Israel and Syria ‘agree to ceasefire'
Tom Barrack, the United States' envoy to Damascus, said the truce was agreed on Friday night and was supported by Turkey, Jordan and other neighbouring countries.
Mr Barrack did not share any details on the agreement but in a post on X he called for 'Druze, Bedouins, and Sunnis to put down their weapons and together with other minorities build a new and united Syrian identity in peace and prosperity with its neighbours.'
It comes following renewed clashes between Druze groups and Bedouin clans in Syria's southern Sweida province, leaving tens of thousands of people displaced in a worsening humanitarian crisis.
Government forces had withdrawn from Sweida following a separate ceasefire agreed upon with Druze groups on Wednesday after Israel launched dozens of airstrikes on convoys of government fighters and even struck the Syrian Defence Ministry's headquarters in the capital.
Israel said it was acting to defend the Druze, who form a substantial community in Israel and are seen as a loyal minority there, often serving in the Israeli military.
Earlier on Friday, Syria's interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa had announced that the government would send a 'specialised force to break up clashes and resolve the conflict on the ground' in Sweida.
Officials had negotiated with Druze factions on an agreement to re-enter the area to impose stability and protect state institutions, according to two Syrian officials cited by the Associated Press.
The United Nations has been unable to bring in much-needed humanitarian and medical aid because of ongoing clashes.
Fighting began on Sunday between Druze militias and local Sunni Muslim Bedouin tribes.
Government forces intervened, nominally to restore order, but ended up taking the Bedouins' side against the Druze.
The fighting killed hundreds of people over four days, with allegations that government-affiliated fighters executed Druze civilians and looted and burned homes.
A truce mediated by the US, Turkey and Arab countries was announced on Wednesday. Under the accord, Druze factions and clerics were to maintain the internal security in Sweida as government forces pulled out, al-Sharaa said.
By late Thursday clashes were flaring again between the Druze and Bedouin groups in parts of Sweida province. State media reported that Druze militias carried out revenge attacks against Bedouin communities, leading to a new wave of displacement.
The United Nations' migration agency said on Friday that nearly 80,000 people had been displaced altogether since clashes started on Sunday.
It also noted that essential services, including water and electricity, have collapsed in Sweida, telecommunications systems are widely disrupted, and health facilities in Sweida and Daraa are under severe strain.
Meanwhile 'there are severe disruptions to supply routes, with insecurity and road closures blocking aid deliveries,' Adam Abdelmoula, UN Resident and Humanitarian Affairs Coordinator in Syria, said on Friday.
The World Health Organisation was able to send trauma care supplies to Daraa province, but Sweida remains inaccessible, he said.
'Once conditions allow, we are planning to send a mission to assess needs and provide critical aid, in full coordination with authorities,' Mr Abdelmoula said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Record
an hour ago
- Daily Record
Coatbridge political titan Sir Tom Clarke pulls no punches with reflective autobiography
Memoir 'To Be Honest... Tom Clarke: The Story of My Life' follows Sir Tom's journey from young lad born in Coatbridge to his more than three decades in politics. In typically selfless fashion Sir Tom Clarke says he "will leave it up to the readers to decide" on the impact of his much-anticipated autobiography as the former Coatbridge political titan looks back on his remarkable life. The 84-year-old has unveiled his memoir To Be Honest... Tom Clarke: The Story of My Life - and pulls no punches when reflecting on his time in politics.. Sir Tom, who was a Member of Parliament from 1982 until 2015, pays repeated tributes to his home town throughout the book, beginning with a page devoted to the line "To the people of Coatbridge - the town that forged me and that I love so well". The autobiography's infancy came when then-MP Sir Tom lost his Coatbridge, Bellshill & Chryston seat in the May 2015 general election - a difficult moment he doesn't shy away from in the book. Sir Tom explained: "The book was suggested to me the day after the 2015 election and a couple of weeks later I was in Italy, where I wrote out an agenda and planned what to write. "But I was then plagued by several knee operations - eight in total - for several years which delayed the book's publication. "I've worked hard the past few years to get it written and teamed up with editor Neil Baxter. "Neil was well know in architectural circles and is a very good writer who has penned several books. "I often saw him on TV and heard him on radio and knew he was extremely gifted. "It's not easy to get a Scottish publisher so I was blessed by teaming up with Neil because as well as being an editor, he is part of the Baxter Jardine publishing company." Sir Tom added: "The book was all originally