All foreign forces must withdraw from Syria now, 50 UN experts say

A group of 50 independent UN human rights experts have called on the international community to support Syria’s efforts to rebuild but stressed that the country must be free of foreign interference and aggression. (AFP)
A group of 50 independent UN human rights experts have called on the international community to support Syria’s efforts to rebuild but stressed that the country must be free of foreign interference and aggression. (AFP)
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Updated 20 December 2024
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All foreign forces must withdraw from Syria now, 50 UN experts say

All foreign forces must withdraw from Syria now, 50 UN experts say
  • Rehabilitation of the country should pay specific attention to the human rights of minorities, the marginalised and all who face discrimination
  • Justice for the victims of war crimes must be pursued through a credible judicial system focusing on accountability, reparations and reconciliation, not revenge

NEW YORK CITY: A group of 50 independent UN human rights experts have called on the international community to support Syria’s efforts to rebuild but stressed that the country must be free of foreign interference and aggression.

They emphasized the challenges posed by ongoing foreign military interventions, warning that such actions undermine the nation’s sovereignty and hinder the reconstruction process.

In particular they highlighted Israeli airstrikes and incursions into Syrian territory, particularly in the Golan Heights and northeast of the country, as significant obstacles to peace and stability.

“Syria has endured major foreign interventions, transforming the country into a battleground for proxy wars involving multiple actors, including private forces,” the experts said.

“The continuing military interventions, such as Israel’s unprovoked, illegal attacks and its occupation of more Syrian territory in the Golan Heights, and other air attacks and incursions into northeast and central Syria, put grave obstacles to the rehabilitation process and destabilize the region.”

The experts reiterated the call for all foreign occupying forces to immediately withdraw from Syria.

“While international support for Syria’s rebuilding is essential, the rehabilitation process must remain free of foreign interference or aggression,” they said. “All territorial incursions and attacks must cease without delay.”

The experts, who included the UN’s special rapporteurs on torture, arbitrary executions, freedom of opinion, trafficking in persons, and the protection of fundamental freedoms, also stressed the need for a Syrian-led political transition. They said this process must be inclusive, non-sectarian and take account of the interests of all elements of Syrian society.

Syrian insurgents seized control of Damascus on Dec. 8, forcing President Bashar Assad to flee the country after more than 13 years of civil war, ending his family’s 54-year rule. The rebels’ rapid advance, which took less than two weeks and met with minimal resistance, raised questions about the ability to ensure an orderly political transition in the aftermath.

“This is a watershed moment in the region’s history,” the experts said, pointing to the opportunity it offers for lasting peace, justice and the restoration of Syrian sovereignty. They called for full respect for the territorial integrity of the country, and stressed that ongoing

lawlessness, violence and persistent violations of international law, especially human rights and humanitarian law, must cease.

They urged the international community to collaborate on the rehabilitation of Syria based on democratic principles that respect the human rights of all Syrians, with a particular focus on minorities, marginalized groups, women, people who are vulnerable due to sexual orientation or gender identity, persons with disabilities, children, internally displaced persons, and returning refugees.

The experts also highlighted the urgent need to address widespread violations of human rights, including torture, sexual violence, enforced disappearances, unlawful killings and human trafficking. They emphasized the “paramount” need to pursue justice for all victims of such atrocities and called for the release of all individuals who were arbitrarily detained. Preserving evidence of gross violations of rights is also critical to help ensure accountability, they added.

“Justice must be pursued for all crimes, regardless of the perpetrator, through a credible judicial system focused on accountability, reparations and reconciliation, not revenge,” the experts said.

In line with UN Security Council Resolution 2254, which was adopted in 2015 and calls for a Syrian-led political transition and the establishment of a representative government, the experts stressed the importance of adopting a transparent, inclusive process to help establish peace and rebuild the country.

They also noted the severe environmental and infrastructural damage caused by the conflict, including the widespread destruction of housing that might potentially amount to domicide, the deliberate and systematic destruction of homes and living environments.

The experts called for the international community to provide substantial resources in support of humanitarian aid and reconstruction efforts, focusing in particular on mitigating the environmental impacts of the war, including the safe removal of the toxic remnants of the conflict.

“Reconstruction must be carried out in a manner that respects human rights and ensures the safe, dignified return of refugees and displaced persons who wish to go home,” they said.

