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Syrian Druze leader slams ‘genocidal campaign’, Israel issues warning

Syrian Druze spiritual leader Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri on Thursday condemned what he called a “genocidal campaign” against his community after two days of sectarian clashes left 102 people dead.Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz warned his country would respond “with significant force” if Syria’s new authorities fail to protect the Druze minority, whose representatives rejected any attempt to force them out. The violence poses a serious challenge to the Islamist authorities who ousted longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in December.It comes after a wave of massacres in March in Syria’s Alawite heartland on the Mediterranean coast in which security forces and allied groups killed more than 1,700 civilians, mostly from Assad’s Alawite community, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.Hijri denounced the latest violence in Jaramana and Sahnaya near Damascus as an “unjustifiable genocidal campaign” against the Druze.He called in a statement for immediate intervention by “international forces to maintain peace and prevent the continuation of these crimes”.Israel has ramped up support of Syria’s Druze, with Foreign Minister Gideon Saar urging the international community to “fulfil its role in protecting the minorities in Syria — especially the Druze — from the regime and its gangs of terror”.At a meeting of Druze leaders, elders and armed groups in the city of Sweida, the community agreed it was “an inseparable part of the unified Syrian homeland”, a spokesperson said. “We reject partition, separation, or disengagement,” the spokesperson added.- ‘Outlaw groups’ blamed -The Syrian Observatory said the fighting had involved security forces, allied fighters and local Druze groups.The Britain-based monitor, which relies on a network of sources in Syria, said the 102 death toll included 30 government loyalists, 21 Druze fighters and 10 civilians, including Sahnaya’s former mayor, Husam Warwar.In the southern Druze heartland province of Sweida, it said 40 Druze gunmen were killed, 35 in an “ambush” on the Sweida-Damascus road on Wednesday.The monitor told AFP the fighters were killed “by forces affiliated with the ministries of interior and defence and gunmen associated with them”.The violence was sparked by the circulation of an audio recording attributed to a Druze citizen and deemed blasphemous.AFP was unable to confirm the recording’s authenticity.Truces were reached in Jaramana on Tuesday and in Sahnaya on Wednesday.The government announced it was deploying forces in Sahnaya to ensure security, and accused “outlaw groups” of instigating the clashes.However, Hijri said he no longer trusts “an entity pretending to be a government… because the government does not kill its people through its extremist militias… and then claim they were unruly elements after the massacres”.”The government (should) protect its people,” he said.The Druze gathering on Thursday urged the government to engage “the judicial police in Sweida, drawing from the province’s own residents” on the issue. Syria’s new authorities, who have roots in the Al-Qaeda jihadist network, have vowed inclusive rule in the multi-confessional, multi-ethnic country, but must also contend with pressures from radical Islamists.On Wednesday, a foreign ministry statement vowed to “protect all components” of Syrian society, including the Druze.- Israeli strikes -Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani on Thursday reiterated Syria’s rejection of demands for international intervention, posting on X that “national unity is the solid foundation for any process of stability or revival”.”Any call for external intervention, under any pretext or slogan, only leads to further deterioration and division,” he added.Israel sees the new forces in Syria as jihadists and carried out strikes near Damascus on Wednesday.Israel has attacked hundreds of military sites in Syria since Assad’s overthrow and said its military would hit government targets “should the violence against Druze communities continue”.It has also sent troops into the demilitarised buffer zone that used to separate Israeli and Syrian forces on the Golan Heights and voiced support for Syria’s Druze.Israel’s military said Thursday two wounded Syrian Druze had been evacuated to northern Israel for treatment. In a statement Thursday, US State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said the violence and rhetoric against the Druze community in Syria was “reprehensible and unacceptable”, and called on the interim authorities to hold perpetrators accountable.burs-srm-sbk/tw/sco/rsc

US expects Iran talks but Trump presses sanctions

The United States said Thursday it expected new nuclear talks to take place soon with Iran but President Donald Trump vowed to enforce sanctions and called for global boycott of “any amount” of Iranian oil or petrochemicals.Iran said that a fourth round of talks with the Trump administration, which had been set to take place this weekend in Rome, had been delayed.Oman, which has mediated between the long-time adversaries, said that “logistical reasons” were to blame for the delay.But in Washington, State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said that the meeting’s date and venue had never been decided.”We expect another round of talks that will take place in the near future,” she told reporters.Trump, who ripped up an earlier nuclear deal in 2018, has voiced hope at securing a fresh agreement to resolve concerns and stave off the possibility of an Israeli military strike on Iran.Yet, he has openly spoken of his ambivalence. On returning to office, he vowed a return to “maximum pressure” but said he was doing so reluctantly, at the behest of hawkish advisors.Iran wants relief from sweeping sanctions imposed by Trump in the first term, including a US attempt to bar all countries from buying Iranian oil.Trump on Thursday vowed enforcement, a day after the United States imposed sanctions on seven companies accused of transporting Iranian-origin petroleum products.”All purchases of Iranian Oil, or Petrochemical products, must stop, NOW!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.”Any Country or person who buys ANY AMOUNT of OIL or PETROCHEMICALS from Iran will be subject to, immediately, Secondary Sanctions,” he wrote.Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday warned Iran on social media over support to Yemen’s Huthi insurgents, who are being pounded by US airstrikes over their missile firings in the Red Sea in purported solidarity with the Palestinians.”You know very well what the U.S. Military is capable of — and you were warned. You will pay the CONSEQUENCE at the time and place of our choosing,” Hegseth wrote.- ‘Lack of goodwill’ -Iran’s foreign ministry condemned what it called “the contradictory approach of American decision-makers and their lack of goodwill and seriousness in advancing the path of diplomacy.”The sanctions mark the latest US attempt “to disrupt friendly and legal relations between developing countries through economic terrorism,” it said.Steve Witkoff, Trump’s business friend turned globe-trotting envoy, has led the talks and voiced optimism about the atmosphere with the Iranians.Witkoff had earlier hinted at more flexibility in the talks but Secretary of State Marco Rubio — now also Trump’s national security advisor — has insisted that the goal is the complete dismantlement of Iran’s program.Many Iran watchers believe Tehran will never give up its program as a whole and the previous 2015 agreement, negotiated under former president Barack Obama, allowed a pathway to a limited civilian nuclear program.The 2015 deal included Russia, China and three European powers — Britain, France and Germany — which unsuccessfully sought to dissuade Trump from ripping it up.The European powers had been set to meet as well with Iran on a technical level on Friday ahead of the US-Iran talks.”Since that meeting is not taking place, the technical meeting is no longer relevant, at least at that time,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot told AFP on a visit to Washington.Western governments have long accused Iran of seeking to acquire a nuclear weapons capability — a goal Tehran has consistently denied, insisting its program is for peaceful purposes only.burs-sct/sla

