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France Issues Arrest Warrant for Syrian President Assad
Title: France Issues Arrest Warrants for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad over Alleged Chemical Weapon Use Date: [Current Date] [City], France – In a groundbreaking move,.....»»
Israeli strikes knock out Damascus, Aleppo airports
Israeli strikes knocked out war-torn Syria's two main airports, state media reported citing a military source, with the transport ministry saying flights were re-routed to Latakia. "At around 5:25 a.m. (0225 GMT), the Israeli enemy carried out... an air attack... targeting Damascus and Aleppo international airports, leading to the death of a civilian worker at Damascus airport and wounding another," the military source said in the statement carried by state news agency SANA. "Material damage to the airports' runways put them out of service," the statement added. The transport ministry said flights were diverted to Latakia airport. The post Israeli strikes knock out Damascus, Aleppo airports appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
Biggest-ever Asian Games ready for liftoff in China after Covid delay
The biggest Asian Games in history, boasting about 12,000 competitors -- more than the Olympics -- will open on Saturday in the Chinese city of Hangzhou after a year's delay because of Covid. Athletes including world and Olympic champions will fight for medals in 40 sports from athletics, swimming and football to eSports and bridge. Nine sports, among them boxing, break dancing and tennis, will serve as qualifiers for next year's Paris Olympics. The Games were supposed to take place last September but were postponed because of China's strict zero-Covid rules, before China's ruling Communist Party abruptly abandoned the policy. The 19th edition of the Games, which were first held in New Delhi in 1951, throws together competitors from 45 countries and territories across Asia and the Middle East. For China, which hosted the 2022 Winter Olympics in a Covid-secure "bubble" in Beijing, it is a chance to show off its organizational, sporting and technological prowess after the pandemic years cut the country off from the sporting world. "We have overcome a lot of challenges but we are now fully conditioned to hold a successful Games," Chen Weiqiang, chief spokesperson for the Games, said on Wednesday. Sport meets politics The Games will be staged at 54 venues -- 14 newly constructed -- mostly in Hangzhou but also extending to cities as far afield as Wenzhou, 300 kilometres (180 miles) south. The centerpiece is the "Big Lotus" Olympic stadium with a capacity of up to 80,000 where athletics and the opening and closing ceremonies will be staged. President Xi Jinping will attend the opening ceremony and meet Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad there, along with other visiting leaders, Chinese state media says. Assad is making his first visit to ally China since the war erupted in Syria in 2011. Russian President Vladimir Putin likewise attended the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics, along with Xi, and weeks later launched the invasion of Ukraine. Hangzhou, a city of 12 million people an hour's bullet train from Shanghai, is famed in China for its ancient temples, gardens and its beloved West Lake. It is also the unofficial home of China's tech industry, notably the birth place of Jack Ma's Alibaba. The Games will showcase some of the latest tech to come out of the city, including driverless buses, robot dogs and facial recognition. China medal dash Hosts China have topped the medals table at every Asian Games since 1982 and are expected to do so again by the time the curtain comes down on October 8. They should reign in swimming, with Qin Haiyang fresh from his heroics at the world championships, where he announced himself as the new undisputed breaststroke king. The 24-year-old swept all three men's events and set a new world record in the 200m. In athletics, another of the most closely watched sports, India's Olympic and world champion Neeraj Chopra will defend his Asian Games javelin crown. His nearest competitor should be world silver medalist Arshad Nadeem from arch-rivals Pakistan and the countries are also on a collision course in cricket and hockey. ESports, in what is seen as a step toward Olympic inclusion one day, will make its full Asian Games debut having been a demonstration sport five years ago. Lee Sang-hyeok, better known as "Faker", has god-like status in League of Legends and will lead the South Korean charge at the futuristic-looking China Hangzhou Esports Centre. There is an added incentive which has caused controversy in South Korea -- winning gold will exempt them from having to do military service. A feature of the Asian Games is that it includes sports that are a little more quirky than the Olympics. Xiangqi -- also known as "Chinese chess" -- the card game bridge and the ancient wrestling discipline of kurash are all on the menu. Although the Games officially open on Saturday, the sporting action began on Tuesday, when North Korea returned to major international competition for the first time since the pandemic with a 2-0 win over Taiwan in men's football. The post Biggest-ever Asian Games ready for liftoff in China after Covid delay appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
