Iran's tense meeting with Beirut, and Syria blames Israel for instability
On today's episode of Trending Middle East:
Syria and Turkey strike new military deal
Postwar civilian rule may last up to a year, says Gaza's proposed governor
This episode features Jamie Prentis, Beirut correspondent; Lizzie Porter, Turkey correspondent; and Nada AlTaher, Senior Foreign Reporter.
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The National
22 minutes ago
- The National
Syria's top Christian leader calls for protection after meeting Al Shara
Syria's main Christian religious figure has appealed to President Ahmad Al Shara to take practical measures to protect the sect after violence against the Druze eroded minority support for the new regime, sources said on Sunday. Mr Al Shara met Yohanna Al Yazigi, the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Syria, and "discussed the Church's role in consolidating and boosting the bonds of citizenship and national unity", official news agency Sana reported. Mr Yazigi has been critical of Mr Al Shara, a former member of Al Qaeda, whose Hayat Tahrir Al Sham (HTS) ousted former president Bashar Al Assad in December. It was the first meeting between the two since a suicide bombing killed 23 people at a church in a low-income area of Damascus in June. Mr Al Yazigi said the authorities bore responsibility for not protecting minorities and condolences sent by Mr Al Shara were not enough to assure the sect. Government forces have since launched an offensive to capture the mostly Druze governorate of Sweida from a defiant cleric, killing hundreds of people and drawing Israeli intervention. Maintaining Syria's hundreds of thousands of Christians is key to maintaining diplomatic ties with Washington, a process started when US President Donald Trump met Mr Al Shara in Riyadh in May. The Patriarch told the President that promises he has made to Western powers to protect Christians "need to be translated on the ground", according to a clergyman briefed on the meeting. "The message from the Patriarch was that the rhetoric must be matched by tactics and mechanisms to protect the Christians and integrate them in the new system," the source said. This includes readmitting Christians into the security apparatus and stopping perceived provocation against them, such as encroachment by HTS loyalists on Christian neighbourhoods. Since the removal of Assad family rule, new security personnel have all been drawn from the majority Sunni community. Some Christians, however, have been readmitted to administrative roles. An 11-day HTS-led offensive at the tail end of last year has all but ended 14 years of civil war, in which many Christians and other minorities supported the Assad regime against Sunni rebels. However, sectarian attacks have continued, claiming victims from the country's Alawite minority, the bulk of whom were killed in March and more recently the Druze community of Sweida. A Christian politician said an ongoing siege by the army and militias allied with the government on Sweida has unsettled the Christians. "Al Shara has shown that he can be practical and back off," he said. "But he has not shown that he can contain his core constituency, which is ultimately militant, and this scares the Christians." In 2010, a year before the uprising against Mr Al Assad, Syria had about 850,000 Christians, forming about 4.5 per cent of the population. Late in 2011, the civil war broke out, broadly pitting Mr Al Assad's Alawite minority, an offshoot of Shiite Islam, against the Sunni Muslim majority.
Khaleej Times
6 hours ago
- Khaleej Times
Syrian president says unifying country 'should not be with blood'
Syrian President Ahmed Al Sharaa has said the battle to unify his country after years of civil war "should not be with blood", rejecting any partition and accusing Israel of meddling in the south. His remarks, released by state TV on Sunday, came as hundreds demonstrated in south Syria's Sweida province, denouncing sectarian violence last month and calling for the right to self-determination for the Druze-majority province. "We still have another battle ahead of us to unify Syria, and it should not be with blood and military force... it should be through some kind of understanding because Syria is tired of war," Sharaa said during a dialogue session involving notables from the northwest province of Idlib and other senior officials. "I do not see Syria as at risk of division. Some people desire a process of dividing Syria and trying to establish cantons... this matter is impossible," he said according to a recording of the meeting, distributed overnight by state media. "Some parties seek to gain power through regional power, Israel or others. This is also extremely difficult and cannot be implemented," he said. At the protest in Sweida, some demonstrators waved the Israeli flag and called for self-determination for the region. A week of bloodshed in Sweida began on July 13 with clashes between Druze fighters and Sunni Bedouin, but rapidly escalated, drawing in government forces, with Israel also carrying out strikes. Syrian authorities have said their forces intervened to stop the clashes, but witnesses, Druze factions and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights have accused them of siding with the Bedouin and committing abuses against the Druze, including summary executions. Sharaa said that Sweida "witnessed many violations from all sides... some members of the security forces and army in Syria also carried out some violations". The state is required "to hold all perpetrators of violations to account", whatever their affiliation, he added. "Israel is intervening directly in Sweida, seeking to implement policies aimed at weakening the state in general or finding excuses to interfere in ongoing policies in the southern region," Sharaa said. Israel, which has its own Druze community, has said it has acted to defend the minority group as well as enforce its demands for the demilitarisation of southern Syria. Syria's new authorities are also in talks with a semi-autonomous Kurdish administration that runs swathes of the country's north and northeast and has called for decentralisation, which Damascus has rejected. Implementation of a March 10 deal on integrating the Kurds' semi-autonomous civil and military institutions into the state has been held up by differences between the parties. "We are now discussing the mechanisms for implementation" of the deal, Sharaa said.
Khaleej Times
8 hours ago
- Khaleej Times
Israel strikes Houthi 'energy infrastructure site' in Yemen
Israel's military said Sunday it struck an "energy infrastructure site" in Yemen used by the Huthi rebels, the latest action against the Iran-backed group which has launched attacks at Israel throughout the Gaza war. A military statement said Israeli forces "struck... deep inside Yemen, targeting an energy infrastructure site that served the Huthi terrorist regime" in the area of Yemen's rebel-held capital Sanaa, without naming the site. The Huthis' Al-Masirah TV, citing a civil defence source, reported "an aggression targeting the Haziz power plant" south of Sanaa. There were no immediate reports of casualties. Since the October 2023 start of the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, the Huthis have repeatedly fired missiles and drones at Israel, claiming to act in solidarity with the Palestinians. Most Huthi attacks have been intercepted, but have prompted Israeli air strikes on rebel targets in Yemen. The military said its latest "strikes were conducted in response to repeated attacks" by the Huthis. On Thursday Israel said it intercepted a missile fired from Yemen, with the Huthis later claiming responsibility for it. Beyond attacks on Israel, the Huthis have also targeted alleged Israeli-linked ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden off Yemen. The Iran-backed group broadened its campaign to target ships tied to the United States and Britain after the two countries began military strikes aimed at securing the waterway in January 2024. In May, the rebels cemented a ceasefire with the United States that ended weeks of intense US strikes, but vowed to continue targeting Israeli ships.