But they reiterated that no one, whether Syrian nationals or Palestinian refugees, should be forcibly returned to the country.

Furthermore, the experts called for women to have leadership roles in the peace-building and transitional process, and emphasized the need for gender equality and full protection of women’s rights.

They urged all states to repatriate their nationals from Syria and to provide effective protection for women and children who have been arbitrarily detained in northeastern Syria since the fall of Daesh in 2019. They called for the immediate lifting of international sanctions on Syria and urged all parties to prioritize the humanitarian needs of the Syrian population.

The experts expressed strong support for the Syrian people in their pursuit of a democratic and peaceful future, and stressed the importance of ensuring justice, inclusivity and respect for human rights in the country’s transition.


Israel-backed aid organization in Gaza says 20 killed at distribution site, mostly in stampede

Israel-backed aid organization in Gaza says 20 killed at distribution site, mostly in stampede
Updated 16 July 2025
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Israel-backed aid organization in Gaza says 20 killed at distribution site, mostly in stampede

Israel-backed aid organization in Gaza says 20 killed at distribution site, mostly in stampede
  • The Gaza Humanitarian Fund said 19 people were trampled in a stampede and one person was fatally stabbed

TEL AVIV: An Israeli-backed American organization that runs an aid program in the Gaza Strip said Wednesday 20 Palestinians were killed near a distribution site. This comes as Israeli strikes killed 22 others, including 11 children, according to hospital officials.

The Gaza Humanitarian Fund said 19 people were trampled in a stampede and one person was fatally stabbed in the violence near a distribution hub in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis.

The group, which rarely acknowledges trouble at its distribution sites, accused Hamas of fomenting panic and spreading misinformation that led to the violence, though it provided no evidence to support the claim.


Clashes resume in Syria’s Druze city of Sweida, Israel vows more strikes

Clashes resume in Syria’s Druze city of Sweida, Israel vows more strikes
Updated 53 min 58 sec ago
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Clashes resume in Syria’s Druze city of Sweida, Israel vows more strikes

Clashes resume in Syria’s Druze city of Sweida, Israel vows more strikes
  • Katz also said the Syrian government should “leave Druze alone” following recent clashes in Sweida

DAMASCUS: Clashes between Syrian government troops and local Druze fighters resumed in the southern Druze city of Sweida early on Wednesday, collapsing a ceasefire announced just hours earlier that aimed to put an end to days of deadly sectarian bloodshed.

The outbreak of violence in the predominantly Druze province in southern Syria has highlighted frictions among Syria’s diverse communities, with minorities feeling deep distrust toward the Islamist-led government now in power.

Syrian troops were dispatched to the province on Monday to quell fighting between Druze fighters and Bedouin armed men but ended up clashing with the Druze militias. The fighting drew in Israel, which carried out air strikes on government forces on Monday and Tuesday under the aim of protecting the Druze.

A ceasefire announced by Syria’s defense ministry on Tuesday night was short-lived.

Local news outlet Sweida24 said the city of Sweida and nearby villages were coming under heavy artillery and mortar fire early on Wednesday. Syria’s defense ministry, in a statement carried by state news agency SANA, blamed outlaw groups in Sweida for breaching the truce.

The defense ministry called on residents of the city to stay indoors.

Dozens of civilians, government troops and Druze fighters have been killed since the fighting erupted on Sunday.

Civilians and Reuters reporters in the city said that government forces had looted and burned homes, stealing cars and furniture from homes on Tuesday. One man showed a Reuters reporter the body of his brother, who had been shot in the head inside their home.

Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz on Wednesday warned the Syrian government to “leave Druze alone” and that the military would continue to strike Syrian government forces until they pulled back.

US Syria envoy Tom Barrack said on Tuesday that the United States was in contact with all sides “to navigate toward calm and integration.”


Iran seizes foreign tanker for smuggling 2 million liters of fuel

Iran seizes foreign tanker for smuggling 2 million liters of fuel
Updated 16 July 2025
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Iran seizes foreign tanker for smuggling 2 million liters of fuel

Iran seizes foreign tanker for smuggling 2 million liters of fuel
  • The judiciary official added that 17 crew members were arrested

DUBAI: A foreign tanker was seized by Iran in the Gulf of Oman for smuggling 2 million liters of fuel, the chief justice of Hormozgan province said on Wednesday, according to Iran’s semi-official Mehr news agency.