Ukrainian drone attack damages Russian tanker
KYIV (AFP) — A Russian tanker was damaged in a Ukrainian drone attack in the Kerch Strait, briefly halting traffic on the strategic bridge linking Crimea to Russia on Saturday, a day after one of Moscow’s warships was hit in the Black Sea. The number of attacks in the Black Sea has increased from both sides since Moscow exited a deal last month that had allowed Ukrainian grain exports via the shipping hub during the conflict between the two countries. The Russian tanker SIG was hit around 11:20 p.m. (2020 GMT) Friday south of the Kerch Strait, Russia’s Federal Agency for Sea and Inland Water Transport said. The SIG suffered a hole at the waterline in the area of the engine room, “presumably as a result of an attack by a marine drone,” the agency said on Telegram. “The ship is afloat.” An oil boom had been placed around the vessel and preparations were underway to patch the damage, it said. The Marine Traffic vessel-tracking website showed the SIG stationary and attended by tugs just south of the strait. The oil and chemical tanker is under US sanctions for supplying jet fuel to Russian forces in Syria supporting President Bashar al-Assad. Russia’s state RIA Novosti news agency said there were no casualties in the attack, citing the Maritime Rescue Coordination Center of Novorossiysk. Traffic on the bridge across the Kerch Strait linking the Moscow-annexed Crimean Peninsula to Russia’s mainland was halted for around three hours and resumed early Saturday, according to the Russian highways information center’s Telegram channel. The latest attack in the Black Sea came a day after Ukraine said it had carried out a seaborne-drone strike on a Russian navy ship at Novorossiysk naval base in southern Russia. In a video of the purported attack on the warship obtained by AFP, a naval drone is seen speeding towards the darkened silhouette of a military vessel before the connection abruptly cuts off. A Ukrainian attack targeting the Olenegrorsky Gornyak landing ship was “successful,” a Ukrainian security source told AFP Friday. “The goal was to show that Ukraine can attack any Russian warship in that zone,” the source added. Russia said it had repelled an attempted attack on the naval base by the Ukrainian armed forces “with the use of two unmanned sea boats.” Russia’s Black Sea Fleet has been targeted since the beginning of Moscow’s military campaign in Ukraine more than a year ago, but attacks have increased in recent weeks. The port of Novorossiysk also hosts the terminus of a pipeline that carries most Kazakh oil exports through Russia. The fuel artery’s operator Caspian Pipeline Consortium said it was continuing to ship oil to moored tankers at the terminal, Russian state media reported Friday. Crimea, annexed by Russia in 2014, has been targeted by Kyiv throughout Moscow’s Ukraine offensive but has seen more intense attacks in recent weeks. Ukrainian drone strikes on Crimea in July blew up an ammunition depot and damaged the strategic bridge across the Kerch Strait. The post Ukrainian drone attack damages Russian tanker appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
Chosen son: Cambodia’s next PM Hun Manet to succeed father
Hun Manet has an economics degree from England and graduated from US military academy West Point, but there are few expectations he will uphold Western liberal ideals when he succeeds his father as Cambodia's prime minister. Groomed for years, the eldest son of Cambodia's iron-fisted ruler will take over next month in a dynastic transfer long in the making, which sees Hun Manet move from the premier's bodyguard unit to the seat of power in the capital Phnom Penh. After nearly four decades as Cambodian leader, Hun Sen on Wednesday announced his resignation in a televised speech, three days after claiming a landslide victory in a one-sided election that the ruling party was guaranteed to win after having silenced all viable opposition. Hun Manet, already a member of the ruling Cambodian People's Party's powerful permanent committee, has served as commander of the Royal Cambodian Army since 2018. Born on October 20, 1977, the princeling graduated from West Point in 1999 and has more recently met world leaders including President Xi Jinping of China -- Cambodia's main ally and benefactor. But the 45-year-old four-star general only contested a parliamentary seat for the first time in Sunday's election, a poll he has insisted was legitimate, while Western powers criticized it as neither free nor fair. 