer money.””The White House claim that DOGE uncovered $50 million in funding for condoms in Gaza is quite obviously untrue,” Matthew Kavanagh, director of Georgetown University’s Center for Global Health Policy and Politics, told AFP.”It does not even make sense.”A back-of-the-envelope calculation suggests $50 million would buy over a billion condoms for Gaza’s adult population.”What’s going is here is NOT a billion condoms for Gaza,” Jeremy Konyndyk, president of Refugees International, wrote on X, the Musk-owned site formerly called Twitter.”What’s going on is that the bros at DOGE apparently can’t read (government) spreadsheets.”Jesse Watters, host of a conservative-leaning talk show on Fox News, said that Hamas were using the non-existent US shipments to make “condom bombs,” floating explosives-laden balloons into Israel — a claim echoed by Trump.Soon after returning to office for a second term on January 20, Trump ordered a 90-day freeze in foreign assistance.He has vowed a review to ensure that aid conforms with policies of his administration, which opposes abortion, transgender rights and diversity programs.Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a memo that the United States was freezing nearly all aid disbursement except for emergency food and military aid to Egypt and Israel. “What seems clear is the administration is taking a large grant to support healthcare infrastructure in Gaza and mischaracterizing it in order to justify the dangerous halt to lifesaving aid programs around the world,” Kavanagh said.

Syria’s Sharaa: jihadist to interim head of state

In less than two months, Syria’s Ahmed al-Sharaa has risen from rebel leader to interim president, after his Islamist group led a lightning offensive that toppled Bashar al-Assad.Sharaa was appointed Wednesday to lead Syria for an unspecified transitional period, and has been tasked with forming an interim legislature after the dissolution of the Assad era parliament and the suspension of the 2012 constitution.The former jihadist has abandoned his nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, trimmed his beard and donned a suit and tie to receive foreign dignitaries since ousting Assad from power on December 8.The tall, sharp-eyed Sharaa has held a succession of interviews with foreign journalists, presenting himself as a patriot who wants to rebuild and reunite Syria, devastated and divided after almost 14 years of civil war.Syria’s new authorities also announced Wednesday the dissolution of armed factions, including Sharaa’s own Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which is rooted in the Syrian branch of Al-Qaeda. Since breaking ties with Al-Qaeda in 2016, Sharaa has sought to portray himself as a more moderate leader, and HTS has toned down its rhetoric, vowing to protect Syria’s religious and ethnic minorities.But Sharaa has yet to calm misgivings among some analysts and Western governments that still class HTS as a terrorist organisation.- ‘Pragmatic’ -“He is a pragmatic radical,” Thomas Pierret, a specialist in political Islam, told AFP.”In 2014, he was at the height of his radicalism,” Pierret said, referring to the period of the war when he sought to compete with the jihadist Islamic State group.”Since then, he has moderated his rhetoric.”Born in 1982 in Saudi Arabia, Sharaa is from a well-to-do Syrian family and was raised in Mazzeh, an upscale district of Damascus. In 2021, he told US broadcaster PBS that his nom de guerre was a reference to his family’s roots in the Golan Heights. He said his grandfather was among those forced to flee the territory after its capture by Israel in 1967.According to the Middle East Eye news website, it was after the September 11, 2001 attacks that he was first drawn to jihadist thinking.”It was as a result of this admiration for the 9/11 attackers that the first signs of jihadism began to surface in Jolani’s life, as he began attending secretive sermons and panel discussions in marginalised suburbs of Damascus,” the website said.Following the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, he left Syria to take part in the fight.He joined Al-Qaeda in Iraq, led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and was subsequently detained for five years, preventing him from rising through the ranks of the jihadist organisation.- Realist or opportunist? -In March 2011, when the revolt against Assad’s rule erupted in Syria, he returned home and founded Al-Nusra Front, Syria’s branch of Al-Qaeda.In 2013, he refused to swear allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who would go on to become the emir of the Islamic State group, and instead pledged his loyalty to Al-Qaeda’s Ayman al-Zawahiri.A realist in his partisans’ eyes, an opportunist to his adversaries, Sharaa said in May 2015 that he, unlike IS, had no intention of launching attacks against the West.He also proclaimed that should Assad be defeated, there would be no revenge attacks against the Alawite minority that the president’s clan stems from.He cut ties with Al-Qaeda, claiming to do so in order to deprive the West of reasons to attack his organisation.According to Pierret, he has since sought to chart a path towards becoming a credible statesman.In January 2017, Sharaa imposed a merger with HTS on rival Islamist groups in northwestern Syria, thereby taking control of swathes of Idlib province that had been cleared of government troops.In areas under its grip, HTS developed a civil administration and established a semblance of a state in Idlib province, while crushing its rebel rivals.Throughout this process, HTS faced accusations from residents and human rights groups of brutal abuses against those who dared dissent, which the United Nations has classed as war crimes. 

