French FM says Iraq should not be dragged into regional conflicts

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: Donald Trump became the first US president in 25 years to meet a Syrian leader on Wednesday after he offered sanctions relief in hopes of offering a new path to the war-battered country.
Trump, in Riyadh on the first state visit of his second term, met with Ahmed Al-Sharaa, an erstwhile Islamist guerrilla turned interim president after the December of longtime strongman Bashar Assad.
The two held brief talks ahead of a larger gathering of Gulf leaders in Saudi Arabia during Trump’s tour of the region, a White House official said.
No US president has met a Syrian leader since Bill Clinton saw Hafez Assad, Bashar’s father, in Geneva in 2000 in a failed effort to persuade him to make peace with Israel.
Trump announced on Tuesday that he was lifting “brutal and crippling” Assad-era sanctions on Syria in response to demands from Sharaa’s allies in Turkiye and Saudi Arabia — in his latest step out of tune with US ally Israel.
Trump said it was Syrians’ “time to shine” and that easing sinctions would “give them a chance at greatness.”
Syrians celebrated the news, with dozens of men, women and children gathering in Damascus’s Umayyad Square.
“My joy is great. This decision will definitely affect the entire country positively. Construction will return, the displaced will return, and prices will go down,” said Huda Qassar, a 33-year-old English-language teacher.
The Syrian foreign ministry called Trump’s decision a “pivotal turning point” that would help bring stability.
The United States imposed sweeping restrictions on financial transactions with Syria during the brutal civil war and made clear it would use sanctions to punish anyone involved in reconstruction so long as Assad remained in power without accountability for atrocities.
Trump gave no indication that the United States would remove Syria from its blacklist of state sponsors of terrorism — a designation dating back to 1979 over support to Palestinian militants that severely impedes investment.
Other Western powers including the European Union have already moved to lift sanctions but the United States had earlier held firm on conditions.
A senior envoy of the Joe Biden administration met Sharaa in Damascus in December and called for commitments, including on the protection of minorities.
In recent weeks, Syria has seen a series of bloody attacks on minority groups, including Alawites — the sect of the largely secular Assad family — and the Druze.
Israel has kept up a bombing campaign against Syria both before and after the fall of Assad, with Israel pessimistic about change under Sharaa and hoping to degrade the military capacity of its longtime adversary.
Rabha Seif Allam of the Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies in Cairo said that the easing of US sanctions would allow Syria to reintegrate with the global economy, including by allowing bank transfers from investors and some of the millions of Syrians who fled during the civil war.
“Lifting sanctions will give Syria a real opportunity to receive the funding needed to revive the economy, impose central state authority and launch reconstruction projects with clear Gulf support,” she said.

NEW YORK CITY: The UK and four other European countries on Tuesday called on Israeli authorities to immediately lift their blockade on humanitarian aid to Gaza. They said the continuing restrictions are placing millions of Palestinian civilians at risk of starvation, and undermining prospects for peace.

In a joint statement delivered at the UN, Britain, France, Denmark, Greece and Slovenia said the Israeli government’s ongoing obstruction of aid deliveries, now entering its third month, was “unacceptable” and risked compounding what UN agencies have warned is a looming famine.

“Blocking aid as a ‘pressure lever’ is unacceptable,” the nations said. “Palestinian civilians, including children, face starvation … Without an urgent lifting of the aid block, more Palestinians are at risk of dying; deaths that could easily be avoided.”

The nations, which had called an emergency meeting of the Security Council to discuss the situation in Gaza, also warned that any Israeli move to seize parts of the territory would breach international law and increase instability in the region.

“Any attempt by Israel to annex land in Gaza would be unacceptable and violate international law,” they said. “Palestinian territory must not be reduced nor subjected to any demographic change.”

The intervention followed the recent approval by the Israeli Security Cabinet of plans to expand military operations in Gaza, a move the European countries said would only add to Palestinian suffering while doing little to secure the release of hostages still held by Hamas.

“We strongly oppose both these actions,” they added, referring to the blockade and the expansion of military activity. “They do nothing to serve the long-term interests of peace and security in the region, nor to secure the safe return of the hostages.”

The governments of the five countries welcomed the release on Monday of Edan Alexander, an Israeli American hostage held by Hamas since the attacks against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, but reiterated their demands for the immediate and unconditional release of all remaining captives.

“Their suffering must end,” they said. “Hamas must have no future role in Gaza or be in a position to threaten Israel.”

The five nations also expressed concern about Israeli proposals for a new aid-delivery mechanism in Gaza that the UN warns would fail to meet established humanitarian principles.

“Humanitarian aid must never be used as a political tool or military tactic,” the countries warned. “Any model for distributing humanitarian aid must be independent, impartial and neutral, and in line with international law.”

They said international humanitarian law places an obligation on Israel to allow “safe, rapid and unimpeded” access for the delivery of humanitarian assistance, adding: “Gaza is not an exception.”

The nations also condemned recent attacks on humanitarian workers, including the killing of representatives of the Palestinian Red Crescent and a military strike on a UN compound on March 19, which they described as “outrageous.”

“At least 418 aid workers have been killed in Gaza since the conflict began,” they said. “That is at least 418 too many.”

The countries urged Israel authorities to complete their investigation into the incident at the UN compound, publish the findings and “take concrete action to ensure this can never happen again.”

They repeated previous calls for an immediate ceasefire agreement, the release of all hostages, and renewed efforts to achieve a two-state solution to the wider conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians. They backed plans by France and Saudi Arabia to host an international conference on this issue in New York next month.

“This is the only way to achieve long-term peace and security for both Palestinians and Israelis,” the countries said.