'After Hun Sen' While Hun Sen, one of the world's longest-serving rulers, has trailed the handover to his son for a year and a half, he has also made it clear that he intends to wield influence after he steps down, scotching the notion the country could change direction when Hun Manet assumes power. While Hun Sen's politics are shaped by his experiences of revolution and war as a young man during the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime in the 1970s, his son was raised in luxury and educated abroad. Hun Manet holds a PhD in economics from the University of Bristol in Britain, and was the first Cambodian to graduate from the prestigious US military academy. He has also served in leadership roles in the ruling CPP's youth movement, his father's bodyguard unit and the counterterrorism special forces. But a Western education is no guarantee of a more liberal approach, exiled politician Sam Rainsy, a longstanding foe of Hun Sen, told AFP this month -- pointing to Syria's brutal Assad dynasty. "Syria's Bashar al-Assad is more educated than Hafez al-Assad, but the son is politically worse than the father," he said. Sebastian Strangio, author of a book about Hun Sen's rule, told AFP that so far Hun Manet had shown "little evidence that he will introduce anything more than cosmetic reforms to the current political system". Without his father's backing, it is not clear Hun Manet would be able to make changes even if he wanted to. He remains untested in the political arena, analyst Ou Virak told AFP this month. "The problem is he's been spoon-fed, mostly with a golden spoon," Ou Virak said. Married with two daughters and a son, Hun Manet will assume the role of prime minister on 22 August. The post Chosen son: Cambodia’s next PM Hun Manet to succeed father appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
Iran takes Canada to UN court over terror compensation
Iran has taken Canada to the International Court of Justice for allowing victims of alleged terror attacks to claim damages from Tehran, the UN's top tribunal said on Wednesday. Tehran's case claims that Ottawa, which listed the Islamic Republic as a sponsor of terrorism in 2012, had violated Iran's state immunity. Iran asked the Hague-based ICJ to make Canada overturn a law passed in the same year that allows victims to collect damages from state terror sponsors in Canadian civil courts. "Canada has adopted and implemented a series of legislative, executive, and judicial measures against Iran and its property in breach of its international obligations," Iran said in its filing to the court. Tehran also demanded compensation from Canada. Iran's application cites a Canadian court judgment in 2022 that awarded more than $80 million in compensation to the families of six people who died when Iran shot down a Ukrainian airliner almost two years ago. Ukraine International Airlines flight PS752 was downed shortly after take-off from Tehran on January 8, 2020, killing all 176 people aboard -- including 85 Canadian citizens and permanent residents. Three days later, the Iranian armed forces admitted to downing the Kyiv-bound plane "by mistake." 'International obligations' Iran also cited a 2016 ruling by a Canadian judge ordering Iran's non-diplomatic land and bank accounts to be handed over to victims of attacks by Hamas and Hezbollah. The judgment awarded a reported $13 million to families of Americans who died in eight bombings or hostage-takings in Buenos Aires, Israel, Lebanon, and Saudi Arabia from 1983 to 2002. The families, led by the parents of Marla Bennett, who was killed when a suicide bomber struck at a cafeteria at Hebrew University in Israel in 2002, had successfully sued Iran in the United States. "Iran respectfully requests the Court to adjudge and declare that by failing to respect the immunities of Iran and its property, Canada has violated its international obligations toward Iran," Iran's ICJ filing said. Canada broke diplomatic ties with Iran in 2012 as relations frayed over Tehran's support for Bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria, its nuclear program, and threats to Israel. Iran launched a similar case at the ICJ against the United States in 2016 seeking to unfreeze assets seized by Washington to compensate victims of terror attacks. Judges in March rejected Iran's bid to free nearly $2 billion in central bank assets but ruled the United States had illegally seized funds of some Iranian companies and individuals. The ICJ was set up after World War II to resolve disputes between UN member states. Its judgments are final but can take years. The post Iran takes Canada to UN court over terror compensation appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
