Syria’s President Assad would ‘welcome home refugees’

Published

1 year ago

August 10, 2023

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Syrian President Bashar al Assad has said he would welcome home refugees who escaped the country’s long-running civil war.

In an exclusive interview with Sky News Arabia, he blamed the country’s economic situation as the reason why refugees are not returning to their homeland, pointing to the “image of war” in Syria for the lack of much-needed international investment in its economy.

“Over the last few years we’ve seen just under half a million people return and none of them were harmed,” he said.

“What’s stopped more from coming back is the economic situation.

“How can a refugee return without electricity or school for his children or medical treatment? These are life’s essentials.

“That’s the reason.

“We pardoned all refugees who came back apart from people who committed serious crimes.”

But several human rights groups and international organisations including the United Nations, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have said it is unsafe for refugees to return to Syria.

Those who have returned faced “grave human rights abuses and persecution at the hands of the Syria government and affiliated militias”, Human Rights Watch said.

Syria is subject to tough US sanctions – called the Caesar Act – which President Assad says “is an obstacle without doubt but it is not the biggest obstacle”.

“The biggest obstacle is the terrorist demolishing the infrastructure. The biggest obstacle is the image of war in Syria which prohibits any investor from dealing with the Syrian market,” he said.

Syria’s currency is collapsing and the country is suffering from a lack of electricity, medicine and daily essentials, despite support from Russia and Iran.

War in Syria broke out in 2011, with August 2023 marking ten years since then President Obama decided not to bomb Syria after chemical weapons were used in the country.

President Assad has now regained control of the capital Damascus and most urban areas.

The war rages on with the UN estimating that more than 300,000 civilians were killed in the first decade of the conflict.

In the 12-year conflict, more than half of the country’s 22 million pre-war population fled their homes with the civil war a major factor in Europe’s migrant crisis.

The governments of Canada and the Netherlands recently filed torture complaints against Syria in the International Court of Justice over the “unlawful killing” of thousands of civilians.

Assad’s power still limited despite comeback

It is ten years, to the month, since President Obama decided at the last minute not to bomb Syria after chemical weapons were used in the country.

In the years since, tens of thousands more people have been killed in fighting and the civil war continues – but President Bashar al Assad has regained control of the capital, Damascus, and most urban areas in Syria.

Millions of Syrians fled the fighting and are still refugees, unable to return to their homes.

Many have tried to make the dangerous sea crossings into Europe – the Syrian civil war is a large factor in the migrant crisis on European shores.

Assad’s claim in the interview with Sky News Arabia, that he would welcome the refugees home, ignores the reality that many don’t want to return to a country under his rule.

With parts of Syria still in rebel hands, Assad cannot claim outright victory, but he is being accepted back into the Arab world.

He desperately needs investment with Syria’s economy facing tough US sanctions, its currency collapsing and a lack of electricity, medicine and daily essentials.

Support from his allies – Russia and Iran – is not enough.

Bashar al Assad is showing confidence to travel abroad again and is starting to rebuild his power. That power is limited though.

He might have survived the Arab Spring when most leaders didn’t but he is still a pariah in the West, accused of war crimes, and his country is still at war and in ruins.

But accusations of war crimes against President Assad have not stopped him from slowly being reaccepted by Middle Eastern leaders.

He recently attended the annual Arab League summit after he was suspended by the alliance during his crackdown on pro-democracy protests that led to the breakout of the civil war.

President Assad also said fleeing Syria during the war was “never on the cards” for him.

He told Sky News Arabia: “There were no internal demands for the president to depart. It’s important for a president to leave, or to leave his responsibilities to be more precise, when the people demand it – not due to external interference or external wars.

“When it’s due to internal reasons that’s normal but when it’s because of external war that’s called escape or to flee. And me fleeing was never on the cards.”

World

Musk sued over buying Twitter shares at artificially low prices by US finance regulator

Published

13 hours ago

January 15, 2025

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Musk sued over buying Twitter shares at artificially low prices by US finance regulator

Elon Musk is being sued for failing to disclose his purchase of more than 5% of Twitter stock in a timely fashion.

The world’s richest man bought the stock in March 2022 and the complaint by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said the delay allowed him to continue buying Twitter stock at artificially low prices.

In papers filed in Washington DC federal court, the SEC said the move allowed Mr Musk to underpay by at least $150m (£123m).

The commission wants Mr Musk to pay a civil fine and give up profits he was not entitled to.

In response to the lawsuit a lawyer for the multi-billionaire said: “Mr Musk has done nothing wrong and everyone sees this sham for what it is.”

An SEC rule requires investors to disclose within 10 calendar days when they cross a 5% ownership threshold.

The SEC said Mr Musk did not disclose his state until 4 April 2022, 11 days after the deadline – by which point he owned more than 9% of Twitter’s shares.

Twitter’s share price rose by more than 27% following Mr Musk’s disclosure, the SEC added.

Mr Musk later purchased Twitter for $44bn (£36bn) in October 2022 and renamed the social media site X.

Since the election of Donald Trump, Mr Musk has been put in charge of leading a newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) alongside former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.

The president-elect said the department would work to reduce government bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures and restructure federal agencies.

World

Hamas accepts Gaza peace deal as Israeli official says agreement is close but ‘not there yet’

Published

13 hours ago

January 15, 2025

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Hamas accepts Gaza peace deal as Israeli official says agreement is close but 'not there yet'

US president-elect Donald Trump has suggested Israel and Hamas could agree a Gaza ceasefire by the end of the week.