‘We are the people of this land,’ Palestinians mark ‘Nakba’

About 300 Arab Israelis gathered Thursday in the ruins of a village that Palestinians fled during the 1948 war that led to the creation of Israel, to commemorate what Palestinians call the “Nakba”, or catastrophe.As Israel celebrated Independence Day on Thursday, the demonstrators —- men, women, and children -— marched through the ruins chanting, “Your independence is our Nakba”.The place where the demonstrators gathered was previously the village of Al-Lajjun.The site, once home to thousands of Palestinians, has now been partly taken over by kibbutz Megiddo, an Israeli farming community.This year’s remembrance unfolded against the backdrop of the war in Gaza, where more than 18 months of fighting between Israel and Hamas militants have displaced nearly all of the territory’s 2.4 million people at least once, according to the United Nations.Clad in traditional keffiyeh headscarves and garments, marchers sang the Palestinian anthem and shared memories of loss and resilience.Among them was Ziyad Mahajneh, 82, who had fled the village as a child in 1948.They “attacked our village with cannons and machine guns,” Mahajneh recalled.He said when his family fled he was left behind, and it was a neighbour who helped him reunite with them in the nearby town of Umm al-Fahm, now also part of Israel.”Today, we are forbidden to be here. They ask us, ‘What are you doing here’?” he told AFP, referring to Israelis.”Al-Lajjun land has now become kibbutzim.”Memories of displacement echoed through the gathering.During the 1948 war, around 760,000 Palestinians fled or were driven from their homes.The descendants of some 160,000 Palestinians who managed to remain in what became Israel presently make about 20 percent of its population.Many of today’s Arab Israelis remain deeply connected to their historic land.For more than two decades, Arab Israelis have marked Israeli Independence Day with an annual “March of Return” to a depopulated Palestinian village.This year, however, organisers said heightened restrictions imposed by Israeli authorities —- including limits on attendance and a ban on Palestinian flags —- led them to cancel the central march and hold smaller demonstrations instead.”They want us to stop from doing even the simplest act: remembering the Nakba,” said Faisal Mahajneh, another displaced resident of Al-Lajjun.”We are the people of this land, and we will not lose hope” of returning, said Ziyad.

Tunisia protesters demand freedom for jailed opposition

Hundreds of Tunisians took to the streets of the capital Thursday to mark Labour Day, to protest against President Kais Saied and to demand the release of jailed political figures.The rally, attended by members of different political factions, was called by Tunisia’s powerful UGTT trade union confederation and relatives of detained opposition figures.”We’re not happy with what’s happening,” activist Souhaieb Ferchichi said. “People keep advocating for their rights despite an atmosphere of fear and repression.””This regime is failing,” he added. “It sells us slogans while not respecting the constitution and the law.”Demonstrators on Habib Bourguiba Avenue, Tunis’s main thoroughfare and a popular protest spot, carried a banner reading: “Injustice is the beginning of the end.””The revolution will come,” they chanted, with some carrying signs calling the president a “tyrant”.”The country is in a state of shutdown, a state of silencing voices and jailing young people over a social media post,” UGTT chief Noureddine Taboubi said in a statement that denounced a “clampdown on freedoms”.Since Saied’s power grab in July 2021, in which he dissolved parliament and began ruling by decree, rights groups have warned of a sharp decline in civil liberties in Tunisia.Thursday’s protest comes days after lawyer Ahmed Souab was detained on terrorism-related charges after claiming that judges were under political pressure to hand opposition figures hefty sentences in a recent mass trial.Last month’s trial saw around 40 public figures, some of them staunch critics of Saied, sentenced to long jail terms on charges including plotting against the state.Souab had been a member of the defence team.”As his family, we consider his arrest to be politically motivated,” said the lawyer’s 67-year-old brother Mongi Souab.”Ahmed was not detained just for his words, but for his political positions regarding the state’s policies,” he told AFP.The trial drew international criticism, with objections from France, Germany and the United Nations.This week Saied dismissed “comments and statements by foreign parties” as “blatant interference in Tunisia’s internal affairs”.Thursday’s demonstration in Tunis was also marked by a counter protest.”The president said what he said: no to foreign interference,” said Ridha Soula, a retired 70-year-old among a smaller group of Saied supporters near the main rally.”We have elections here, and the people gave their voice,” he said. “If you won we’re with you. If you lost, you stay quiet.”