DAMASCUS: Firefighters were battling on Tuesday to extinguish multiple wildfires raging across the central Syrian countryside, local civil defense officials said, as temperatures reached 40 degrees Celsius in parts of the country.
One fire broke out on public farmland in the central province of Hama, where firefighting teams were working to stop it spreading to surrounding areas, the head of the local forest protection center, Amjad Hammad, told state news agency SANA.
Another was raging across agricultural zones in the adjacent province of Homs, the head of civil defense there told SANA, saying civil defense teams were struggling to contain it due to “the mountainous and rugged terrain.”
Local outlet Sham FM reported that families from the village of Al-Marana had fled their homes as the wildfire approached.
The state news agency said temperatures were up to six degrees Celsius higher than average across the country on Tuesday, with active gusts and “very hot clouds.”
They hit 40C (104F) at the ancient city of Palmyra, in the province of Homs, and touched 39C in the capital Damascus, where chronic power cuts have made it hard for families to stay cool.
One group of women in the capital charged tiny electric fans with portable batteries and regularly dunked their feet in cool water to make up for the lack of air conditioning.
“We move the couches here, pour water on the ground and direct the fans toward the ground, then we feel like we are in the Maldives,” said one of them, Mounira Wassouf.
Erratic rainfall and rising heat are among the suspected impacts of climate change already affecting Syria. They have shrunk Syria’s wheat crop in recent years down some 75 percent from around 4 million tons annually pre-war.
Syria struggles to contain wildfires as temperatures rise
https://arab.news/4eksb
Syria struggles to contain wildfires as temperatures rise
- Erratic rainfall and rising heat are among the suspected impacts of climate change already affecting Syria
Family of an Israeli held hostage in Iraq for 800 days hangs on to hope for her freedom
The family of the scholar – Elizabeth Tsurkov, who also holds Russian citizenship – is trying to remain optimistic
DUBAI: With the world’s attention fixed on efforts to free Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, talks are quietly continuing to liberate an Israeli hostage held in Iraq by a different Iranian-backed militant group.
A 38-year-old Middle East scholar from Israel was kidnapped in 2023 while doing research in Iraq, and officials from several countries say progress is being made to secure her release.
The family of the scholar – Elizabeth Tsurkov, who also holds Russian citizenship – is trying to remain optimistic. Even though the circumstances are completely different, the release of hostages from Gaza earlier this year gave the family reason to stay hopeful that Tsurkov, who marks 800 days in captivity on Thursday, will also be freed.
“It’s like a phoenix rising from the ashes when the hostages come out. You see that despite everything they’ve been through, there is still life in them,” said Emma Tsurkov, the scholar’s sister.
There were reports over the weekend that negotiators were very close to a deal, but the terms are complicated and Tsurkov’s sister said no deal appears imminent.
“One of the most difficult parts about having a loved one in captivity is the uncertainty,” she said.
Negotiators are focusing on an exchange that would include seven Lebanese captured during the latest war between Israel and Hezbollah. But Iraqi and Lebanese officials told The Associated Press the talks recently stalled over Iran’s demand for the release of one of its citizens detained in Iraq for the killing of an American.
Held captive by an Iraqi militant group
Elizabeth Tsurkov disappeared in Baghdad in March 2023 while doing research for her doctorate at Princeton University. The only direct sign of life her family has received is a November 2023 video of her broadcast on an Iraqi television station and circulated on pro-Iranian social media.
In the past few months, officials from several countries, including the Iraqi foreign minister and deputy prime minister, have confirmed she is alive and being held in Iraq by a Shiite Muslim militant group called Kataeb Hezbollah, according to her sister. The group has not claimed the kidnapping nor have Iraqi officials publicly said which group is responsible.
Kataeb Hezbollah’s leader and founder died in an American airstrike in 2020 that also killed Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the commander of Iran’s elite Quds Force and the architect of its military alliances in the region.
The group, an ally of Hezbollah in Lebanon, is part of a coalition of Iranian-backed militias that are officially part of Iraq’s armed forces but in practice often act on their own. The US government listed Kataeb Hezbollah as a terrorist organization in 2009.
Moving pieces from Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, Israel, and the US
Emma Tsurkov, who lives in California, believes the US, Israel’s closest ally, has the most leverage to pressure the Iraqi government for her sister’s release – either by withholding arms or financial assistance. Israel, which does not negotiate directly with Iraq because the two countries have no formal relations, has less influence, she said.
