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Epoch Times
13-05-2025
- Business
- Epoch Times
Trump to Drop Sanctions Against Syria to Give It a ‘Chance at Greatness'
President Donald Trump, on May 13, announced he had ordered the cessation of U.S. sanctions against Syria, warming diplomatic relations with the country's de facto new leaders. 'I will be ordering the cessation of sanctions against Syria in order to give them a chance at greatness,' Trump said in an address to the Saudi-U.S. Investment Forum in Riyadh on Tuesday. The United States had applied sanctions against Syria after the country fell into a state of civil war in 2011. These sanctions were aimed at raising pressure on Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, who finally relinquished power and fled the country in December, in the face of a surprise rebel offensive. Syria is currently under the de facto control of a self-styled transitional government. This government was formed out of Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham, a Sunni terrorist group formed out of a Syrian Al Qaeda offshoot known as al-Nusra Front. Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham remains This is a developing story and will be updated with additional details.
Shafaq News
23-04-2025
- Politics
- Shafaq News
Far-fetched fears: Iraq downplays risk to Syria's al-Sharaa during visit
Shafaq News/ On Wednesday, Iraq's al-Nasr (Victory) Coalition, led by former Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, dismissed concerns about possible threats to Syrian transitional President Ahmad al-Sharaa if he visits Baghdad soon, amid sharp political disagreements over Iraq's ties with Damascus. Speaking to Shafaq News, coalition spokesperson Aqeel al-Rudaini said the Iraqi government would be fully responsible for al-Sharaa's protection during any official visit. 'Even those who oppose the visit are unlikely to act in a way that would harm the government or tarnish Iraq's reputation,' he said. 'Targeting him is far-fetched—he would be under state protection.' Al-Rudaini also addressed legal concerns surrounding al-Sharaa—also known as Abu Muhammad al-Jolani, former leader of al-Nusra Front—who reportedly faces an outstanding Iraqi arrest warrant dating back to his time in al-Qaeda. 'There are international protocols,' al-Rudaini affirmed, noting that Iraq has not enforced numerous warrants against foreign individuals, including a pending arrest order for US President Donald Trump. 'You don't arrest a sitting head of state during an official visit.' Legal expert Mohammed Jumaa echoed that point, explaining that under both Iraqi and international law, heads of state enjoy immunity during their tenure. 'Any past charges against President al-Sharaa are effectively nullified while he holds office,' he told Shafaq News. The possibility of al-Sharaa visiting Baghdad has deepened divisions within Iraq's Coordination Framework, a bloc of Shiite political factions. A recent internal meeting exposed rifts, with senior figures such as Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq leader Qais al-Khazali absent, and State of Law leader Nouri al-Maliki leaving early due to disagreements—particularly over normalizing ties with Syria's transitional government under al-Sharaa. According to a political source familiar with the talks, Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani defended his government's outreach to Damascus during the meeting. He argued that increased cooperation with Syria could bolster Iraq's border security and disrupt ISIS infiltration attempts, while also easing US pressure over Baghdad's regional posture.
