The formation of an inclusive government in Syria in the coming weeks will help determine whether Western sanctions will be lifted after the ouster of Bashar al-Assad, the United Nations special envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, said today.
"What I hope is that with a truly new inclusive government that will be established on March 1, it can help lift the sanctions" imposed on Syria by Western countries during Assad's rule, Pedersen told The Associated Press in an interview during a visit to Damascus.
The US and European countries have not lifted sanctions imposed on the Syrian government under Assad, which the new authorities say are hampering their ability to rebuild the country after nearly 14 years of civil war and restore basic services such as state electricity.
Officials from some Western countries have said they want to see whether the interim rulers will fulfill their promises of inclusive governance and protection of minorities.
After Assad was overthrown in December, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the main rebel group that now controls Syria, established an interim government.
The country's de facto authorities said at the time that a new government would be formed through an inclusive process by March. In January, former HTS leader Ahmad al-Shara was appointed interim president of Syria after a meeting of most of the country's former rebel factions.
In recent weeks, the committee has been holding meetings in different parts of Syria in preparation for a national dialogue conference to determine the country's political future, the date of which has not yet been announced.
Pedersen said that in his first meeting with al-Sharra in December, the Syrian leader insisted that the interim government rule for only three months, even though Pedersen warned him that the timeframe was short.
Organizers of the national dialogue said the conference would include all segments of Syrian society except Assad loyalists and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a Kurdish-led force in northeastern Syria that has so far refused to disband and be absorbed into a new army.
Pedersen said he was also concerned about the security vacuum following the dissolution of the former national army and security services by the country's new rulers.
The UN envoy said he remained concerned about Israeli incursions into Syrian territory since the fall of Assad. The Israeli military has occupied a UN-patrolled buffer zone in the Golan Heights established by a 1974 ceasefire agreement with Syria and has also carried out attacks outside the buffer zone.
Israeli officials said they took the action to protect Israel's security and that their presence would be temporary.
A bomb explosion in the town of Nairbabu in northeastern Syria has killed four people, including two women and a child, it was reported today.
Rescue teams said it was an unexploded device that was brought into a house, where it exploded and destroyed it.
It was announced that investigations are still ongoing to determine if there are any more victims under the rubble.
Half a million people have been killed in Syria since the conflict began in March 2011 and half of the country's pre-war population of 23 million has been displaced.
(BETA)
The United Nations human rights chief has said that the parading of bodies in Gaza is abhorrent and contrary to international law.
Hamas has handed over the bodies of Israeli baby Kfir Bibas and his four-year-old brother Airel, the youngest hostages captured by Hamas during the attack on October 7, 2023. The bodies of their mother, Shiri Bibas, and a fourth hostage, Oded Lifshitz, were handed over as part of a Gaza ceasefire agreement reached last month.
"Under international law, any transfer of human remains must comply with the prohibition of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, while ensuring respect for the dignity of the deceased and their families," Volker Turk said in a statement.
(Reuters)
Members of the armed Hamas movement today carried four black coffins onto a stage surrounded by posters ahead of the handover of the remains of hostages to the Red Cross, in implementation of a ceasefire that ended Israel's 15-month offensive launched by Hamas's attack on Israel in October 2023.
Hamas is today returning the bodies of four Israeli hostages, including mother Shiri Bibas and her two children, who were long feared dead and who have become the embodiment of the agony of the hostages taken in the October 7 attack.
Israel should hand over the bodies of Shira Bibas and her two young children, Ariel and Kfir. Kfir, at just nine months old, was the youngest hostage taken in the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, which triggered the war.
Hamas previously said all three were killed in an Israeli airstrike.
The militant group also plans to hand over the body of Oded Lifsic, who was 83 years old when he was kidnapped.
"The hearts of the entire nation are broken," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said yesterday in anticipation of the return of the body.
Hundreds of people, mostly masked Hamas fighters, gathered at the surrender site in the suburbs of the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis, where large banners were erected, including one showing rows of coffins draped in Israeli flags.
Israelis celebrated the return of 24 live hostages in recent weeks under the first phase of a ceasefire that took effect on January 19 and brought a pause to the 15-month war. But today's handover of the bodies will be a stark reminder of those who died in captivity as negotiations leading to the truce dragged on for more than a year.
This could provide an impetus for negotiations on the second phase of the ceasefire, which have barely begun. The first phase is due to end on March 2nd.
Kfir Bibas was just nine months old, a ginger child with a wild smile when militants stormed the family's home on October 7, 2023. His brother Ariel was four. Video footage from that day shows a terrified Shiri carrying the two boys as militants took them into Gaza.
Her husband, Jarden Bibas, was kidnapped separately and released this month in a round of hostage releases as part of a ceasefire deal, after 16 months in captivity.
Relatives in Israel held out hope that Shiri and the children were still alive, marking Kfir's first and second birthdays and his brother's fifth. The Bibas family said in a statement last night that they would wait for "identification procedures" before accepting that their loved ones were dead.
Supporters across Israel wore orange in solidarity with the family, in reference to the abducted boys' red hair, and a popular children's song was written in their honor.
Like the Bibas family, Oded Lifshitz, whose body will also be handed over today, was abducted from Kibbutz Niz Oz along with his wife Yocheved, who was released during a week-long ceasefire in November 2023. Oded was a journalist who advocated for the recognition of Palestinian rights and peace between Arabs and Jews.
Hamas will release six more live hostages on Saturday in exchange for hundreds of Palestinians held in Israeli jails, and will hand over the bodies of four more hostages next week, completing the first phase of the ceasefire. That will leave Hamas with about 60 more hostages, all men, half of whom are believed to be dead.
Hamas has said it will not release the remaining hostages without a permanent ceasefire and full Israeli withdrawal.
(Beta)
Bonus video:
