Blinken on Syria crisis tour with eye on Biden legacy

Update Blinken on Syria crisis tour with eye on Biden legacy
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken attends a reception for the Kennedy Center honorees at the White House in Washington, U.S., December 8, 2024. (File/REUTERS)
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Updated 11 December 2024
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Blinken on Syria crisis tour with eye on Biden legacy

Blinken on Syria crisis tour with eye on Biden legacy
  • Blinken will head first to the Red Sea port of Aqaba in Jordan, before going to Turkiye, the main supporter of the Islamist movement that toppled strongman Bashar Assad
  • He will call for a Syria that is not “a base of terrorism or posing a threat to its neighbors“

WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken heads Wednesday on an emergency tour after the overthrow of Syria’s dictatorship, in a new, last-minute attempt to shape a Middle East legacy after a turbulent year.

The top US diplomat of President Joe Biden, who has little more than one month in office, is set to press principles he has outlined for a new government including that it be inclusive of Syria’s diverse populations.

Blinken will head first to the Red Sea port of Aqaba in Jordan, Syria’s often uneasy neighbor and a key US partner in the region, before going to Turkiye, the main supporter of the Islamist movement that toppled strongman Bashar Assad over the weekend.

Blinken will stress “the United States’ support for an inclusive, Syrian-led transition to an accountable and representative government,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.

He will call for a Syria that is not “a base of terrorism or posing a threat to its neighbors” — a nod to concerns of both Turkiye and Israel, which has ramped up strikes on its historic adversary since Assad’s fall.

Turkiye, despite being a NATO ally, has long butted heads with the United States over Syria but is now seen as the key foreign power after its partner Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS), a former Al-Qaeda-linked group, launched a surprise lightning offensive that ended half-a-century of iron-fisted rule by the Assad family.

In a statement on Tuesday, Blinken called for a “credible, inclusive and non-sectarian” government to replace Assad, a secular-minded member of the minority Alawite sect.

“All nations should pledge to support an inclusive and transparent process and refrain from external interference,” Blinken said.

“The United States will recognize and fully support a future Syria government that results from this process,” he said.

It will be the 12th visit to the Middle East by Blinken since October 7, 2023, when Hamas militants carried out the deadliest-ever attack on Israel, which responded with a relentless assault on the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

Despite repeatedly smelling success, Blinken has been met with frustration as he failed to secure a deal in which Israel would end the war in return for the release of hostages.

Blinken on his trip will also stress “the urgent need to conclude a ceasefire agreement,” Miller said.

Defying appeals by the Biden administration, Israel expanded its war to Lebanon and hit hard the Shiite militant group Hezbollah as well as Iran, which counted on Assad as its main Arab ally.

Assad also relied on air support from Russia, which relied on Assad to maintain a Mediterranean naval base and has been distracted by its invasion of Ukraine.

Biden, under fire for his Middle East policy and failure to secure an Israel-Hamas deal, has sought credit after the fall of Assad.

“Our approach has shifted the balance of power in the Middle East,” Biden said, pointing to a combination of support for partners, diplomacy, sanctions and periodic US strikes in Syria separately targeting Iranian-linked groups and remnants of the Daesh group, which is an adversary of Shiite Iran.

President-elect Donald Trump similarly cast Syria in political terms, pointing out that Russia made inroads under former president Barack Obama.

In contrast to Biden and Blinken, Trump has scoffed at US interests in Syria, where some 900 US troops remain on a mission against the Islamic State, calling the country “a mess” to be avoided.

It will be up to Trump, who has a close relationship with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to determine how to deal with HTS, which is designated as a terrorist group by the United States.


Syria will not take part in meetings with Kurdish-led SDF in Paris, state TV says

Syria will not take part in meetings with Kurdish-led SDF in Paris, state TV says
Updated 18 sec ago
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Syria will not take part in meetings with Kurdish-led SDF in Paris, state TV says

Syria will not take part in meetings with Kurdish-led SDF in Paris, state TV says
  • The source cited an earlier forum arranged by the US-backed SDF that it said was a violation of an accord between the government and the group
Syria will not take part in planned meetings with Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in Paris, Syria’s state news agency SANA quoted a government source as saying on Saturday.
The source cited an earlier forum arranged by the US-backed SDF that it said was a violation of an accord between the government and the group.
The source was quoted as saying that Damascus would not be involved in negotiations with any side that aims to “revive the era of the former regime.”

