Prosecution of three high-ranking Syrian officials to be tried in absentia could pave way for president’s case
At midnight on 3 November 2013, five Syrian officials dragged arts and humanities student Patrick Dabbagh from his home in the Mezzeh district of Damascus.
The following day, at the same hour, the same men, including a representative of the Syrian air force’s intelligence unit, returned with a dozen soldiers to arrest the 20-year-old’s father Mazzen.
Continue reading...Rallies take place in Idlib region, held by rebels against Bashar al-Assad, whose repression sparked civil war in 2011
Thousands of people have taken to the streets of Syria’s rebel-held north-west to mark 13 years since pro-democracy protests swept the country, chanting against President Bashar al-Assad and the region’s jihadist rulers.
The government’s brutal suppression of the 2011 uprising triggered a civil war that has killed more than half a million people, drawn in foreign armies and jihadists, and divided the country.
Continue reading...Three others also subject to warrants over use of sarin gas in two attacks in Syria in August 2013 that killed more than 1,000 people
A French court has issued an international arrest warrant for the Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad for complicity in war crimes against humanity linked to chemical weapon attacks on civilians.
Three others – including Assad’s brother Maher, head of an elite army unit – are also subject to warrants over the use of banned sarin gas in two attacks in August 2013 that killed more than 1,000 people, including hundreds of children.
Continue reading...Activists accuse ruling Ba’ath party of firing at demonstrators in southern city of Suwayda
Three people have been wounded by bullets that were sprayed at anti-government protesters in the southern Syrian city of Suwayda, activists and local journalists have said, in the first reported use of violence in weeks-long demonstrations there.
Activists, who have been taking to the streets to call for President Bashar al-Assad to step down over worsening living conditions, accused members of the ruling Ba’ath party of firing. Reuters could not independently confirm this.
Continue reading...Demonstrations have grown steadily throughout the south, centring around the province of Suwayda
A spate of protests and strikes across government-held areas in southern Syria have continued into their second week, with demonstrators increasingly unafraid to call for the removal of the president, Bashar al-Assad.
Protesters gathered in the southern city of Suwayda on Monday, closing provincial roads. The province of Suwayda has remained under government control since Syria’s 2011 uprising and is home to much of the country’s Druze minority.
Continue reading...Demonstrations against the Assad regime have taken hold in two southern provinces after the government ended fuel subsidies
Rare protests against Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s government continued on Friday, with demonstrations reported in a string of towns in Daraa and Sweida provinces.
The protests began late last week after the government ended fuel subsidies, dealing a heavy blow to Syrians reeling from years of war and economic crisis.
Continue reading...Report by Syrian Network for Human Rights details laws giving Assad’s government powers to seize land
As many as 14 million Syrians face a near insurmountable barrier to returning to their homes after the government passed laws giving the state power to seize their land and property, according to a report by the Syrian Network for Human Rights.
The report, shared with the Guardian, urged the UN high commissioner for refugees to highlight the laws as one of the main obstacles to refugees returning home.
Continue reading...Assad is attending summit in Saudi Arabia after 12 years outside bloc over Syrian civil war
Twelve years after his country was thrown out of the Arab League due to his bloody suppression of pro-democracy protests, Syria’s leader, Bashar al-Assad, has told a summit of the bloc that he hopes his return marks a new phase of peace and prosperity in the region.
A smiling Assad received a warm welcome in the Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah, voicing hope in his first summit speech since 2011 for a new era of Arab cooperation.
Continue reading...Western leaders and Gulf states clash over return of Syrian president after years of war against his own people
The Syrian president is to attend his first Arab League summit in 13 years on Friday as the west and Gulf states clash over his rehabilitation after more than a decade of war against his own people.
Bashar al-Assad will take his seat in Jeddah in a move engineered by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates that has already led to objections in Washington and London, which say the Syrian leader has shown no contrition for the millions who have been killed and displaced by his forces since pro-democracy protests started in 2011 and no willingness to change his brutal behaviour. The UAE appears to have also deliberately challenged the west by formally inviting Assad to attend the UN Cop28 climate change conference in Dubai in November, which would be his first global summit since the beginning of war.
Continue reading...Syria’s membership of Arab League suspended in 2011 after bloody crackdown on street protests
Arab League foreign ministers have adopted a decision to readmit Syria after more than a decade of suspension, consolidating a regional push to normalise ties with President Bashar al-Assad.
The decision, which means Syria can resume its participation in Arab League meetings immediately, also calls for a resolution of the crisis resulting from the country’s civil war, including the flight of refugees to neighbouring countries and drug smuggling across the region.
Continue reading...Tehran seeks to bolster influence over Damascus as Gulf states move to normalise relations with Assad
Ebrahim Raisi has flown to Damascus for the first state visit by an Iranian president to Syria since the civil war broke out in 2011, as Tehran seeks to bolster its political and economic influence over the Assad regime.