“During the continuous process of monitoring and surveilling suspicious fuel smuggling movements in the Gulf of Oman, officers inspected a foreign tanker due to its lack of legal documents regarding its cargo and seized it on charges of carrying 2 million liters of smuggled fuel,” Hormozgan’s Chief Justice Mojtaba Ghahremani said, according to the report.

The judiciary official added that 17 crew members were arrested and that a judicial case was opened at the Jask county prosecutor’s office.

There was no additional information regarding the name of the tanker or the flag to which it is registered.

Iran, which has some of the world’s lowest fuel prices due to heavy subsidies and the plunge in the value of its national currency, has been fighting rampant fuel smuggling by land to neighboring countries and by sea to Gulf Arab states.

“The actions of fuel smugglers, who in coordination with foreigners, attempt to plunder national wealth will not remain hidden from the judiciary and punishment of perpetrators, if their crimes are proven, will be without leniency,” Ghahremani said, according to the report. 


Syria announces ceasefire after sectarian clashes, but more fighting and abuse alleged

Syria announces ceasefire after sectarian clashes, but more fighting and abuse alleged
Updated 16 July 2025
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Syria announces ceasefire after sectarian clashes, but more fighting and abuse alleged

Syria announces ceasefire after sectarian clashes, but more fighting and abuse alleged
  • Tuesday’s announcement follows deadly sectarian clashes between Druze factions and Sunni Bedouin tribes that killed over 30 people
  • That’s according to Syria’s Interior Ministry. However, fighting and allegations of civilian abuses by security forces continue

BUSRA AL-HARIR: Syria ‘s defense minister announced a ceasefire shortly after government forces entered a key city in southern Sweida province on Tuesday, a day after sectarian clashes killed dozens there. Neighboring Israel again launched strikes on Syrian military forces, saying it was protecting the Druze minority.

The latest escalation under Syria’s new leaders began with tit-for-tat kidnappings and attacks between local Sunni Bedouin tribes and Druze armed factions in the southern province, a center of the Druze community.

Syrian government forces, sent to restore order on Monday, also clashed with Druze armed groups.

A ceasefire announcement

On Tuesday, Syrian Defense Minister Murhaf Abu Qasra said an agreement was struck with the city’s “notables and dignitaries” and that government forces would “respond only to the sources of fire and deal with any targeting by outlaw groups.”

However, scattered clashes continued after his announcement — as did allegations that security forces had committed violations against civilians.

Syria’s Interior Ministry said Monday that more than 30 people had been killed, but has not updated the figures since. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based war monitor, said Tuesday that 166 people had been killed since Sunday, including five women and two children.

Among them were 21 people killed in “field executions” by government forces, including 12 men in a rest house in the city of Sweida, it said. It did not say how many of the dead were civilians and also cited reports of members of the security forces looting and setting homes on fire.

Syrian interim President Ahmad Al-Sharaa said in a statement that he had tasked authorities with “taking immediate legal action against anyone proven to have committed a transgression or abuse, regardless of their rank or position.”

Associated Press journalists in Sweida province saw forces at a government checkpoint searching cars and confiscating suspected stolen goods from both civilians and soldiers.

Israel’s involvement draws pushback

Israeli airstrikes targeted government forces’ convoys heading into the provincial capital of Sweida and in other areas of southern Syria.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz said the strikes sought to “prevent the Syrian regime from harming” the Druze religious minority “and to ensure disarmament in the area adjacent to our borders with Syria.” In Israel, the Druze are seen as a loyal minority and often serve in the armed forces.

Meanwhile, Israeli Cabinet member and Minister of Diaspora Affairs Amichai Chikli called on X for Al-Sharaa to be “eliminated without delay.”

A soldier’s story

Manhal Yasser Al-Gor, of the Interior Ministry forces, was being treated for shrapnel wounds at a local hospital after an Israeli strike hit his convoy.

‘We were entering Sweida to secure the civilians and prevent looting. I was on an armored personnel carrier when the Israeli drone hit us,” he said, adding that there were “many casualties.”

The Syrian Foreign Ministry said Israeli strikes had killed “several innocent civilians” as well as soldiers, and called them “a reprehensible example of ongoing aggression and external interference” in Syria’s internal matters.

