Lebanese, Palestinian presidents say era of weapons ‘outside Lebanese state control' over
A joint statement released by the Lebanese presidency said the two leaders share the 'belief that the era of weapons outside Lebanese state control has ended,' adding that both had expressed commitment to the principle that arms should be exclusively 'in the hands of the Lebanese state.'
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Al Arabiya
29 minutes ago
- Al Arabiya
US envoy urges Syria's al-Sharaa to revise policy or risk fragmentation
A US envoy has urged Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa to recalibrate his policies and embrace a more inclusive approach after a new round of sectarian bloodshed last week, or risk losing international support and fragmenting the country. US envoy to Syria Tom Barrack said he had advised Sharaa in private discussions to revisit elements of the pre-war army structure, scale back Islamist indoctrination and seek regional security assistance. In an interview in Beirut, Barrack told Reuters that without swift change, Sharaa risks losing the momentum that once propelled him to power. Sharaa should say: 'I'm going to adapt quickly, because if I don't adapt quickly, I'm going to lose the energy of the universe that was behind me,' Barrack said. He said Sharaa could 'grow up as a president and say, 'the right thing for me to do is not to follow my theme, which isn't working so well.'' Sharaa, leader of a former al-Qaeda offshoot, came to power in Syria after guerilla fighters he led brought down Bashar al-Assad in December last year after more than 13 years of civil war. Sharaa has promised to protect members of Syria's many sectarian minorities. But that pledge has been challenged, first by mass killings of members of the Alawite sect in March, and now by the latest violence in the southwest. Hundreds of people have been reported killed in clashes in the southern province of Sweida between Druze fighters, Bedouin tribes and Sharaa's own forces. Israel intervened with airstrikes to prevent what it said was mass killing of Druze by government forces. Barrack said the new government should consider being 'more inclusive quicker' when it comes to integrating minorities into the ruling structure. But he also pushed back against reports that Syrian security forces were responsible for violations against Druze civilians. He suggested that ISIS militants may have been disguised in government uniforms and that social media videos are easily doctored and therefore unreliable. 'The Syrian troops haven't gone into the city. These atrocities that are happening are not happening by the Syrian regime troops. They're not even in the city because they agreed with Israel that they would not go in,' he said. 'No successor' to al-Sharaa The US helped broker a ceasefire last week that brought an end to the fighting, which erupted between Bedouin tribal fighters and Druze factions on July 13. Barrack said the stakes in Syria are dangerously high, with no succession plan or viable alternative to the country's new government. 'With this Syrian regime, there is no plan B. If this Syrian regime fails, somebody is trying to instigate it to fail,' Barrack said. 'For what purpose? There's no successor.' Asked if Syria could follow the dire scenarios of Libya and Afghanistan, he said: 'Yes, or even worse.' The US has said it did not support Israel's airstrikes on Syria. Barrack said the strikes had added to the 'confusion' in Syria. Israel says Syria's new rulers are dangerous militants and has vowed to keep government troops out of the southwest and protect Syria's Druze minority in the area, encouraged by calls from Israel's own Druze community. Barrack said his message to Israel is to have dialogue to alleviate their concerns about Syria's new leaders and that the US could play the role of an 'honest intermediary' to help resolve any concerns. He said al-Sharaa had signaled from the beginning of his rule that Israel was not his enemy and that he could normalize ties in due time. He said the United States was not dictating what the political format of Syria should be, other than stability, unity, fairness and inclusion. 'If they end up with a federalist government, that's their determination. And the answer to the question is, everybody may now need to adapt.'