Although Tsurkov entered Iraq using her Russian passport, Russia has declined to get involved in negotiating for her release, Emma Tsurkov said.
Earlier this year, a senior Israeli official said the Israeli government is working with allies in a renewed push to win the freedom of Tsurkov. Israeli officials declined to comment for this story.
About a month ago, a US official and several former diplomats visited Baghdad to mediate for
Tsurkov’s release, according to a senior Iraqi political official involved in the negotiations. They held indirect talks with Iranian officials and leaders from the militant group holding her, according to this official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the secretive talks.
Adam Boehler, the Trump administration’s top hostage envoy, has repeatedly called for Tsurkov’s release and has traveled to Iraq to press his case. “We have and will continue to underscore with the Iraqi government the urgency of securing her release,” State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said Tuesday.
Another Iraqi official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said the US and Israel do not object to the release of the Lebanese prisoners held in Israel.
An official with a Lebanese group involved in the indirect negotiations said that, in exchange for Tsurkov’s freedom, they are seeking the release of seven Lebanese prisoners, some of whom are associated with Hezbollah and a Lebanese navy officer who was kidnapped by an Israeli commando force on Lebanon’s northern coast in early November. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Also involved in a possible exchange are five men in prison in Iraq for the 2022 fatal shooting of Stephen Edward Troell, a 45-year-old teacher from Tennessee. Troell was killed as he pulled up to the street where he lived in central Baghdad with his family.
Iranian citizen Mohammed Ali Ridha was convicted in the killing, along with four Iraqis, in what was described as a kidnapping gone wrong. The prospect of Ridha’s release is one of the major holdups in the negotiations, Lebanese and Iraqi officials said.
Emma Tsurkov said the complexity of the negotiations is devastating for her family. “This isn’t a real estate deal, we aren’t talking about a piece of land,” she said. “We’re talking about an innocent human being who is having a just horrendous ordeal.”
Finding hope in hostages released from Gaza
In an interview in September 2023, Tsurkov said her sister’s ordeal was “the type of nightmare I wish on no one.” Three weeks later, some 251 people were captured during Hamas’ cross-border attack on southern Israel, which sparked the war in Gaza. There are 58 hostages still being held in Gaza, though Israel believes only around a third of them are alive.
Tsurkov said that although her sister’s kidnapping is very different from the situation of the hostages, she couldn’t help but watch the videos of the unifications between released hostages from Gaza and their families earlier this year and wonder if she will ever get that opportunity to embrace her sister again.
“I know my sister is going through something so incredibly difficult, and I hope that I get to see her again, and I hope that there’s still life left in her.”
She said one of the more heartbreaking aspects of the past two years has been how many officials have told her they wish they could benefit from her sister’s expertise during the negotiations over a possible deal.
Elizabeth Tsurkov is a well-known academic who was often interviewed in the media, and her research was focused on sectarianism in the Middle East, specifically Iraq.
“If we want a good understanding of the Middle East, we need people like my sister to travel to the Middle East to research it,” Emma Tsurkov said.
US envoy for Syria arrives in Damascus for historic visit
- The US flag was hoisted Thursday outside of the long-shuttered ambassador’s residence in Damascus
- Washington was initially circumspect about Syria’s new leaders, led by Ahmad Al-Sharaa, the former leader of an Islamist insurgent group
DAMASCUS: The US envoy for Syria, Thomas Barrack, arrived at the ambassador’s residence in the Syrian capital on Thursday, in the first official visit since the US embassy there closed in 2012, a year after Syria’s conflict broke out.
Barrack, accompanied by the Syrian foreign minister, was appointed to the Syria role on May 23. He is also the US ambassador to Turkiye.
The US flag was hoisted Thursday outside of the long-shuttered ambassador’s residence in Damascus, in a sign of growing ties between Washington and the new Syrian government.
Barrack, who has also been appointed special envoy to Syria, arrived to inaugurate the residence, Syrian state-run news agency SANA reported.
Washington hasn’t formally reopened its embassy in Damascus, which closed in 2012 after protests against the government of then President Bashar Assad, met by a brutal crackdown, spiraled into civil war. Assad was unseated in December in a lightning rebel offensive.
But Barrack’s visit and the raising of the flag were a significant signal of warming relations.
Washington was initially circumspect about Syria’s new leaders, led by Ahmad Al-Sharaa, the former leader of an Islamist insurgent group that the US still lists as a terrorist organization. However, the Trump administration — encouraged by two US allies in the region, Saudi Arabia and Turkiye — has in recent weeks shown increasing openness to Damascus.