Syria authorities name Sharaa interim president: state media

Syria’s new authorities announced Wednesday that Ahmed al-Sharaa, who took the helm after Bashar al-Assad’s ouster last month, has been appointed interim president and tasked with forming a transitional legislature, state media reported.Sharaa was appointed “as the country’s president in the transitional phase”, state news agency SANA reported, quoting military official Hassan Abdel Ghani, without specifying a timeframe.A rebel alliance led by Sharaa’s Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) ousted Assad on December 8 after a lightning offensive, ending five decades of his family’s iron-fisted rule.The rebels installed a transitional government headed by Mohammad al-Bashir to steer the country until March 1.Sharaa was tasked with forming “a temporary legislative council… until a permanent constitution for the country is decided”, SANA said, adding that the Assad-era parliament had been dissolved and the 2012 constitution suspended.Abdel Ghani also announced the dissolution of all armed groups involved in Assad’s ouster, as well as the former government’s army and security agencies.”All military factions are dissolved… and integrated into state institutions,” alongside “the dissolution of the defunct regime’s army” and security agencies, Abdel Ghani told SANA.  They would be replaced by the “reconstruction of the Syrian army” and the formation of “a new security apparatus that preserves citizen’s security”.The Syrian army has effectively collapsed, along with the other instruments of Assad’s rule.The Baath party which ruled Syria for decades was also dissolved, SANA reported.bur-tgg-kam-lk/lg/kir

Israel says Hamas to free 11 more hostages this week

Israel said on Wednesday that 11 more hostages held in Gaza, including five Thai nationals, would be freed this week as part of a fragile Gaza ceasefire.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said it had received a list from Hamas of eight hostages to be freed on Thursday, including the Thais, and another three, all men, to be released on Saturday.The announcement came shortly after Hamas officials had accused Israel of delaying aid deliveries to Gaza and jeopardising the agreement.The truce hinges on the release of Israeli hostages taken during Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack, in exchange for 1,900 Palestinians held in Israeli jails.Hamas has so far released seven hostages, with 290 prisoners freed in exchange.”Israel received the list of hostages who are supposed to be released from Hamas captivity tomorrow,” the Israeli premier’s office said.Israel said a total of eight hostages, three Israelis and five Thais, were to be freed from Gaza on Thursday.It named the three Israelis as Arbel Yehud, Agam Berger and Gadi Moses.The Moses family said in a statement that it had “received with great excitement the wonderful news of our beloved Gadi’s return”.Since a ceasefire in the war in Gaza took effect on January 19, truckloads of aid have been allowed into the war-ravaged Palestinian territory.But two senior Hamas officials accused Israel of slowing down aid deliveries, with one citing items key to Gaza’s recovery such as fuel, tents, heavy machinery and other equipment.”According to the agreement, these materials were supposed to enter during the first week of the ceasefire,” one official said.”We warn that continued delays and failure to address these points will affect the natural progression of the agreement, including the prisoner exchange.”Israel hit back, with a spokesman for COGAT, the defence ministry body that oversees civil affairs in the Palestinian territories, calling it “totally fake news”.Between Sunday and 1100 GMT on Wednesday, “3,000 trucks entered Gaza”, the spokesman said. “The agreement says it should be 4,200 in seven days.”As the text of the agreement that Qatar, Egypt and the United States mediated has not been made public, AFP was not able to verify its terms on aid.- Hope for hostages -The agreement is intended to end more than 15 months of war between Israel and Hamas that erupted with the militant group’s attack on Israel in 2023.The two sides are currently implementing the first 42-day phase of the agreement, which should see 33 hostages freed.Next, they are due to start discussing a long-term end to the war. The third and final phase of the deal should see the reconstruction of Gaza as well as the return of the bodies of any remaining dead hostages.The families of hostages still held in Gaza were holding out hope the truce would hold, with hundreds of people attending a rally in Tel Aviv to show support.”We have to be optimistic. We have to keep on trying and not give up,” 27-year-old Shakked Fainsod said.”If their families keep on fighting, then I don’t have the privilege to stay home and not keep fighting as well.”US President Donald Trump repeatedly claimed credit for sealing the agreement after months of fruitless negotiations under his predecessor Joe Biden. He has invited Netanyahu to the White House on February 4, according to the premier’s office.”Prime Minister Netanyahu is the first foreign leader to be invited to the White House during US President Trump’s second term,” the statement said.Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, who took part in the negotiations, met with Netanyahu during a visit to Israel on Wednesday.- More aid needed -After the truce took effect, Trump touted a plan to “clean out” the Gaza Strip, calling for Palestinians to relocate to neighbouring countries such as Egypt or Jordan.The idea has faced strong backlash from Egypt and Jordan as well as from European governments.Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said Wednesday that the forced displacement of Palestinians was an “injustice that we cannot take part in”, while Jordan’s King Abdullah II stressed “the need to keep the Palestinians on their land”.Despite the devastation wrought by the war, more than 376,000 displaced Palestinians have returned to northern Gaza, according to the UN humanitarian office OCHA.Saif Al-Din Qazaat said he was happy to be back, but had to sleep in a tent next to the ruins of his house.”I kept a fire burning all night near the kids to keep them warm… (They) slept peacefully despite the cold but we don’t have enough blankets,” the 41-year-old told AFP.Fellow returnee Zaher Al-Khour said when he got back to the north, “we realised the extent of the suffering”.”Aid is entering Gaza, but there is no water for drinking or washing dishes. There are no tents or caravans,” he said. “My son is sick with the flu, and there is no hospital or clinic for treatment.”If the world does not help us, Gaza will suffer greatly, and diseases and famine will spread.”

