Syria withdraws from Paris talks on integrating Kurds
A Syrian government official said Saturday that authorities would not participate in planned talks in Paris on integrating the Kurdish semi-autonomous administration into the Syrian state and demanded future negotiations be held in Damascus.
The move came a day after the Kurdish administration, which controls swathes of the north and northeast, held a conference involving several Syrian minority communities, the first such event since Islamists overthrew longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in December.
Participants included the head of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) Mazloum Abdi, who on March 10 signed a deal with President Ahmed al-Sharaa to integrate the Kurds' civil and military institutions into the state.
The conference's final statement called for "a democratic constitution that... establishes a decentralised state", guaranteeing the participation of all components of Syrian society.
Damascus has previously rejected calls for decentralisation.
"This conference was a blow to current negotiating efforts, and based on this, (the government) will not participate in any meetings scheduled in Paris," state news agency SANA quoted an unidentified government official as saying.
The government "calls on international mediators to move all negotiations to Damascus, as this is the legitimate, national location for dialogue among Syrians", the official said.
Late last month, Syria, France and the United States said they agreed to convene talks in Paris "as soon as possible" on implementing the March 10 agreement.
Recent sectarian clashes in south Syria's Druze-majority Sweida province and massacres of the Alawite community on Syria's coast in March have deepened Kurdish concerns as progress on negotiations with Damascus has largely stalled.
The event also saw video addresses from an influential spiritual leader of Syria's Druze community in the country's south, Hikmat al-Hijri, and from prominent Alawite spiritual leader Ghazal Ghazal.
Damascus has strongly criticised Hijri after he called last month for international protection for the Druze and appealed to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for assistance during the sectarian clashes.
The government will not "sit at the negotiating table with any party that seeks to revive the era of the former regime under any cover", the official told SANA, condemning the hosting of "separatist figures involved in hostile acts".
"The government sees the conference as an attempt to internationalise Syrian affairs" and invite foreign interference, the official added.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Behind the attack: How IDF's northern chief Uri Gordin defeated Hezbollah
The 'Post' examines how Maj.-Gen. Uri Gordin was able to catch Hezbollah at its weakest and decapitate the growing threat on Israel's northern border. It was September 15, 2024, and theJerusalem Post was visiting IDF Northern Command Headquarters to hold interviews and off-record conversations with relatively senior brigadier general and colonel-level officers there. What I could not report at the time was that during the visit to the base, I witnessed up close thousands of officers and soldiers in unusual meetings, clearly preparing for a major operation against Hezbollah. And yet nothing leaked, and even the officers whom the Post spoke to thought it was still quite possible that the sides would reach a deal before the war would get much larger. A large part of the calm and readiness to turn the war volume immediately up or down came from their commander, outgoing Northern Command chief Maj. Gen. Uri Gordin. The Post has learned that Gordin was ready to launch a game-changing IDF assault on Hezbollah in October 2023, May 2024, July 2024, and again in September 2024, when it finally played out. Gordin is essentially a cool customer at all times. Even when people raise their voice to him, which would often lead other IDF officers to yell back or crack a sarcastic comment, he simply takes the energy out of any fight, staking out his position calmly as if nothing can sway him. It does not hurt that he is huge and built like a wall, which gives his calm and firm words a different resonance and power. Tearing apart Hezbollah This meant that at 3:30 p.m. on September 17, 2024, when exploding sabotaged beepers started literally tearing Hezbollah and its forces apart all over Lebanon, the Post has learned that there was no clear victory lap moment. Part of the reason was his natural unruffled state, but part of it also was that Gordin knew this was just the opening shot. He now had a race for time. Gordin needed to bomb and destroy Hezbollah's rockets and ballistic missiles before they could rain hellfire down on Tel Aviv and Haifa. Even with the beeper's initial success, there were thousands or more Israeli civilian lives in the balance. But Gordin was also calm for another reason. He had carried out a very serious "dress rehearsal" and knew how that script had ended. In late July 2024, Hezbollah killed 12 Druze-Israelis and injured 42 others in a rocket attack on the northern Israeli town of Majdal Shams. Gordin and Israel responded by assassinating Hezbollah's chief military commander, Fuad Shukr. Sources close to Gordin have told the Post that an element of the success against Shukr was total surprise and a variety of military actions which misled Shukr and Hezbollah into a sense of false safety and complacency. Gordin managed this despite bombastic statements by top Israeli officials about a harsh response. The Post has learned that Gordin knew that once he removed Shukr that Hezbollah Chief Hassan Nasrallah was at a loss. Nasrallah had always relied on Shukr for military strategy and tactics, and was much less sure of himself and slower to make decisions without him by his side. Gordin's causing Nasrallah to think and move slowly would prove critical. In fact, sources close to Gordin told the Post that he outfoxed Hezbollah a number of times. The key time was August 25, 2024. Hezbollah had hoped to fire off possibly up to 1,000 rockets and missiles on Israel in one day. By the time Gordin was done with them, it had only managed to fire off around 210 rockets, hitting a chicken coop and not much else. This was part of how Gordin felt confident that he could run the table against Hezbollah a few weeks later. On September 23, led by Gordin, the air force and IDF intelligence, the military struck 1,525 Hezbollah targets all in one day. As Gordin quietly savored that victory, he now felt that much more secure than he had when the beepers first went off six days before. He now knew he could hit any Hezbollah target he wanted virtually whenever he wanted. The minds behind the muscle And Gordin had not been a passive commander. Credit should be given to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, then defense minister Yoav Gallant, and then IDF chief Herzi Halevi on managing a stunningly successful operation against Hezbollah. But the Post has learned that the plans for how and when to attack Hezbollah originated with Gordin and that he was not bashful about initiating new and audacious attack plans within the defense establishment. Likewise, the country and the world all learned about Israel's invasion of southern Lebanon on September 30. But on October 1, Gordin told the Post and other media that he had shepherded through over 70 covert invasion operations into Lebanon during the war prior to the actual big invasion. The Post understands that Gordin was very aggressive in seeking and obtaining permission from his superiors to undertake so many covert invasions of Lebanon. Incidentally, this was one of the secrets to why the IDF's big invasion faced almost no Hezbollah resistance. Many of Hezbollah's forces in southern Lebanon had not just been bombed on a steady basis by Gordin and the air force over 11 months. Gordin had also had his best troops going head to head with any Hezbollah forces who had not gotten the hint to flee, including destroying many of their hideouts and weapons storage depots. There were also IDF generals who clashed with the political class over broad strategic issues or complained when the government did not seem to back them enough. Gordin faced much of this when Netanyahu and much of the government let him take much of the brunt of the criticism from 60,000-80,000 Israeli northern residents who had to evacuate their homes when the war started. Despite such experiences, Gordin always remained loyal and toed the line to the political echelon, and is expected to eventually get another top post in the IDF. The debate is whether his next posting will be IDF intelligence chief or deputy IDF chief. In between, for the next year or so, he is expected to undertake military academic studies, much the same way that current IDF chief Eyal Zamir did, while he was waiting for another public service posting. In two recent visits to Lebanon in which the Post accompanied Gordin, the outgoing northern command chief made it clear that his goal had been to secure security for Israel's future. He told the Post straight out that he would prefer another round of a significant war with Hezbollah if that is what it would take to get the group to disarm and to cease to be a major threat to Israel. In his outgoing speech on Wednesday night, he concluded, "Preserve security, and not the quiet," implying clearly that quiet will eventually come through security. Part of this highly aggressive attitude comes from his modest apology to the northern residents who were stuck out of their homes for over a year given that he and the military failed to confront Hezbollah as it built up its threat capacity on Israel's border. The highly successful IDF invasion of southern Lebanon led by Gordin found that had Hezbollah decided to invade Israel on October 7 at the same time as Hamas, it was so stocked with weapons that it likely could have conquered large portions of the Galilee. As Gordin passes on the baton to IDF Maj. Gen. Rafi Milo, until Wednesday the head of the IDF Home Front Command, can at least feel – along with his successful elimination of most of the Assad Syrian regime's military capabilities – that he has left the northern front safer than it has been in over 20 years.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Can Lebanon disarm Hezbollah?