It said the Syrian state is committed to protecting the Druze, “who form an integral part of the national identity and united Syrian social fabric.”

Suspicion over Syria’s new government

Israel has taken an aggressive stance toward Syria’s new leaders since Al-Sharaa’s Sunni Islamist insurgents ousted former President Bashar Assad in December, saying it doesn’t want militants near its borders. Israeli forces have seized a UN-patrolled buffer zone on Syrian territory along the border with the Golan Heights and launched hundreds of airstrikes on military sites in Syria.

Earlier Tuesday, religious leaders of the Druze community in Syria called for armed factions that have been clashing with government forces to surrender their weapons and cooperate with authorities. One of the main Druze spiritual leaders later released a video statement retracting the call.

Sheikh Hikmat Al-Hijri, who has been opposed to the government in Damascus, said in the video that the initial Druze leaders’ statement had been issued after an agreement with the authorities in Damascus but that “they broke the promise and continued the indiscriminate shelling of unarmed civilians.”

“We are being subjected to a total war of annihilation,” he claimed, without offering evidence.

Some videos on social media showed armed fighters with Druze captives, beating them and, in some cases, forcibly shaving men’s moustaches.

Sectarian and revenge attacks

The Druze religious sect began as a 10th-century offshoot of Ismailism, a branch of Shiite Islam. More than half the roughly 1 million Druze worldwide live in Syria. Most of the other Druze live in Lebanon and Israel, including in the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Mideast War and annexed in 1981.

Since Assad’s fall, clashes have broken out several times between forces loyal to the new Syrian government and Druze fighters.

The latest fighting has raised fears of more sectarian violence. In March, an ambush on government forces by Assad loyalists in another part of Syria triggered days of sectarian and revenge attacks. Hundreds of civilians were killed, most of them members of Assad’s minority Alawite sect. A commission was formed to investigate the attacks but no findings have been made public.

The videos and reports of soldiers’ violations spurred outrage and protests by Druze communities in neighboring Lebanon, northern Israel and in the Israel-annexed Golan Heights, where the Israeli military said dozens of protesters had crossed the border into Syrian territory.

The violence drew international concern. The US envoy to Syria, Tom Barrack, called the violence “worrisome on all sides” in a post on.

“We are attempting to come to a peaceful, inclusive outcome for Druze, Bedouin tribes, the Syrian government and Israeli forces,” he said.


UN says 875 Palestinians have been killed near Gaza aid sites

UN says 875 Palestinians have been killed near Gaza aid sites
Updated 16 July 2025
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UN says 875 Palestinians have been killed near Gaza aid sites

UN says 875 Palestinians have been killed near Gaza aid sites
  • The United Nations has called the GHF aid model “inherently unsafe” and a violation of humanitarian impartiality standards

GENEVA: The UN rights office said on Tuesday it had recorded at least 875 killings within the past six weeks at aid points in Gaza run by the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation and convoys run by other relief groups, including the United Nations.

The majority of those killed were in the vicinity of Gaza Humanitarian Foundation sites, while the remaining 201 were killed on the routes of other aid convoys.

The GHF uses private US security and logistics companies to get supplies into Gaza, largely bypassing a UN-led system that Israel alleges has let Hamas-led militants loot aid shipments intended for civilians. Hamas denies the allegation.

The GHF, which began distributing food packages in Gaza in late May after Israel lifted an 11-week aid blockade, previously told Reuters that such incidents have not occurred on its sites and accused the UN of misinformation, which it denies.

The GHF did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the latest UN figures.

“The data we have is based on our own information gathering through various reliable sources, including medical human rights and humanitarian organizations,” Thameen Al-Kheetan, a spokesperson for the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, told reporters in Geneva.

The United Nations has called the GHF aid model “inherently unsafe” and a violation of humanitarian impartiality standards.

The GHF said on Tuesday it had delivered more than 75 million meals to Gaza Palestinians since the end of May, and that other humanitarian groups had “nearly all of their aid looted” by Hamas or criminal gangs.

The Israeli army previously told Reuters in a statement that it was reviewing recent mass casualties and that it had sought to minimize friction between Palestinians and the Israel Defense Forces by installing fences and signs and opening additional routes.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has previously cited instances of violent pillaging of aid, and the UN World Food Programme said last week that most trucks carrying food assistance into Gaza had been intercepted by “hungry civilian communities.”