Iran has been a long-term supporter of Bashar al-Assad, sending Iranian militia to help defeat Assad’s opponents, and as the normalisation of relations between Syria and Gulf states nears, Iran wants to ensure it reaps the economic benefits of its support. Raisi is also making the visit now to try to build a stronger anti-Israeli alliance in the region.
Continue reading...Officials call on Biden to take steps to stop Arab states from normalising relations with Syrian leader
Moves to re-engage Bashar al-Assad without him taking steps to stabilise Syria or commit to reforms should be met by more robust US leadership that holds the Syrian leader to account and addresses a litany of US policy failings, a group of prominent former officials say.
In an unprecedented letter to Joe Biden and the secretary of state, Antony Blinken, the officials called for moves to stop a regional drift towards normalisation with Assad and impose a formalised ceasefire that facilitates a more impactful aid effort and helps ignite a political process.
Continue reading...Arab neighbours who snubbed president for waging a war against his own people are courting him. What is behind the new attitude?
Walking through Aleppo in Syria last month, Bashar al-Assad did not look like a man shouldering the fate of a nation.
As he posed for photos with locals, who queued to meet him inspecting damage from the earthquake that had devastated parts of northern Syria, Assad appeared to show as much relief as concern for victims. The country’s grinning leader seemed to realise a moment had finally arrived.
Continue reading...The survivors, including two teenagers, saved as rescue teams look to next phase of aid
Seven more people have been rescued eight days after a massive earthquake hit Turkey and Syria, but hopes of finding further survivors of what the World Health Organization called the worst natural disaster in 100 years in its 53-country Europe region are dwindling.
As a UN aid convoy entered stricken north-west Syria through a new crossing, the combined death toll rose to nearly 38,000, including 31,974 in Turkey and at least 5,714 in rebel-held and government-controlled Syria – a figure that is expected to continue to increase.
Continue reading...UN announces regime leader’s acceptance of border crossing points for humanitarian aid to reach rebel-held province
The Syrian leader, Bashar al-Assad, has agreed to open two border crossing points to allow in a greater volume of emergency aid for victims of the earthquake that has devastated parts of Turkey and Syria, and killed 36,000 people.
Assad’s decision was announced and welcomed by the UN secretary general, António Guterres, who said the two crossing points between Turkey and north-west Syria, at Bab al-Salam and Al Ra’ee, would be open “for an initial period of three months to allow for the timely delivery of humanitarian aid”.
Continue reading...Former al-Nusra Front chief keen to show scale of crisis in Idlib province and play down past links to al-Qaida
A Syrian rebel leader with a $10m (£8.3m) US government bounty on his head has appealed for urgent international aid to help the north-west province of Idlib after the earthquakes that have killed thousands and brought the last opposition-controlled area to its knees.
“The United Nations needs to understand that it’s required to help in a crisis,” said Ahmed Hussein al-Shara, better known by the nom de guerre Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, amid a humanitarian crisis that had already reached critical levels in Idlib before the twin earthquakes last week.
Continue reading...Assad regime still insists on handling all aid shipments to war-torn and quake-ravaged country that has been all but cut off from help
The US has temporarily eased its sanctions on Syria in an effort to speed up aid deliveries to the country’s north-west, where almost no humanitarian assistance has arrived despite the deaths of thousands in this week’s earthquake.
The tremor that has killed nearly 23,000 people there and in neighboring Turkey added to the devastation suffered in Syria’s north, which was already badly damaged by the civil war and is now mostly under opposition control, with Bashar al-Assad’s government present only in some areas.
Continue reading...Hundreds of thousands more people have been left homeless in often sub-zero winter conditions
A second convoy of aid trucks has crossed into stricken north-western Syria from Turkey, as rescuers continued to pull survivors – including a newborn baby – from the rubble 100 hours after an earthquake that has killed more than 23,000 people.
Hundreds of thousands more people have been left homeless and short of food in often sub-zero winter conditions after 7.8- and 7.6-magnitude quakes struck within hours of each other on Monday. Dozens of countries have pledged help and sent emergency teams.
Continue reading...Watchdog report follows years-long investigation into strike that killed 43 civilians in Damascus suburb
Investigators from the global chemical weapons agency have found the Syrian regime responsible for a poison gas attack that killed 43 people in a suburb of Damascus in 2018, leaving victims choking to death in the basement of a home.
In a report nearly five in the making, the Organisation for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) found the canisters carrying poison gas had been dropped by a Syrian air force helicopter over Douma – then one of the last opposition strongholds near the Syrian capital.
Continue reading...Police officer also dies during clashes amid claims security forces fired live ammunition on protesters
A protester and a police officer have been killed during an anti-government demonstration in Syria’s Druze-majority Sweida province.
Seven people were wounded during the incident on Sunday, at a rare protest in the country where President Bashar al-Assad stamped out a pro-democracy uprising over a decade ago. Assad survived the resulting civil war but the conflict has plunged Syria into poverty, coupled with a food security and energy crisis.
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