written by me and I adapted parts with Neil. "When I finished the first draft we discussed changes which ended up improving the book and it was ready for publication in June. "The presentation is lovely and everyone involved did a brilliant job putting the book together. "I am happy with the finished product but I will leave it up to the readers to decide what they think of it." Coatbridge comic-book and movie mogul Mark Millar wrote one of the book's two prefaces - with broadcaster Bernard Ponsonby penning the other. To Be Honest... Tom Clarke: The Story of My Life follows Sir Tom's journey from young lad born in Coatbridge to his more than three decades in politics, which included championing the rights of disabled people, visiting Iran to negotiate the release of British and Irish hostages and becoming Minister of State for Film and Tourism. He also doesn't hold anything back while criticising ex-Prime Minister Tony Blair, who he once called his "best friend", and former Scottish first minister Donald Dewar. Sir Tom, who was also honoured as a Papal Knight by Pope Francis in 2016, told Lanarkshire Live: "I was best friends with Tony Blair for the first 10 years in Parliament and I expected to be in his first Cabinet when he became Prime Minister. "The book goes into my thoughts on how things played out and how I felt Tony let me down badly. "But it was also important to me to reflect on things like my time as the Minister of State for Film and with the Scottish Film Council as I have always been passionate about film, which not everyone may be aware of. Sir Tom, knighted in the Queen's new year honours list in late 2020 for "public and political service"., went on to explain the choice of title for his autobiography: "I often listen to the radio in the morning and heard lots of people saying 'to be honest'. "I thought, 'why are they saying that?' Maybe they are thinking 'people won't expect me to say that'. "That's when it struck me to go with that as the title and put things on record as honestly as I can recall them. "It's also a hint at questioning the honesty of others I've had to deal with. "In the book I have said where I think I got things wrong; I've not been perfect by any means. "It's sometimes interesting to reflect back on things, and your judgement of people becomes very important." Sir Tom has worked with several charities and local organisations and made the kind-hearted decision to donate all proceeds from To Be Honest... Tom Clarke: The Story of My Life to the Moira Anderson Foundation and Coatbridge Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB). He added: "After the election defeat in 2015 I was approached by the outgoing chair of Coatbridge CAB to take on the role, which I did, for six years. "I saw first hand how a lot of the bureau's manager's time was spent fundraising and when I stepped down as chair, I told them half of the profits from my book would go to them. "I planted a tree at the Moira Anderson Foundation earlier this year to mark the charity's 25th anniversary. "I told the Foundation's founder, Sandra Brown, about my book and we had a very interesting conversation as she has also written a book - and what a wonderful book it is. "It's a charity that does invaluable work and it is my pleasure to donate half of the book's proceeds to the Foundation team."
The Guardian
5 hours ago
- The Guardian
Zelenskyy says at least 22 people killed in Russian attacks on Ukraine, hours after Trump put pressure on Moscow
Update: Date: 2025-07-29T10:37:29.000Z Title: Volodymyr Zelenskyy Content: At least 85 people injured in overnight attacks after Trump said he will shorten the deadline for reaching an agreement on a ceasefire to '10-12 days' Jakub Krupa Tue 29 Jul 2025 11.37 BST First published on Tue 29 Jul 2025 08.44 BST From 9.06am BST 09:06 Ukrainian president has just confirmed that at least 22 people were killed, and 85 injured in attacks targeting 73 Ukrainian cities and villages overnight, just hours after 'everyone once again felt hope for an end to the killings.' He described some of the attacks in more detail, including a strike on a city hospital in Kamianske which killed three, including a pregnant 23-year-old woman, and a 'deliberate' attack on a civilian penal colony in Zaporizhia. Zelenskyy said: Every murder of our people by the Russians; every Russian strike, when there could have been a ceasefire long ago, if Russia had not refused – all this shows that Moscow deserves very tough, truly painful, and therefore fair and effective sanctions pressure. They must be forced to stop the killings and make peace. He thanked US president Donald Trump for his comments on Monday, and to all leaders putting pressure on Russia, but added: Peace is possible, but only when Russia stops the war that it started and stops tormenting our people. 