Rudaw Net
13-03-2025
- Politics
- Rudaw Net
UNAMI expresses concern over attacks on Syrian nationals in Iraq
Also in Iraq Iraqi forces crack down on groups that target Syrian refugees Death of state media journalist sparks controversy in Iraq Drone targets Turkish military base in Nineveh Iraq returns 27,000 antiquities to national museum: Official A+ A- ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) on Thursday condemned the reported assaults on Syrian workers in Iraq, which occurred following the recent violence in Syria's Alawite-majority western coast. 'Reports circulating of attacks against Syrian workers in Iraq are of grave concern,' UNAMI said in a statement on X, urging ''all to abide by the law, exercise wisdom, stay away from hate speech and maintain stability within a secure Iraq that is reconciled with itself and its surrounding.' A video has been circulating on Iraqi social media since Tuesday, depicting a newly-formed armed group calling itself the 'Ya Ali Popular Formations' attacking Syrian nationals in Iraq. The shadow group alleged that it is pursuing members of the al-Nusra Front (Jabhat al-Nusra) and its supporters in Iraq. The al-Nusra Front is the predecessor of the Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham, which led a coalition of rebel groups that toppled the regime of ousted Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad in early December. The assault is widely believed to have been motivated by the escalation of violence in Syria's Alawite-majority western coastal regions, which reportedly resulted in the deaths of around 1,500 people - mostly civilians - according to a Monday report by the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. UNAMI on Thursday welcomed 'the unequivocal condemnation of such attacks' by Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia' al-Sudani and commended the Baghdad's 'decision to set up a specialized security team to pursue the perpetrators of such attacks, which infringe on human dignity as well as human rights and violate the applicable Iraqi laws.' Sabah al-Numan, spokesperson for Iraq's Joint Operations Command, told Rudaw on Wednesday that 'a security team has been formed to arrest those who attack Syrian citizens working in Iraq and commit violent and inappropriate acts against them.' The team was formed per Sudani's orders, stated Numan who also serves as a spokesman for the premier. Numan condemned the 'criminal' acts 'which violate all human and moral values and constitute a blatant infringement on human dignity and rights – regardless of nationality or affiliation.' The attacks drew the condemnation of Syria's new leadership. 'We condemn the attacks on Syrians in Iraq, as these acts constitute a violation of human rights and international law,' the Syrian foreign ministry said in a statement. It called on Baghdad to pursue the perpetrators and hold them accountable. On Wednesday, Iraqi interior ministry spokesperson Miqdad Miri said that security agencies and intelligence departments recorded several incidents by foreign nationals that incited sectarian hate and violence. 'These actions are rejected, and those on Iraqi soil must respect the law and traditions of its people, and anyone who crosses the line will be handed over to the law,' Miri stressed. Several Syrian refugees in Iraq have also been arrested over the past week for allegedly supporting 'extremist organizations.'
Yahoo
13-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Syria's mass graves: Accounting for the dead and disappeared is crucial for the nation to heal
Shortly after the fall of Bashar Assad in Syria in December 2024, reports emerged of mass graves being uncovered in liberated areas. Grim as such discoveries are, they should come as little surprise. The scale of the regime's torture and killings in its detention facilities became evident years earlier, when in January 2014 a forensic photographer defected and left the country with a cache of 55,000 photos of people who had been tortured and died in detention. As an expert in forensic anthropology and mass casualties in conflict, I was asked to evaluate what became known as the 'Caesar photographs.' What was clear to me then, and is even more so now, is that those photos represented a systematic approach to torturing, killing and disappearing massive numbers of people by the Assad regime. With Assad now gone, the newly formed government of the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham has vowed to seek justice for the crimes Syrians suffered under Assad. Doing so will be difficult, even with the civil war in Syria being one of the better monitored conflicts in recent history. Yet it is a task that is imperative for the sake of pursuing justice in a shattered country and reducing the likelihood of violence returning to Syria. Since Syria erupted into violence in 2011, several groups have been collecting evidence of human rights violations. These include the Syrian Justice and Accountability Center, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the Syrian Emergency Task Force and the Commission for International Justice and Accountability. Internationally, the United Nations established an International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism for Syria in 2016 to assist any investigations and prosecutions of those responsible for serious violations of international law in Syria since March 2011. Estimates of those killed since the start of civil conflict in 2011 range anywhere from 100,000 to over 600,000, with civilian deaths accounting for at least 160,000. Many of these deaths have been at the hands of the Assad regime. But different armed groups, including the al-Nusra Front and Islamic State group, have also been accused of atrocities. From the perspective of holding perpetrators accountable, that could complicate matters. The leader of now ruling Hayat Tahrir al-Sham is the founder of the al-Nusra Front and might not be willing to hold his group or