Trump held a surprise meeting with Al-Sharaa in Riyadh earlier this month, and the US has begun to roll back decades of sanctions slapped on Syria under the Assad dynasty.
The US State Department posted a statement on X on Thursday attributed to Trump announcing Barrack’s appointment as envoy to Syria.
“Tom understands there is great potential in working with Syria to stop Radicalism, improve Relations, and secure Peace in the Middle East. Together, we will Make America, and the World, SAFE AGAIN!” the statement said.
Barrack thanked Trump in an X post for “your bold vision, empowering a historically rich region, long oppressed, to reclaim its destiny through self-determination.”
Arab League welcomes EU shift on Israel as Western discourse begins to change
- EU backing for agreement review signals growing international pressure on Israel
- Arab League urges political solution amid mounting humanitarian crisis in Gaza
DUBAI: The Arab League on Wednesday welcomed the shift in Western discourse on the Gaza conflict, praising the “strong majority” of EU member states backing a review of the EU-Israel partnership.
At least 17 out of 27 EU member states are calling for a review of the EU-Israel Association Agreement. This review, initiated by a proposal from the Netherlands, is rooted in the agreement’s foundational requirement for adherence to human rights and democratic principles.
The league noted that many Western governments, influential voices across political, civil, intellectual, and media sectors have begun to express deep concern over the catastrophic humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip and the occupied Palestinian territories.
For a time, these actors had been swayed by Israeli narratives surrounding the events of Oct. 7, 2023, remaining largely confined to a discourse emphasizing “Israel’s right to self-defense,” a statement by the Arab League said.
The increasingly “visible brutality of military operations against civilians — especially women and children — has shattered the credibility of that argument,” the statement said.
The Arab League stressed that such a narrative has proven hollow in the face of widespread violations of international humanitarian law.
The league said that resolute positions aimed at recognizing the State of Palestine, threatening sanctions against Israel, banning arms sales, freezing free trade negotiations, and prohibiting the import of settler products represent significant steps toward increasing international pressure to end the war.
These measures offer an encouraging prelude to a more accurate and just understanding of this long-standing conflict, aligned with the vision of a two-state solution, the league said.
The recent Madrid Conference, attended by the secretary-general of the Arab League, marked a significant diplomatic effort to address the ongoing crisis. The gathering aimed to explore a viable political resolution to the conflict, emphasizing a two-state solution.
Meanwhile, ongoing Israeli incursions into the West Bank and increasingly provocative actions in Jerusalem have further escalated tensions. Regional leaders and human rights organizations warn that the conflict has reached a dangerous low point, marked by systematic violations of international law.
Cholera outbreak in Sudan capital kills 70 in 2 days: health ministry
- Health ministry for Khartoum State said it had recorded 942 new infections and 25 deaths on Wednesday
- Army-backed government announced last week that it had dislodged RSF fighters from their last positions in Khartoum State
PORT SUDAN, Sudan: A cholera outbreak in Sudan’s capital has killed 70 people in two days, health officials said, as Khartoum battles a fast-spreading epidemic amid a collapse of basic services.
The health ministry for Khartoum State said it had recorded 942 new infections and 25 deaths on Wednesday, following 1,177 cases and 45 deaths on Tuesday.
The surge in infections comes weeks after drone strikes blamed on the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) knocked out the water and electricity supply across the capital.
The army-backed government announced last week that it had dislodged RSF fighters from their last positions in Khartoum State two months after retaking the heart of the capital from the paramilitaries.
Greater Khartoum had been a battleground for much of the previous two years, and suffered massive damage to housing and infrastructure.
The cholera outbreak has piled further pressure on an already overwhelmed health care system.
The federal health ministry reported 172 deaths in the week to Tuesday, 90 percent of them in Khartoum State.
Authorities say 89 percent of patients in isolation centers are recovering, but warn that deteriorating environmental conditions are driving a surge in cases.
The war between the paramilitaries and the regular army has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced 13 million in what the United Nations has described as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
Up to 90 percent of hospitals in the conflict’s main battlegrounds have been forced out of service by the fighting.
Israel authorizes more Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank
- They would include new settlements and the legalization of outposts already built without government authorization
JERUSALEM: Israel said Thursday it would establish 22 new Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank.
They would include new settlements and the legalization of outposts already built without government authorization.
Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war and the Palestinians want it to be the main part of their future state.