Parents of Syrians missing in Greece boat tragedy ‘pray day and night’
In war-torn Syria, parents of teenagers missing in a shipwreck off the Greek coast are clinging to hope their children might be alive, days after the tragedy. A fishing boat overloaded with migrants capsized and sank off Greece's Peloponnese peninsula on Wednesday, killing at least 78 people. While the exact number of passengers on the rusty trawler is unknown, hundreds are feared missing, and relatives and activists have told AFP at least 141 Syrians were aboard. Iyad from Jassem in the southern province of Daraa, the cradle of Syria's 12-year civil war, said his 19-year-old son Ali was still unaccounted for. "I have had no news of my son. I haven't spoken to him. I haven't heard his voice," said Iyad, who works at a school and declined to provide his surname. "His mother hasn't stopped crying for three days." The 47-year-old said he had heard of two Greek reports -- one listing his son among the survivors and another among the dead. "I still have hope that he will be among the survivors," Iyad told AFP by telephone on Saturday. "We are praying to God day and night." A better life The teenager was looking for a better life in Libya, his father said, and had traveled there by plane from Damascus. "He told us he wanted to work in a restaurant" and had planned to send money to help the family, Iyad added. "We didn't know he wanted to take a boat," he said. "If we'd known, we wouldn't have allowed him to go." Activists at the Daraa Martyrs Documentation Office told AFP on Saturday that 106 people aboard the trawler were from the country's south, mainly from Daraa province, where they said the "living and security situation... is absolutely unbearable". Only 34 so far were known to have survived, they added. A blind 15-year-old boy and his 28-year-old sister from Daraa province were also among those missing, their uncle told AFP on Friday, declining to be identified for security reasons. Daraa province was the cradle of the 2011 uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, but it returned to regime control in 2018. Iyad said Ali's uncle in Germany had traveled to Greece to search for the boy, but "it's like looking for a needle in a haystack". "For us, he is missing. We have not mourned and we will not mourn until we are sure what has happened," he said. "If he is found alive, we'll bring him back to Syria. I don't want my son to be far away from me... not even for one more second. "We borrowed a large amount of money to send him to Libya to work -- not to die." Fleeing death, finding death In Kobane in Syria's Kurdish-held north, Mohammed Mohammed said he too was awaiting news of the fate of his 15-year-old son Diyar. "Every day, hope is fading of seeing my son again," Mohammed, a tire repairman, told AFP by telephone late Friday. Diyar "left because the situation here is terrible", the 48-year-old said. Kobane became a symbol of victory over the Islamic State group after US-backed Kurdish forces drove the jihadists out in 2015. But the city, also known as Ain al-Arab, is in the crosshairs of Ankara, which wants Kurdish forces to withdraw from frontier areas. Turkey has carried out deadly raids in the area and threatened a new ground offensive. Mohammed said the family lived less than one kilometer (little more than half a mile) from the Turkish border. Diyar's "dream was to go to Germany to be with my brother who lives there", he said. "Everyone wants to leave," he said, adding Diyar had been with four friends. At least 35 people aboard the boat were from Kurdish-held areas in Syria's north, a relative told AFP on Friday. Mohammed said his brother had traveled to Greece in the hope of finding Diyar but was denied entry to hospitals where he had hoped to speak to survivors. "People are fleeing death, but finding death" along the way, he said. The post Parents of Syrians missing in Greece boat tragedy ‘pray day and night’ appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
French minister demands Assad trial