11.37am BST 11:37 Meanwhile over in Brussels, EU trade spokesperson Olof Gill offered a bit more detail on what's going on with the EU-US agreement amid growing questions about some of the details of what was agreed and let's say less than whole-hearted support from some member states. Addressing the media at the European Commission's briefing just now, Gill said: 'Let me just be totally clear about what's happening here, folks. So on Sunday, the two presidents reached a deal, a political agreement. What we are doing now is taking that political agreement, fleshing out the details, making sure that everything we need to be in there is in there that will lead to a joint statement. I can't tell you precisely when that joint statement will be ready, but it should be soon. That joint statement itself is not a legally binding document, but rather it's a road map. It's a political commitment, a series of political commitments, if you like. And from that, we can generate the stability I talked about, the predictability I talked about, that we can get back to doing what we do best in terms of transatlantic trade and investment. Our companies are deeply integrated supply chains, moving products and services across the Atlantic on a daily basis, worth €1.6tn annually. And from there, we will look at further areas where we can reduce tariffs and other areas of cooperation. But the joint statement, we view it as a kind of a platform, a foundation, from which we can allow transatlantic trade to continue to grow and to develop.' He added: 'So we have now achieved and across the board, all inclusive tariff ceiling of 15%. That's not the perfect outcome for the EU, nor is it the perfect outcome for the US. We believe it gives us a platform for moving forward, for putting this kind of saga behind us, and focusing on allowing transatlantic trade to develop, to cooperate in key areas of economic and geopolitical importance in an unstable world. And we are confident that this can enjoy the backing of our member states, of our businesses, of our citizens. We are making the best of a challenging situation, and we are determined to make this deal work.' 11.03am BST 11:03 We are now getting a reaction from the Kremlin, with spokesman Dmitry Peskov telling journalists that Russia 'has taken note' of president Trump's comments yesterday. He then said that a 'special military operation' – that's their term for the illegal invasion of Ukraine – continues, but Russia 'remains committed to the peace process to resolve the conflict around Ukraine and secure our interests' – despite deadly attacks overnight. Peskov also confirmed that there was a 'slowdown' in Russian efforts to revive diplomatic relations with the US. 10.16am BST 10:16 Speaking of Russian and Russian-inspired attacks, Poland said today that it believed a Colombian national acting on behalf of Russian intelligence services carried out two arson attacks in Poland last year. The 27-year-old was trained by a person linked to Russian intelligence services, receiving detailed instructions on how to carry out the attacks, Polish authorities said. The man was also later involved in an arson attack on a bus depot in the Czech Republic and was planning to carry out another attack on a shopping mall before being detained by the Czech authorities. The Polish Internal Security Agency, or ABW, said that Russian intelligence services were using messaging service Telegram to 'systemically and at large scale recruit people of Latin American origin and with previous military experience' to carry out attacks, later distributing photos and videos online for propaganda reasons. The man was already sentenced to eight years in prison in the Czech Republic, and faces another sentence in Poland. The disclosure from the Polish authorities come after the Czech intelligence services warned in their annual report that Russian recruiters particularly targeted poorer economic migrants from outside the EU to carry out attacks (Europe live earlier this month). Updated at 10.21am BST 9.39am BST 09:39 9.06am BST 09:06 Ukrainian president has just confirmed that at least 22 people were killed, and 85 injured in attacks targeting 73 Ukrainian cities and villages overnight, just hours after 'everyone once again felt hope for an end to the killings.' He described some of the attacks in more detail, including a strike on a city hospital in Kamianske which killed three, including a pregnant 23-year-old woman, and a 'deliberate' attack on a civilian penal colony in Zaporizhia. Zelenskyy said: Every murder of our people by the Russians; every Russian strike, when there could have been a ceasefire long ago, if Russia had not refused – all this shows that Moscow deserves very tough, truly painful, and therefore fair and effective sanctions pressure. They must be forced to stop the killings and make peace. He thanked US president Donald Trump for his comments on Monday, and to all leaders putting pressure on Russia, but added: Peace is possible, but only when Russia stops the war that it started and stops tormenting our people. 