Sudan volunteers help families give Khartoum war dead proper burials

Sudan volunteers help families give Khartoum war dead proper burials
Updated 09 August 2025
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Sudan volunteers help families give Khartoum war dead proper burials

Sudan volunteers help families give Khartoum war dead proper burials
  • Teams of workers in dust-streaked white hazmat suits comb vacant lots, looking for the spots where survivors say they buried their loved ones
  • Each body is disinfected, wrapped and labelled by Red Crescent volunteers before being transported to Al-Andalus cemetery

KHARTOUM: In Sudan’s war-scarred capital Khartoum, Red Crescent volunteers have begun the grisly task of exhuming the dead from makeshift plots where they were buried during the fighting so their families can give them a proper funeral.

Teams of workers in dust-streaked white hazmat suits comb vacant lots, looking for the spots where survivors say they buried their loved ones.

Mechanical diggers peel back layers of earth under the watchful eye of Hisham Zein Al-Abdeen, head of the city’s forensic medicine department.

“We’re finding graves everywhere – in front of homes, inside schools and mosques,” he said, surveying the scene.

“Every day we discover new ones.”

Here, in the southern neighborhood of Al-Azhari, families buried their loved ones wherever they could, as fighting raged between the regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

When war broke out in April 2023, the RSF quickly swept through Khartoum, occupying entire districts as residents fled air and artillery bombardments and street fighting.

In March, the army and its allies recaptured the capital in a fierce offensive.

It is only now, after the front lines of the conflict moved elsewhere, that bereaved families can give their loved ones a proper burial.

“My daughter was only 12,” said Jawaher Adam, standing by a shallow makeshift grave, tears streaming down her face.

“I had only sent her out to buy shoes when she died. We couldn’t take her to the cemetery. We buried her in the neighborhood,” she said.

Months on, Adam has come to witness her daughter’s reburial – this time, she says, with dignity.

Each body is disinfected, wrapped and labelled by Red Crescent volunteers before being transported to Al-Andalus cemetery, 10 kilometers (six miles) away.

“It’s painful,” said Adam, “but to honor the dead is to give them a proper burial.”

Many of the war’s deadliest battlegrounds have been densely populated residential districts, often without access to hospitals to care for the wounded or count the dead.

That has made it nearly impossible to establish a firm death toll for the war.

Former US envoy Tom Perriello has said that some estimates suggest up to 150,000 people were killed in the conflict’s first year alone.

In the capital, more than 61,000 people died during the first 14 months of war – a 50 percent increase on the pre-war death rate – according to the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Of those deaths, 26,000 were attributed to violence.

At first glance, the vacant lot in Al-Azhari where Red Crescent volunteers are digging seems to be full of litter – pieces of wood, bricks, an old signpost.

Look more closely, however, and it becomes clear they have been placed in straight lines, each one marking a makeshift grave.

Volunteers exhumed 317 graves in that one lot, Zein Al-Abdeen said.

Similar mass graves have been uncovered across the capital, he said, with 2,000 bodies reburied so far.

But his team estimates there could be 10,000 bodies buried in makeshift graves across the city.

At the exhumation site, grieving mothers watch on silently, their hands clasped tightly to their chest.

They, like Adam, are among the lucky few who know where their loved ones are buried. Many do not.

At least 8,000 people were reported missing in Sudan last year, in what the International Committee of the Red Cross says is only “the tip of the iceberg.”

For now, authorities label unclaimed bodies, and keep their details on file.

With the bodies now exhumed, the community can have some degree of closure, and the vacant lot can be repurposed.

“Originally, this site was designated as a school,” said Youssef Mohamed Al-Amin, executive director of Jebel Awliya district.

“We’re moving the bodies so it can serve its original purpose.”

The United Nations estimates that up to two million people may return to Khartoum state by the end of the year – but much depends on whether security and basic services can be restored.

Before the war, greater Khartoum was home to nine million people, according to the UN Development Programme, but the conflict has displaced at least 3.5 million.

For now, much of the capital remains without power or running water, as hospitals and schools lie in ruins.


Foreign ministers of five countries condemn Israeli plan to seize Gaza City

Foreign ministers of five countries condemn Israeli plan to seize Gaza City
Updated 09 August 2025
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Foreign ministers of five countries condemn Israeli plan to seize Gaza City

Foreign ministers of five countries condemn Israeli plan to seize Gaza City
  • Israel’s security cabinet has approved a plan to seize control of Gaza City, escalating military operations in the devastated Palestinian territory

GAZA: The foreign ministers of Australia, Germany, Italy, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom on Friday strongly condemned the Israeli Security Cabinet’s decision to launch a new large-scale military operation in Gaza.

“The plans that the Government of Israel has announced risk violating international humanitarian law,” the ministers said in a joint statement.

