People sing and dance on top of a destroyed tank in Umayyad Square on December 11, 2024 in Damascus, Syria. (Chris McGrath/Getty Images)
Secretary of State Antony Blinken is traveling to Jordan and Turkey to promote a “Syrian-led transition” in Damascus, meeting leaders of neighboring nations to try to get them on board, the State Department said.
The top U.S. diplomat “will reiterate the United States’ support for an inclusive, Syrian-led transition to an accountable and representative government,” spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement. “He will discuss the need for the transition process and new government in Syria to respect the rights of minorities” and also will push for open channels of humanitarian assistance, and securing and destroying stockpiles of chemical weapons.
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After toppling Assad, can Syria’s rebels rebuild a shattered state? Loveday Morris and Abbie CheesemanDAMASCUS, Syria — After sweeping into this capital city with ease, exposing the hollowness of the Assad regime after more than half a century of dictatorial rule, Syria’s rebels now face the more daunting task of governance.As forces from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the Islamist group that led the charge, advanced steadily from their home base in the north to the gates of the presidential palace, they released conciliatory messages on social media reassuring minorities they would not be persecuted and emphasizing a commitment to a Syria for all Syrians.Now in charge of a newly hopeful but still wary nation, HTS is confronted with vexing challenges. The group will need to consolidate control over a patchwork of rebel forces and demonstrate political inclusivity, which will be key to getting relief from international sanctions. Most critically, the rebels must allay public fears that they will seek to replace Assadism with their own form of absolute rule.This is an excerpt from a full story.Continue readingContinue reading
Strikes continue in Gaza’s Beit Lahia, leaving more than 30 killed or under rubbleMiriam Berger and Heba Farouk Mahfouz Strikes in the northern Gazan city of Beit Lahia killed or left under rubble more than 30 people over the last day, Hossam Abu Safiya, director of the embattled Kamal Adwan hospital, said Wednesday.“Throughout the night, more than seven explosive drones were deployed around Kamal Adwan Hospital, resulting in the bombing of entire buildings and the destruction of residential blocks,” he said in a statement shared Wednesday by Med Global, a U.S.-based medical NGO with whom he works.Abu Safiya said that one strike hit a building housing the extended Abu Tarabish family. “We received distress calls from neighbors and from individuals trapped under the rubble, but we are unable to leave the hospital due to the ongoing danger,” he said.The Israel Defense Forces in a statement said that “a strike was conducted against a Hamas terrorist in the area of Jabalya in the vicinity of the Kamal Adwan Hospital.” The IDF said it is “continuing to examine the incident” but said “the number of casualties resulting from the strike published in the media is inaccurate.”In a separate incident, a strike killed a mother and two children at the hospital’s gate, Abu Safiya told The Post by WhatsApp. The IDF has repeatedly attacked North Gaza’s last three hospitals and forcibly displaced medical staff during a more than two-month-long siege of the border communities of Jabalya, Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahia. The IDF has accused the hospitals of harboring Hamas militants but has not provided evidence.Abu Safiya, who himself was injured in a strike last month, said the hospital is treating around 120 patients and its oxygen, water and electricity systems need urgent repairs.Munir al-Bursh, the Director General of Gaza’s Health Ministry, told The Post by WhatsApp on Wednesday that Israeli forces had also besieged Beit Hanoun’s Indonesian hospital, where some 60 patients, their relatives and medical staff remained. He said communication was cut off and drones with snipers and explosions were circling the area, preventing people from leaving or reaching the hospital.OCHA, the U.N. humanitarian agency, said in a statement Tuesday that Israeli authorities had denied 16 of 17 requests by aid agencies to reach the besieged northern communities between Dec. 1 and Dec. 9. One mission to evacuate patients and bring supplies to Kamal Adwan hospital on Dec. 1 was “impeded” after long delays, OCHA said.
Iran’s supreme leader accuses U.S. and Israel of orchestrating Assad ousterSusannah GeorgeIn his first address since the toppling of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Iran’s supreme leader blasted the United States and Israel, accusing them of orchestrating the overthrow of one of Tehran’s key allies.“The main plotter, the main planner, the main agent, the main command room is in the United States and in the Zionist regime,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Wednesday to a crowd of hundreds packed into a Tehran hall to hear his address.His remarks, while steeped in the Islamic Republic’s rhetorical tradition of condemnations of Israel and its Western allies, verged at moments into rare confluence with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s characterizations of Assad’s fall. In an address earlier this week, Netanyahu said the collapse of the Assad regime was “a direct result of the blows” Israeli forces “have dealt to Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran.”In his speech Wednesday, Khamenei spoke for roughly an hour, seated in a simple chair before a pair of microphones. He held a thin stack of note cards in one hand that he occasionally referenced.Khamenei sharply criticized Israeli military actions in Syria since Assad’s fall — a campaign of heavy airstrikes and the movement of ground forces into Syrian territory along Israel’s border. He praised Iran’s military and intelligence services and said Syria’s army was too weakened for help from Tehran to have made a difference. And he pledged that setbacks in Syria would only strengthen the resistance against the United States and Israel.“The more you add pressure, the more steadfast it is, the more crimes you commit, the more it is motivated,” he said. The crowd chanted back: “God is great!” “Death to Israel!” “Death to America!”This is an excerpt from a full story.Continue readingContinue reading
Middle East conflict
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Monitoring the status of hostages still in Gaza after Hamas’s attackNovember 26, 2024War’s ebb in Lebanon leaves devastation and uncertain futureNovember 27, 2024Israel and Hezbollah agree to cease-fire, halting year-long conflictNovember 26, 2024
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