others accountable or acknowledge the crimes of that group. There are three dimensions of accounting for the missing following conflict. First, there is the task of identifying and repatriating the remains of those in mass graves to allow family and friends to grieve. Second, the rights of victims to know the truth about what happened to their loved ones needs to be addressed. And finally, the process needs to provide justice, accountability and reconciliation, regardless of who was responsible. But before this can take place, the question of who is responsible for the accounting needs to be addressed. Countries coming out of civil conflict have turned to different mechanisms, from truth commissions to criminal tribunals. In the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, special U.N. courts were set up to investigate and prosecute perpetrators of grievous crimes. These tribunals were created as independent judicial bodies dedicated to investigating and prosecuting those most responsible for the crimes that had been committed during conflict. Guatemala, which emerged from a decades-long civil war in 1996, turned to national human rights and victim organizations to take the lead in a process of 'transitional justice.' This included the Commission for Historical Clarification, which through its investigation concluded that an estimated 200,000 people had been killed. The nongovernmental Forensic Anthropology Foundation of Guatemala, or FAFG, has since 1993 formed a fundamental part of searching, identifying and repatriating the missing. FAFG collects personal information, DNA profiles and witness statements and is responsible for protecting the rights of victims' families in Guatemala's judicial system. Its work continues to this day. As to the Syrian civil war, a decision over the scope of any investigation into the disappeared and dead will likewise have to be made. Will it include all those missing and in mass graves in areas held by al-Nusra, the Islamic State group and other armed groups, as well as those killed by Assad? The fact that groups and individuals that now form the government could have been involved in human rights violations may risk future investigations being skewed toward just the victims of Assad. Even if the scope was narrowed to Assad's crimes, it's unclear how far back one should go. Assad rule in Syria began more than 50 years ago under Assad's father, Hafez al Assad. And killings and disappearances date back to the elder's time in power, including the 1982 massacre in the city of Hama in which an estimated 20,000 to 40,000 were killed. Another fact-finding question concerns the sharing of information between civil society groups and the state. The information gathered on the war by various NGOs so far is technically held or 'owned' by such groups, not the Syrian state. This is for a good reason, as victims trust these organizations to protect information from the perpetrators, some of whom might form part of the new government. The International Commission on Missing Persons, an NGO with its seat in the Netherlands, gained its reputation while identifying the dead from the conflict in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s and early 2000s. It has already collected and stored testimonies from over 76,200 Syrian relatives of more than 28,000 missing persons and has identified 66 mass grave locations. Other organizations have similar testimonies. But to what extent will these groups share their data and analysis with a future Syrian state led by a rebel group that itself is accused of human rights violations, such as arbitrary detentions and torture? At some point, the state of Syria will need to be involved in the process. Legally and in practice, the state issues a citizen's 'civil identity' through things such as a birth certificate that establish a person with rights and responsibilities. In the same manner, the state issues death certificates in which the manner of death determines any judicial reactions – such as a criminal investigation in cases where the death is due to homicide. The state is also important in resolving issues such as inheritance and widower status. Identifying the remains from the mass graves is therefore not just a 'technical' issue dependent on cutting-edge DNA laboratories and missing-persons databases. It is also something that any future Syrian state should work toward, and then own and take responsibility for. Shifting responsibility away from the state to an international body would not really help Syria develop its own accountability mechanisms or hold the government to delivering justice for the victims and their families. In my view, empowering victims in this transitional justice process needs to be a priority for the Syrian state. This includes the establishment of a transparent forensic and investigative effort to address the concerns of families searching for loved ones. It should not, I believe, be outsourced. From my experience with similar processes elsewhere, it is important that Syrians become 'experts' in all aspects of this process. No doubt, the task will take time and searching for the truth about what happened, and will involve perpetrators and victims alike. It might well be a painful and painstaking process. But it is a necessary one if postconflict Syrian is to hold to account those who attempted to 'erase' the identity of victims by disappearing them, burying them in mass graves, or leaving them under the bombed rubble of their neighborhoods. This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: Stefan Schmitt, Florida International University Read more: Assad leaves behind a fragmented nation – stabilizing Syria will be a major challenge for fractured opposition and external backers Syria after Assad: A fresh chance for inclusive governance and power-sharing, or more of the same? Why Syria's reconstruction may depend on the fate of its minorities Stefan Schmitt does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