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad should be put on trial following “hundreds of thousands of deaths” and “chemical arms use” during the country’s civil war, the French foreign minister said on Tuesday. Catherine Colonna’s call followed Assad’s appearance at a summit of the Arab League, a regional organization that had banned him and suspended his country for a decade. “We have to remember who Bashar al-Assad is. He’s a leader who has been the enemy of his own people for more than 10 years,” Colonna said, Agence France-Presse reported. A lifting of European Union sanctions on the Syrian regime was “certainly not” planned, she added. Comeback, legitimacy Several Arab capitals cut ties with Assad after the Damascus regime’s repression of anti-government protests sparked a civil war in 2011, with some supporting the opposition instead. The brutal war has killed more than 500,000 people, displaced millions and devastated much of the country’s infrastructure and industry. States that once bet on Assad’s demise have warmed to him as he clung to power and clawed back territory with Iranian and Russian support. “There is relief on the Syrian street in general, and great optimism about the future,” Bassam Abu Abdallah, who heads the Damascus Center for Strategic Research and is close to the government, said. “We have turned a new page.” Arab outreach peaked after the deadly 6 February earthquake that struck Syria and Turkey. Lina Khatib, director of the Middle East Institute at SOAS University of London, said Assad saw the Arab League return “as recognition that he has won the war and as formal acceptance of his legitimacy as president.” The opposition and rebels’ role in determining the country’s political future has vastly shrunk, Khatib added. Large parts of Syria’s north remain outside government control after 12 years of war that pulled in foreign powers and global jihadists. Though the frontlines have mostly quietened in recent years, Russian, Iranian, Turkish and United States forces are still present in Syria. Several rounds of United Nations-brokered talks in Geneva between the government and opposition groups, aimed at forging a new constitution, have failed, with no political solution in sight. The post French minister demands Assad trial appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
Arab nations call for ‘leadership role’ to solve Syria crisis
Diplomats meeting in Saudi Arabia agreed Saturday that the Arab world must play a leading role in efforts to broker a solution to Syria's war, following talks aimed at easing Damascus's isolation. Top diplomats from the six Gulf Cooperation Council countries -- Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates -- plus Egypt, Iraq and Jordan met in Saudi Arabia at the kingdom's request. They stressed the "importance of having an Arab leadership role in efforts to end the crisis", according to a statement released by the Saudi foreign ministry early Saturday. They also discussed "the necessary mechanisms for this role" and agreed to intensify "consultations among Arab countries to ensure the success of these efforts". Backed by Iran and Russia, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has been shunned by many Middle Eastern countries and is a Western pariah over the war -- which has killed more than half a million people and forced about half of Syria's pre-war population from their homes. Syria was suspended from the Arab League in 2011 over Assad's brutal crackdown of pro-democracy protests. But on Wednesday, in the latest sign of an easing in tensions with Damascus, Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad arrived in Jeddah, the first such visit since the war began. Mekdad and his Saudi counterpart discussed "the necessary steps" to end Damascus's isolation, according to a Saudi statement on Wednesday. And following the latest foreign minister meeting, top Arab diplomats "agreed on the importance of resolving the humanitarian crisis" in Syria and securing conditions that would allow for refugee returns, the Saudi foreign ministry said Saturday. Syria's rehabilitation sends "a message to the opposition that Assad will triumph in the end and that their foreign backers will betray them", Aron Lund of the Century International think tank told AFP earlier before Saudi Arabia's statement. Inhabitants of rebel-held Idlib, in northern Syria, said they felt "betrayed" by the moves to rehabilitate Assad's government. "We, the people who live in northern Syria, felt extremely betrayed when we heard about the normalisation with Assad," Rama Sifu, 32, who lives in Idlib, told AFP. "How come after 12 years of struggle and revolution, they come today and tell him: here is your seat back at the Arab League? This is unacceptable, we really felt let down." But late Thursday, the prime minister of Qatar -- an opponent of Assad's government -- poured cold water on talk of Syria's possible return to the Arab League. "There is nothing proposed, it is all speculation," Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani said in a television interview. The Jeddah meeting is one of a flurry of initiatives following Saudi Arabia and Iran's landmark, Chinese-brokered announcement on March 10 that they would resume ties, seven years after an acrimonious split. On Friday, an exchange of nearly 900 prisoners from Yemen's civil war between the Iran-backed Huthi rebels and a Saudi-led coalition got underway when flights carrying captives travelled between rebel- and government-controlled areas. The Saudi ambassador to Yemen this week held talks with Huthi forces aimed at ending the devastating civil war that has raged since the Saudi-led military intervention started in 2015. And late on Wednesday, gas-rich Qatar and its tiny but strategic Gulf neighbour Bahrain agreed to re-establish relations, putting aside a long-running diplomatic feud. Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter, and Shiite theocracy Iran have long been vying for influence around the region, with Yemen and previously Syria among their proxy conflicts. But analysts say Saudi Arabia is now trying to calm the region to allow it to focus on ambitious domestic projects aimed at diversifying its energy-dependent economy. Although the Arab League takes decisions by consensus, unanimous agreement is unlikely, said a Riyadh-based diplomat who declined to be identified. "The meeting aims to overcome the Gulf differences over Syria as much as possible," the diplomat told AFP, singling out Qatar. "The Saudis are trying at least to ensure that Qatar does not object to Syria's return to the Arab League if the issue is put to any vote," the diplomat added. The post Arab nations call for ‘leadership role’ to solve Syria crisis appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
Syria return to Arab League is ‘speculation’ — Qatar PM
Talk of Syria returning to the Arab League is speculation as the reasons for its expulsion still exist, the prime minister of Qatar said Thursday. Qatar has been an outspoken critic of Bashar Al-Assad's government which will be at the center of talks between nine Arab countries in Saudi Arabia on Friday. Diplomats say that Syria's return to the Arab League and presence at an expected summit in May will be discussed. However, Qatar's Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani, who will be at the talks, said nothing has been proposed. "It is all speculation about Syria (returning) in the Arab League, and the decision is up to the Syrian people," Al-Thani said in a nationally televised interview. "Qatar's position is clear that there were reasons to suspend Syria's membership, and these reasons still exist," he added. Syria was suspended from the Arab League in 2011 months after Assad ordered a brutal crackdown on a pro-democracy uprising. Qatar has supported opposition groups and has been a major aid donor to Syrian refugees. "The war has stopped, but the Syrian people are still displaced," the prime minister said. "We do not want to impose solutions on the Syrian people, and there must be a political solution. "We do not take any step without a political solution, and each country has its own decision and sovereign right." Ministers and top officials from the six Gulf Cooperation Council countries -- Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates -- plus Egypt, Iraq, and Jordan will gather at Saudi Arabia's request on Friday. Syria has been diplomatically isolated since the start of the war, in which hundreds of thousands of people have been killed. Reports say some countries support Syria's return, and its Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad arrived in Jeddah on Wednesday, the first such visit since the war began. The post Syria return to Arab League is ‘speculation’ — Qatar PM appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
No surprises as Syria s Assad re-elected for 4th term
No surprises as Syria s Assad re-elected for 4th term.....»»
One dead in Israeli air strikes targeting Assad home region: Syrian media
One civilian was killed and six wounded after a rare Israeli air raid on a northeastern Syrian region home to the longtime ruling Assad family, Syria's state media said Wednesday......»»
Syria s opposition a disappointment a decade after war
Weakened by military defeats and internal rows, Syria's mostly exiled political opposition has failed during a decade of war to close ranks and provide a viable alternative to President Bashar al-Assad......»»
Syria s foreign minister Walid Muallem dies
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem, a stalwart of Bashar al-Assad's regime who held his job through a decade of conflict and several reshuffles, died Monday at the age of 79......»»
Trump says he wanted to kill Assad, but Mattis opposed
US President Donald Trump said Tuesday he wanted to assassinate Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad in 2017, but that his then-secretary of defense Jim Mattis opposed the operation......»»
Vowing new Syria campaign, US sanctions dozens including Assad wife
The United States on Wednesday imposed sanctions on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's wife and dozens of others as it vowed a vast pressure campaign under a new law that has already rattled the war-torn nation's economy......»»