Israel’s security cabinet has approved a plan to seize control of Gaza City, escalating military operations in the devastated Palestinian territory. The move drew renewed criticism at home and abroad on Friday, as concerns mounted over the nearly two-year-old war. 

 


Turkiye hails US-brokered Armenia-Azerbaijan deal

Turkiye hails US-brokered Armenia-Azerbaijan deal
Updated 09 August 2025
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Turkiye hails US-brokered Armenia-Azerbaijan deal

Turkiye hails US-brokered Armenia-Azerbaijan deal
  • “At a time when international conflicts and crises are intensifying, this step constitutes a highly significant development for the promotion of regional peace and stability

ISTANBUL: Turkiye hailed an agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan as progress toward a “lasting peace” on Friday after US President Donald Trump declared the foes had committed to permanently end hostilities.

“We welcome the progress achieved toward establishing a lasting peace between Azerbaijan and Armenia, and the commitment recorded in Washington today in this regard,” Turkiye’s foreign ministry said, in a statement.

“At a time when international conflicts and crises are intensifying, this step constitutes a highly significant development for the promotion of regional peace and stability. We commend the contributions of the US administration in this process.”

 


Hunger and disease spreading in war-torn Sudan, WHO says

Hunger and disease spreading in war-torn Sudan, WHO says
Updated 08 August 2025
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Hunger and disease spreading in war-torn Sudan, WHO says

Hunger and disease spreading in war-torn Sudan, WHO says
  • 770,000 children under 5 years old are expected to suffer from severe acute malnutrition this year

LONDON: Hunger and disease are spreading in war-torn Sudan, with famine already present in several areas, 25 million people acutely food insecure, and nearly 100,000 cholera cases recorded since last July, the World Health Organization said on Friday.

Sudan’s conflict between the army and rival Rapid Support Forces has displaced millions and split the country into rival zones of control, with the RSF still deeply embedded in western Sudan, and funding cuts are hampering humanitarian aid.

“Relentless violence has pushed Sudan’s health system to the edge, adding to a crisis marked by hunger, illness, and despair,” WHO Senior Emergency Officer Ilham Nour said in a statement.

BACKGROUND

Cholera has hit a camp for Darfur refugees in neighboring eastern Chad, the UN refugee agency said on Friday.

“Exacerbating the disease burden is hunger,” she said, adding that about 770,000 children under 5 years old are expected to suffer from severe acute malnutrition this year.

Cholera has also hit a camp for Darfur refugees in eastern Chad, the UN refugee agency said on Friday.

The World Health Organization said nearly 100,000 cholera cases had been reported in Sudan since July last year.

An outbreak in the Dougui refugee settlement has so far resulted in 264 cases and 12 deaths, said Patrice Ahouansou, UNHCR’s situation coordinator in the region, leading the agency to suspend the relocation of refugees from the border with Sudan to prevent new cases.

“Without urgent action, including enhancing access to medical treatment, to clean water, to sanitation, to hygiene, and most importantly, relocation from the border, many more lives are on the line,” Ahouansou told a briefing in Geneva.

Oral cholera vaccination campaigns had been conducted in several states, including the capital Khartoum, he told a press conference with the Geneva UN correspondents’ association ACANU.

“While we are seeing a declining trend in numbers, there are gaps in disease surveillance, and progress is fragile,” he said.

“Recent floods, affecting large parts of the country, are expected to worsen hunger and fuel more outbreaks of cholera, malaria, dengue, and other diseases.”

Cholera is an acute intestinal infection that spreads through food and water contaminated with bacteria, often from feces. It causes severe diarrhea, vomiting, and muscle cramps.

Cholera can kill within hours when not attended to, though it can be treated with simple oral rehydration and antibiotics for more severe cases.

There has been a global increase in cholera cases and their geographical spread since 2021.

“In Sudan, unrelenting violence has led to widespread hunger, disease, and suffering,” said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

“Cholera has swept across Sudan, with all states reporting outbreaks. Nearly 100,000 cases have been reported since July last year.”

As for hunger, Tedros said there were reports from El-Fasher, the besieged capital of North Darfur state, that people were eating animal feed to survive.

“In the first six months of this year, nutrition centers supported by WHO have treated more than 17,000 severely malnourished children with medical complications. But many more are beyond reach,” Tedros warned.

The UN health agency’s efforts were being hindered by limited access and a lack of funding, he added, with the WHO having received less than a third of the money it had appealed for to provide urgent health assistance in Sudan.

The WHO director-general said that as long as the violence continues in Sudan, “we can expect to see more hunger, more displacement and more disease.”