9.00am BST 09:00 Lisa O'Carroll in Brussels Pharmaceutical exports from the EU to the US could be hit by 15% tariffs as soon as Friday, according to the White House. It published a text on the EU trade deal stating pharma will be taxed at the base rate agreed in deal sealed at Donald Trump's golf course on Sunday. But it has caused yet more confusion because it comes less than 24 hours after EU officials were told that pharma would remain duty free until Trump's 232 national security investigations into pharma and semiconductors concluded. As part of President Trump's strategy to establish balanced trade, the European Union will pay the United States a tariff rate of 15%, including on autos and auto parts, pharmaceuticals, and semiconductors. However he had also said earlier this month he was going to phase in tariffs for pharma this week. The text also says that the EU has agreed not to introduce a tech tax. It says: 'The United States and the European Union intend to address unjustified digital trade barriers. In that respect, the European Union confirms that it will not adopt or maintain network usage fees. Furthermore, the United States and the European Union will maintain zero customs duties on electronic transmissions.' 8.53am BST 08:53 Lisa O'Carroll in Brussels The EU is considering partially suspending Israel from its flagship Horizon Europe science research programme, in the first concrete sanction of Benjamin Netanyahu's government since the killing of civilians in Gaza started. It is understood the move will need qualified majority of support from member states, meaning no one country can block it. As world continues to condemn the humanitarian catastrophe including demands by Donald Trump yesterday that the starvation of Gazan people must stop, it is the first sign that the bloc is prepared to take a concrete action. 'While Israel has announced a daily humanitarian pause in Gaza fighting and has met some of its commitments under the common understanding on humanitarian aid and access, the situation remains severe,' said a statement released by the Commission on 28 July. It added that the suspension would flow from its review of the trade association agreement with Israel, prompted by calls for a review of the agreement by the Netherlands backed by 17 countries in May. 'This suspension comes as a reaction to the review Art. 2 of the EU-Israel Association Agreement. Respect for these obligations constitutes an essential part of EU-Israel cooperation under the Agreement, including for bilateral scientific and technological cooperation between the two parties.' The decision was been taken by the college of European commissioners on Monday and will be put to the council of member states. Updated at 9.07am BST 8.44am BST 08:44 Jakub Krupa More than 20 people were killed in Russian attacks on Ukraine overnight, just hours after US president Donald Trump sought to put more pressure on Moscow by shortening the deadline for reaching an agreement on a ceasefire to '10-12' days. At least 16 people were killed in an attack on a Ukrainian prison, with more than 35 injured. More people died in other attacks in different parts of the country, including on a hospital and a private home, authorities reported. Andriy Yermak, top aide to Ukraine's president , said: This is another war crime by the Russians, who will not stop if they are not stopped. He added: 'Putin's regime, which also issues threats against the United States through some of its mouthpieces, must face economic and military blows that strip it of the capacity to wage war.' President Zelenskyy expressed Ukraine's high hopes last night, saying that Trump's declaration was 'right on time, when a lot can change through strength for real peace.' Let's see if we get any further reaction to the overnight attacks. Elsewhere, we will be looking for more reactions from the EU and across the bloc to the EU-US trade deal signed at the weekend, the latest on German response to Gaza as chancellor Friedrich Merz meets with Jordanian King Abdullah II, and more news from across the continent. I will bring you all key updates from across Europe here. It's Tuesday, 29 July 2025, it's Jakub Krupa here, and this is Europe Live. Good morning.
Reuters
6 hours ago
- Reuters
Kremlin says it 'noted' Trump's statement on shorter deadline for a ceasefire in Ukraine
MOSCOW, July 29 (Reuters) - The Kremlin said on Tuesday that it had "taken note" of a statement by U.S. President Donald Trump that he was shortening his deadline for Moscow to sign up to a ceasefire in Ukraine or face sanctions. Trump set a new deadline on Monday of 10 or 12 days for Russia to make progress toward ending the war in Ukraine or face consequences, underscoring frustration with President Vladimir Putin over the 3-1/2-year-old conflict. Asked about Trump's statement on Tuesday during a conference call with reporters, the Kremlin kept its remarks short. "We have taken note of President Trump's statement yesterday. The special military operation continues," said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, employing the term that Moscow uses for its war effort in Ukraine. "We remain committed to a peace process to resolve the conflict around Ukraine and to ensure our interests in the course of this settlement." Trump threatened on July 14 to impose new sanctions on Russia and buyers of its exports within 50 days, a deadline which would have expired in early September. But on Monday, during a visit to Britain, he shortened that deadline and said: "There's no reason in waiting... We just don't see any progress being made." Trump, who has held half a dozen calls with the Kremlin leader since returning to the White House in January, also said he was "not so interested in talking any more". Peskov declined to comment on that remark.