Talks between Israeli and Hamas representatives resumed in the Qatari capital Doha yesterday, after US President Joe Biden indicated a deal to stop the fighting was “on the brink” on Monday.

A draft agreement has been sent to both sides. It includes provisions for the release of hostages and a phased Israeli troop withdrawal from Gaza.

Qatar says Israel and Hamas are at their “closest point” yet to a ceasefire deal.

Two Hamas officials said the group has accepted the draft agreement, with Israel still considering the deal.

An Israeli official said a deal is close but “we are not there” yet.

More than 46,500 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched its ground offensive in the aftermath of the 7 October attacks, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

Read more:
What’s in the proposed deal?

Biden hails possibility of agreement

President Biden said it would include a hostage release deal and a “surge” of aid to Palestinians, in his final foreign policy speech as president.

“So many innocent people have been killed, so many communities have been destroyed. Palestinian people deserve peace,” he said.

“The deal would free the hostages, halt the fighting, provide security to Israel, and allow us to significantly surge humanitarian assistance to the Palestinians who suffered terribly in this war that Hamas started.”

Qatari mediators have sent Israel and Hamas a draft proposal for an agreement to halt the fighting.

Analysis:
Deal might be close, but there are many unanswered questions

Trump: ‘We’re very close’

President-elect Donald Trump has also discussed a possible peace deal during a phone interview with the Newsmax channel.

“We’re very close to getting it done and they have to get it done,” he said.

“If they don’t get it done, there’s going to be a lot of trouble out there, a lot of trouble, like they have never seen before.

“And they will get it done. And I understand there’s been a handshake and they’re getting it finished and maybe by the end of the week. But it has to take place, it has to take place.”

Israeli official: Former Hamas leader held up deal

Speaking on Tuesday as negotiations resumed in Qatar, an anonymous Israeli official said that an agreement was “close, but we are not there”.

They accused Hamas of previously “dictating, not negotiating” but said this has changed in the last few weeks.

“Yahya Sinwar was the main obstacle for a deal,” they added.

Sinwar, believed to be the mastermind of the 7 October attacks, led Hamas following the assassination of his predecessor but was himself killed in October last year.

Under Sinwar, the Israeli official claimed, Hamas was “not in a rush” to bring a hostage deal but this has changed since his death and since the IDF “started to dismantle the Shia axis”.

Iran ‘weaker than it’s been in decades’

Yesterday, President Biden also hailed Washington’s support for Israel during two Iranian attacks in 2024.

“All told, Iran is weaker than it’s been in decades,” the president said.

Mr Biden claimed America’s adversaries were weaker than when he took office four years ago and that the US was “winning the worldwide competition”.

“Compared to four years ago, America is stronger, our alliances are stronger, our adversaries and competitors are
weaker,” he said.

“We have not gone to war to make these things happen.”

The US president is expected to give a farewell address on Wednesday.

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Gaza ceasefire: What does the draft agreement say and how many hostages would be released?

Published

13 hours ago

January 15, 2025

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Gaza ceasefire: What does the draft agreement say and how many hostages would be released?

A draft ceasefire deal on the table between Israel and Hamas would see 33 hostages set free and a phased withdrawal of IDF forces from parts of Gaza.

President Joe Biden said an agreement to stop the fighting was “on the brink” and high level negotiations between the two sides resumed in Qatar on Tuesday.

The deal would see a number of things happen in a first stage, with negotiations for the second stage beginning in the third week of the ceasefire.

It would also allow a surge in humanitarian aid into Gaza, which has been devastated by more than a year of war.

Details of what the draft proposal entails have been emerging on Tuesday, reported by Israeli and Palestinian officials.

Hostages to be returned

In the first stage of the potential ceasefire, 33 hostages would be set free.

These include women (including female soldiers), children, men over the age of 50, wounded and sick.

Israel believes most of these hostages are alive but there has not been any official confirmation from Hamas.

In return for the release of the hostages, Israel would free more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees.

People serving long sentences for deadly attacks would be included in this but Hamas fighters who took part in the 7 October attack would not be released.

An arrangement to prevent Palestinian “terrorists” from going back to the West Bank would be included in the deal, an anonymous Israeli official said.

Phased Israeli withdrawal from Gaza

The agreement also includes a phased withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, with IDF troops remaining in the border perimeter to defend Israeli border towns and villages.

Security arrangements would be implemented at the Philadelphi corridor – a narrow strip of land that runs along the border between Egypt and Gaza – with Israel withdrawing from parts of it after the first few days of the deal.

The Rafah Crossing between Egypt and Gaza would start to work gradually to allow the crossing of people who are sick and other humanitarian cases out of Gaza for treatment.

Unarmed North Gaza residents would be allowed to return to their homes, with a mechanism introduced to ensure no weapons are moved there.

“We will not leave the Gaza Strip until all our hostages are back home,” the Israeli official said.

What will happen to Gaza in the future?

There is less detail about the future of Gaza – from how it will be governed, to any guarantees that this agreement will bring a permanent end to the war.

“The only thing that can answer for now is that we are ready for a ceasefire,” the Israeli official said.

“This is a long ceasefire and the deal that is being discussed right now is for a long one. There is a big price for releasing the hostages and we are ready to pay this price.”

The international community has said Gaza must be run by Palestinians, but there has not been a consensus about how this should be done – and the draft ceasefire agreement does not seem to address this either.

In the past, Israel has said it will not end the war leaving Hamas in power. It also previously rejected the possibility of the Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited governing powers in the West Bank, from taking over the administration of Gaza.

Since the beginning of its military campaign in Gaza, Israel has also said it would retain security control over the territory after the fighting ends.