Middle East latest: Top diplomats from US, Arab League and Turkey discuss Syria's transition
Top diplomats from the United States, the Arab League and Turkey met in Jordan on Saturday to discuss how to assist Syria ’s transition after the fall of Bashar Assad's government a week ago. No Syrian representatives attended.
The collapse of the Assad family’s more than half-century of rule has sparked new fears of instability in a region already shaken by the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and hostilities between Israel and the Lebanon-based Hezbollah despite a tenuous ceasefire.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said American officials have been in direct contact with the Syrian insurgent group that led the overthrow of Assad’s government, but the group continues to be designated a foreign terrorist organization by the United States and others.
The insurgent leader in an interview with Syrian TV didn't mention contact with the U.S., but he warned Israel about the hundreds of airstrikes it has carried out in Syria in the past week.
The U.S. is also making a renewed push for a ceasefire in Gaza, where the war has plunged more than 2 million Palestinians into a severe humanitarian crisis.
Here's the latest:
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Witnesses and medical officials are reporting more Israeli airstrikes in Gaza.
Four people were killed late Saturday in an airstrike on a tent in the central city of Deir al-Balah, according to an Associated Press journalist who counted the bodies at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.
Elsewhere, Palestinian medical officials said an airstrike killed at least seven people, including a woman and her baby, in Gaza City. The strike hit the Majda Wasilla school, which shelters many displaced families, according to Al-Ahli Hospital, which received the bodies.
Ataf Saadat, a woman sheltering in the school, said the baby killed was two days old. “There were those who were burned, and those who were cut up, and the rubble was on top of them,” Saadat said.
Israel’s military said it struck Hamas fighters at a command center in a compound previously used as a school.
A joint statement after a ministerial meeting on Syria's future is calling for all parties to cease hostilities there and expresses support for a locally led transitional political process.
The statement was issued Saturday after a meeting in Jordan by several Arab nations, the United States, Turkey, the European Union and others. It called for preventing the reemergence of extremist groups in Syria and ensuring the security and safe destruction of chemical weapons stockpiles. It also expressed full support for Syria’s territorial integrity.
A separate statement issued by Arab foreign ministers called for U.N.-supervised elections based on a new constitution approved by Syrians. That statement also condemned Israel’s incursion into the buffer zone with Syria and adjacent sites over the past week as a “heinous occupation” and demands the withdrawal of Israeli forces.
BEIRUT — The leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah militants says the fall of Bashar Assad in Syria has cut a main supply line for the group but it can find other ways to bring in weapons.
Hezbollah was a main backer of Assad and sent thousands of fighters to Syria over the past decade. And for decades, Hezbollah relied on Syria as a channel for weapons from the militant group's main backer, Iran.
In his first public comments in the week since Assad’s fall, Hezbollah leader Naim Kassem in a televised speech Saturday said Hezbollah has lost the military supply line through Syria but the new authority there might reinstate the route. Otherwise, he said, “we might find other ways.”
Kassem also said Hezbollah hopes the new authority in Syria will consider Israel an enemy.
DAMASCUS, Syria — The head of the Syrian insurgent group that led the overthrow of Bashar Assad's government says they are not about to enter a conflict with Israel. But Ahmad al-Sharaa in his first public comments on Israel in the week since Assad's fall said “the pretexts that Israel uses have ended" for its airstrikes inside Syria in recent days.
Al-Sharaa said “the Israelis have crossed the rules of engagement” in his interview with Syrian TV on Saturday. About 400 Israeli airstrikes in the past days have destroyed much of the Syrian army's assets.
Al-Sharaa leads Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS. The excerpts released from his interview did not address contact with the United States, which on Saturday said had been in direct communication with HTS, which it designated a foreign terrorist organization years ago.
The HTS leader did say the new authorities in Damascus are in contact with Western embassies, and that authorities have a plan to start reconstruction and development in Syria. He did not give details.
He added that the authorities have given Russia — a key backer of Assad — an opportunity to reconsider relations with the Syrian people, and that authorities are not hostile to the people of Iran, another Assad backer.
AQABA, Jordan — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken says American officials have been in direct contact with the Syrian rebel group that led the overthrow of President Bashar Assad’s government a week ago, but the group continues to be designated a foreign terrorist organization by the United States and others.
Blinken is the first U.S. official to publicly confirm contacts between the Biden administration and Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, which ousted Assad. Speaking at a news conference in Jordan, Blinken would not discuss details of the contacts but said it was important for the U.S. to convey messages to the group about its conduct and how it intends to govern in a transition period.
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Palestinian medical officials say at least 10 people were killed Saturday in an Israeli airstrike that apparently targeted a municipal meeting in central Gaza.
The officials said the strike hit the municipality complex for Deir al-Balah city as officials from central and southern Gaza met to coordinate how to receive vehicles provided by the United Arab Emirates.
The complex includes a building used by the Hamas-run interior ministry and is surrounded by a public market, which was crowded when the strike occurred.
Among the dead were a mother and her 5-year-old daughter, according to al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital and an AP journalist at the morgue. The dead also include Diab al-Garu, head of the Deir al-Balah municipality, the hospital said.
The Israeli military said it struck a Hamas fighter in a compound it said was used to plan attacks.
ISTANBUL — Turkey reopened its embassy in Syria on Saturday, becoming the first country to do so since the end of Bashar Assad’s rule last weekend. The Syrian insurgents who overthrew Assad had received vital help from Turkey.
The Turkish flag was raised above the compound in Damascus for the first time since diplomatic ties were cut in 2012. The embassy suspended operations 12 years ago due to insecurity during the Syrian civil war.
Several countries maintained diplomatic ties with Assad's government during the 13-year conflict, while others reopened their diplomatic missions in recent years as they sought to normalize relations.
AQABA, Jordan — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken says broad consensus exists among regional partners that Syria’s new government must be inclusive, must respect women and minority rights, reject terrorism and secure and destroy suspected Assad-era chemical weapons stockpiles.
Blinken is wrapping up a three-country regional tour in Aqaba after visiting Iraq, Turkey and Jordan once already this week.
Earlier Saturday in a meeting with U.N. Special Envoy for Syria Geir Pederson, Blinken said he expected to talk about the challenges ahead for Syria and “our determination to work together to support a Syrian-led transition where the United Nations plays a critical role, particularly when it comes to the provision of assistance, to the protection of minorities.”
Pederson agreed, saying: “What is so critical in Syria is that we see a credible and inclusive political process that brings together all communities in Syria. And the second point is that we need to make sure that state institutions do not collapse, and that we get in humanitarian assistance as quickly as possible. And if we can achieve that, perhaps there is a new opportunity for the Syrian people.”
In announcing Saturday’s meetings, the Jordanian Foreign Ministry said the ministers would “discuss ways to support a comprehensive political process led by Syrians to achieve a transitional process,” which “ensures the reconstruction of Syrian state institutions, and preserves Syria’s unity, territorial integrity, sovereignty, security, stability, and the rights of all its citizens.”
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