Israel says UN aid agency UNRWA ‘riddled’ with Hamas operatives

Israel alleged on Wednesday that the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) is full of Hamas operatives and reaffirmed its commitment to end ties with the agency this week.”UNRWA equals Hamas. Israel has made public irrefutable evidence UNRWA is riddled with Hamas operatives,” government spokesman David Mencer told journalists as Israel prepares to cut ties with the agency on Thursday.”Israel makes clear… if a state funds UNRWA, that state is funding terrorists.”UNRWA employs over 1,200 Hamas members, including terrorists who carried out the October 7 massacre,” Mencer alleged. “This isn’t aid, it’s direct financial support for terror.”Later on Wednesday Israel’s Supreme Court rejected a petition by Palestinian human rights group Adalah contesting the ban. “Having considered the arguments of the parties, I have not considered it appropriate to issue the requested stay order,” the court ruled.It added that the legislation “prohibits UNRWA activity only on the sovereign territory of the State of Israel” but “does not prohibit such activity in the areas of Judea-Samaria (the occupied West Bank) and the Gaza Strip”.The legislation does apply however to Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, where UNRWA has a field headquarters for its operations in the West Bank.Reacting to the court’s decision, Adalah said Israel was “disregarding the catastrophic humanitarian consequences”.Israel, backed by Washington, will cease contact with UNRWA from Thursday, a move that has drawn condemnation from US allies as well as aid groups.UNRWA’s offices and staff in Israel play a major role in the provision of healthcare and education to Palestinians, including those living in Gaza, devastated by 15 months of war with Israel.-‘Irreplaceable’-The agency says it has brought in 60 percent of the food aid that has reached Gaza since the war started with Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel. But it has long clashed with Israeli officials, who have repeatedly accused it of undermining the country’s security. UNRWA must cease its operations and evacuate all premises it operates in annexed east Jerusalem on Thursday, the Israeli envoy to the United Nations, Danny Danon, told the UN Security Council on Tuesday.UN chief Antonio Guterres demanded that Israel retract its order. “I regret this decision and request that the government of Israel retract it,” he said, stressing that UNRWA was “irreplaceable”.The agency’s chief Philippe Lazzarini said UNRWA’s capacity “far exceeds that of any other entity.”He called Israel’s actions against UNRWA a “relentless assault… harming the lives and future of Palestinians across the occupied Palestinian territory”. Israel claims that a dozen UNRWA employees were involved in the deadly 2023 attack, and insists that other agencies can pick up the slack to provide essential services, aid and reconstruction — something the UN and many donor governments dispute.A series of investigations, including one led by French former foreign minister Catherine Colonna, found some “neutrality related issues” at UNRWA — but stressed Israel had not provided evidence for its headline allegation.Under President Donald Trump, who returned to the White House earlier this month, United States has backed the Israeli ban, accusing UNRWA of overstating its impact.Under Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden, Washington had supported UNRWA continuing its work but withheld funding at the insistence of Congress.Palestinians in the war-devastated Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank, including east Jerusalem, are expected to be hardest hit by the Israeli ban.UNRWA also provides support for Palestinian refugees around the Middle East.