Al Arabiya
44 minutes ago
- Al Arabiya
‘No life without water': Settler attacks threaten West Bank communities
From his monitoring station on a remote hill in the occupied West Bank, water operator Subhil Olayan keeps watch over a lifeline for Palestinians, the Ein Samiyah spring. So when Israeli settlers recently attacked the system of wells, pumps and pipelines he oversees, he knew the stakes. 'There is no life without water, of course,' he said, following the attack which temporarily cut off the water supply to nearby villages. The spring, which feeds the pumping station, is the main or backup water source for some 110,000 people, according to the Palestinian company that manages it -- making it one of the most vital in the West Bank, where water is in chronic short supply. The attack is one of several recent incidents in which settlers have been accused of damaging, diverting or seizing control of Palestinian water sources. 'The settlers came and the first thing they did was break the pipeline. And when the pipeline is broken, we automatically have to stop pumping' water to nearby villages, some of which exclusively rely on the Ein Samiyah spring. 'The water just goes into the dirt, into the ground,' Olayan told AFP, adding that workers immediately fixed the damage to resume water supply. Just two days after the latest attack, Israeli settlers -- some of them armed -- splashed in pools just below the spring, while Olayan monitored water pressure and cameras from a distance. His software showed normal pressure in the pipes pulling water from the wells and the large pipe carrying water up the hill to his village of Kafr Malik. But he said maintenance teams dared not venture down to the pumping station out of fear for their safety. Since the start of the war in Gaza, deadly settler attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank have become commonplace. Last week, settlers beat a 20-year-old dual US citizen to death in the nearby village of Sinjil, prompting US ambassador Mike Huckabee to urge Israel to 'aggressively investigate' the killing. Annexation Issa Qassis, chairman on the board of the Jerusalem Water Undertaking, which manages the Ein Samiyah spring, said he viewed the attacks as a tool for Israeli land grabs and annexation. 'When you restrict water supply in certain areas, people simply move where water is available,' he told AFP at a press conference. 'So in a plan to move people to other lands, water is the best and fastest way,' he said. Since the start of the war in Gaza, several Israeli politicians and officials have become increasingly vocal in support of annexing the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967. Most prominent among them is Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, himself a settler, who said in November that 2025 would be the year Israel applies its sovereignty over the Palestinian territory. Qassis accused Israel's government of supporting settler attacks such as the one on Ein Samiyah. The Israeli army told AFP that soldiers were not aware of the incident in which pipes were damaged, 'and therefore were unable to prevent it.' The damage to Ein Samiyah's water facilities was not an isolated incident. In recent months, settlers in the nearby Jordan Valley took control of the Al-Auja spring by diverting its water from upstream, said Farhan Ghawanmeh, a representative of the Ras Ein Al Auja community. He said two other springs in the area had also recently been taken over. Water rights In Dura al-Qaraa, another West Bank village that uses the Ein Samiyah spring as a back-up water source, residents are also concerned about increasingly long droughts and the way Israel regulates their water rights. 'For years now, no one has been planting because the water levels have decreased,' said Rafeaa Qasim, a member of the village council, citing lower rainfall causing the land to be 'basically abandoned.' Qasim said that though water shortages in the village have existed for 30 years, residents' hands are tied in the face of this challenge. 'We have no options; digging a well is not allowed,' despite the presence of local water springs, he said, pointing to a well project that the UN and World Bank rejected due to Israeli law prohibiting drilling in the area. The lands chosen for drilling sit in the West Bank's Area C, which covers more than 60 percent of the territory and is under full Israeli control. Israeli NGO B'Tselem reported in 2023 that the legal system led to sharp disparities in water access within the West Bank between Palestinians and Israelis. Whereas nearly all residents of Israel and Israeli settlements have running water every day, only 36 percent of West Bank Palestinians do, the report said. In Dura al-Qaraa, Qasim fears for the future. 'Each year, the water decreases and the crisis grows -- it's not getting better, it's getting worse.'
Al Arabiya
an hour ago
- Al Arabiya
Israeli far right discusses Gaza ‘riviera' plans
Some Israeli far-right leaders held a public meeting on Tuesday to discuss redeveloping the Gaza Strip into a tourist-friendly 'riviera,' as Palestinians face a worsening humanitarian crisis in the devastated territory. The meeting, titled 'The Riviera in Gaza: From Vision to Reality,' was held in the Knesset, Israel's parliament, under the auspices of some of its most hardline members. It saw the participation of firebrand Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, as well as activist Daniella Weiss, a vocal proponent of Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip, among others. The name of the event evokes a proposal floated by US President Donald Trump in February to turn the war-ravaged territory into 'the Riviera of the Middle East' after moving out its Palestinian residents and putting it under American control. The idea drew swift condemnation from across the Arab world, and from Palestinians themselves, for whom any effort to force them off their land would recall the 'Nakba', or catastrophe -- the mass displacement of Palestinians during Israel's creation in 1948. Participants in Tuesday's Knesset meeting discussed a 'master plan' drafted by Weiss's organization to re-establish a permanent Jewish presence in Gaza. The detailed plan foresees the construction of housing for 1.2 million new Jewish residents, and the development of industrial and agricultural zones, as well as tourism complexes on the coast. Eight Israeli settlements located in various parts of the Gaza Strip were dismantled in 2005 as part of Israel's unilateral decision to 'disengage' from Gaza following years of violence between settlers, Palestinian armed groups and the army. For the past two decades, a small but vocal section of Israeli society has urged the resettlement of the Strip. Those voices have become louder after Palestinian militant group Hamas's attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, with advocates presenting resettlement as a way to maintain tighter security control over the area. The October 7 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures. Israel's ensuing military campaign in Gaza has killed 59,106 Palestinians, also mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in the territory. Meanwhile, the humanitarian crisis in the Strip has reached catastrophic proportions after 21 months of conflict and a two-month aid blockade imposed by Israel. Israel began easing the blockade in late May, but extreme scarcities of food and other essentials persist, and cases of malnutrition and starvation are becoming increasingly frequent, according to local authorities, NGOs and AFP journalists on the ground.
