DAMASCUS: Syrian President Bashar Assad interrupted a speech he was giving to parliament after he suffered a brief drop in blood pressure, the Syrian presidency said Wednesday.
The office said the speech was halted for “several minutes” because of a “mild” case of low blood pressure he suffered, after which he continued the speech as normal.
The presidency's Facebook page posted that the speech would be aired later Wednesday. It did not provide further details. Assad, 54, is not known to have any specific health condition.
Assad gave the speech Wednesday on the occasion of the first parliament session after elections were held last month. The vote was the third to take place in Syria since Syria's conflict began in 2011.
The elections also coincided with Syria’s worst economic crisis and a currency crash, which has dragged more of the country’s population into poverty.
Syria: President Assad suffers brief drop in blood pressure
https://arab.news/g9p2k
Syria: President Assad suffers brief drop in blood pressure
- Bashar Assad interrupted a speech he was giving to parliament after he suffered a brief drop in blood pressure
- Assad is not known to have any specific health condition
Libya’s eastern-based government says it may announce force majeure on oil fields, ports
Safar said that “what happened was nothing more than a limited personal dispute”
CAIRO: Libya’s eastern-based government said on Wednesday it may announce a force majeure on oil fields and ports citing “repeated assaults on the National Oil Corporation (NOC).”
The government in Benghazi is not internationally recognized, but most oilfields in the major oil producing country are under the control of eastern Libyan military leader Khalifa Haftar.
The government said it may also temporarily relocate the national oil corporation’s headquarters to one of the “safe cities such as Ras Lanuf and Brega, both of which are controlled by the eastern-based government.
The NOC is currently located in Tripoli under the control of the internationally-recongized Government of National Unity (GNU).
The NOC denied in an earlier statement that the corporation’s headquarters was stormed deeming it as “completely false.”
It also emphasized it is operating normally “and continuing to perform its vital duties without interruption.”
The acting head of NOC Hussain Safar said that “what happened was nothing more than a limited personal dispute that occurred in the reception area and was immediately contained by administrative security personnel, without any impact on the corporation’s workflow or the safety of its employees.”
GNU’s media office posted video footage from inside the headquarters of the NOC showing “stable conditions and no signs of a storming or security disturbance.”
Libya’s oil output has been disrupted repeatedly in the chaotic decade since 2014 when the country divided between two rival authorities in the east and west following the NATO-backed uprising that toppled Muammar Qaddafi in 2011.
In August, Libya lost more than half of its oil production, about 700,000 bpd, and exports were halted at several ports as a standoff between rival political factions over the central bank threatened to end four years of relative peace.
The shutdowns lasted for over a month with production gradually resuming from early October.
The North African country’s crude oil production reached 1.3 million barrels per day in the last 24 hours, according to the NOC.
44 killed in Israel attacks in Gaza, after food warehouse looted
- Israeli strike on home in Al-Bureij kills 23 people, while another two are killed by gunfire near an aid distribution point
- Jordan says Israel's systematic starvation tactics 'crossed all moral and legal boundaries'
GAZA CITY: At least 44 people were killed in Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip on Thursday, rescuers said, a day after a World Food Programme warehouse in the center of the territory was looted by desperate Palestinians.
After a more than two-month blockade, aid has finally begun to trickle back into Gaza, but the humanitarian situation remains dire after 18 months of devastating war. Food security experts say starvation is looming for one in five people.
The Israeli military has also recently stepped up its offensive in the territory in what it says is a renewed push to destroy Hamas, whose October 7, 2023 attack triggered the war.
Gaza civil defense official Mohammad Al-Mughayyir told AFP “44 people have been killed in Israeli raids,” including 23 in a strike on home in Al-Bureij.
“Two people were killed and several injured by Israeli forces’ gunfire this morning near the American aid center in the Morag axis, southern Gaza Strip,” he added.
The center, run by the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), is part of a new system for distributing aid that Israel says is meant to keep supplies out of the hands of Hamas, but which has drawn criticism from the United Nations and the European Union.
“What is happening to us is degrading. The crowding is humiliating us,” said Gazan Sobhi Areef, who visited a GHF center on Thursday.
“We go there and risk our lives just to get a bag of flour to feed our children.”
The Israeli military said it was looking into the reported deaths in Al-Bureij and near the aid center.
Separately, it said in a statement that its forces had struck “dozens of terror targets throughout the Gaza Strip” over the past day.
In a telephone call Thursday with EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said Israel’s “systematic starvation tactics have crossed all moral and legal boundaries.”
On Wednesday, thousands of desperate Palestinians stormed a World Food Programme (WFP) warehouse in central Gaza, with Israel and the UN trading blame over the deepening hunger crisis.
AFP footage showed crowds of Palestinians breaking into the WFP facility in Deir Al-Balah and taking bags of emergency food supplies as gunshots rang out.
“Hordes of hungry people broke into WFP’s Al-Ghafari warehouse in Deir Al-Balah, central Gaza, in search of food supplies that were pre-positioned for distribution,” the UN agency said in a statement.
The issue of aid has come sharply into focus amid starvation fears and intense criticism of the GHF, which has bypassed the longstanding UN-led system in the territory.
Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon told the Security Council that aid was entering Gaza by truck — under limited authorization by Israel at the Kerem Shalom crossing — and accused the UN of “trying to block” GHF’s work through “threats, intimidation and retaliation against NGOs that choose to participate.”
The UN has said it is doing its utmost to facilitate distribution of the limited assistance allowed by Israel’s authorities.
The world body said 47 people were wounded Tuesday when crowds of Palestinians rushed a GHF site. A Palestinian medical source reported at least one death.
GHF, however, alleged in a statement that there had been “several inaccuracies” circulating about its operations, adding “there are many parties who wish to see GHF fail.”
But 60-year-old Abu Fawzi Faroukh, who visited a GHF center Thursday, said the situation there was “so chaotic.”
“The young men are the ones who have received aid first, yesterday and today, because they are young and can carry loads, but the old people and women cannot enter due to the crowding,” he told AFP.
Negotiations on a ceasefire, meanwhile, have continued, with US envoy Steve Witkoff expressing optimism and saying he expected to propose a plan soon.
But Gazans remained pessimistic.
“Six hundred days have passed and nothing has changed. Death continues, and Israeli bombing does not stop,” said Bassam Daloul, 40.
The Gaza war was sparked by Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel that killed 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Out of 251 hostages seized during the attack, 57 remain in Gaza including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said Thursday that at least 3,986 people had been killed in the territory since Israel ended the ceasefire on March 18, taking the war’s overall toll to 54,249, mostly civilians.
Family of an Israeli held hostage in Iraq for 800 days hangs on to hope for her freedom
- 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
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.