Lebanon's cabinet decision gave the army until the end of August to submit a disarmament plan to the government. Lebanon's cabinet has told the army to draw up a plan to establish a state monopoly on arms in a challenge to the Iran-backed Shi'ite Muslim terrorist group Hezbollah, which rejects calls to disarm. Why is there a push to disarm Hezbollah now? Israel pummeled Hezbollah last year, killing many of its top brass and 5,000 of its fighters before a November truce brokered by the United States. That deal committed Lebanon to restricting arms to six specific state security forces, and further stipulated that it should confiscate unauthorized weapons and prevent rearmament by non-state groups. In the months since, a new Lebanese government vowed to confine arms across the country to state control, and Hezbollah's main arms route was cut when its Syrian ally Bashar al-Assad was ousted in December and Israel attacked its sponsor Iran in June. The government is facing pressure from Washington and Hezbollah's domestic rivals to act swiftly amid fears that Israel could intensify air strikes on Lebanon. Despite November's ceasefire, Israel has continued to carry out strikes on what it says are Hezbollah arms depots and fighters, mostly in southern Lebanon. How is the US involved? In June, US envoy Thomas Barrack proposed a roadmap to Lebanese officials to fully disarm Hezbollah in exchange for Israel halting its strikes on Lebanon and withdrawing its troops from the five points they still occupy in southern Lebanon. But Hezbollah and its main Shi'ite ally, the Amal Movement, led by Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, claim that the sequencing should be reversed, with Israel withdrawing and halting strikes before any talks on Hezbollah's arms. Washington has grown impatient, demanding that the Beirut government make the first move with a formal commitment to disarm Hezbollah. Why is Hezbollah so well-armed? After Lebanon's 15-year civil war ended in 1990, Hezbollah, founded by Iran's Revolutionary Guards in 1982, was the only group allowed to keep its weapons on the grounds that it was fighting Israel in the country's south. After Israel withdrew in 2000 the group did not give up its arms, arguing its ability to fight was still a critical element of national defense against Israel. A ceasefire agreement after a war between Hezbollah and Israel in 2006 was backed by a U.N. resolution demanding the disarmament of all militant groups - but Hezbollah again kept its weapons, accusing Israel of having violated other parts of the truce deal, which Israel denies. Hezbollah took over parts of Beirut in fighting in 2008, underscoring its dominance. The group exercised decisive sway over state affairs in the following years as its power grew. Hezbollah's objections Hezbollah has claimed the government's decision to ask the army to draw up plans to disarm it a "grave sin" that "fully serves Israel's interest." Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem rejected each clause in Barrack's roadmap, and when he spoke on Tuesday, dozens of motorcycles with men carrying Hezbollah flags drove around the group's stronghold in Beirut's southern suburbs - a show of its enduring strength. Hovering over any attempt to force Hezbollah to disarm is the specter of previous bouts of civil unrest, including the 2008 fighting, triggered by the government's attempt to shut down the group's military telecoms network - an important facility for the group, but still less central than its arms. What are the political complications? Lebanon's power-sharing system apportions public sector posts - including in parliament, the cabinet and other roles - to different religious sects according to quotas. The system is meant to ensure no sect is cut out of decision making, but critics say it leads to political paralysis. Hezbollah and its political ally Amal dominate Shi'ite representation in both parliament and cabinet. Two Shi'ite ministers were traveling during Tuesday's cabinet session, and the other two walked out in the final moments as the decision was being taken. Qassem has said any government decision would require a national consensus and may challenge the legitimacy of cabinet decisions taken without Shi'ites. Next steps for disarmament The cabinet decision gave the army a deadline to submit a disarmament plan to the government by the end of August. Another session scheduled for Thursday will discuss Barrack's proposal. Some Lebanese parties may keep trying to find a workaround that avoids a confrontation between Hezbollah and the state while warding off heavier Israeli strikes. Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
IDF operates on outskirts of Gaza City ahead of occupation plans
The Israeli Air Force is also operating in the area in coordination with the troops in the field, striking military targets and terrorists, the military added. IDF soldiers from the 99th Division began operating in the Zeitun area, located on the outskirts of Gaza City, for the first time since the new operations to occupy the city were announced, the IDF said this Friday. The military said that soldiers are working to locate explosives, eliminate terrorists, and dismantle terrorist infrastructure above and below ground. As part of their activity, Israeli forces struck and dismantled a booby-trapped structure that stored weapons. The Israeli Air Force is also operating in the area in coordination with the troops in the field, striking military targets and terrorists, the military added. IDF seals 7 km.-long tunnel network in Gaza's Beit Hanun Earlier on Friday, a 7 km.-long tunnel in the Beit Hanun area of the Gaza Strip was sealed today after a four-week-long operation led by the Southern Command's Engineering Corps troops, the IDF announced on Friday. "The operations involved pumping more than 20,000 cubic meters of sealing material through a dedicated system established along approximately 4.5 kilometers - from the border area near Netiv HaAsara to the heart of the underground tunnel route," the statement read. The military said this operation resulted in significant damage to the Beit Hanun Battalion and its operational defeat.
