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Far Too Early to Lift US Sanctions on Syria, Lawmakers Say
Rebel fighters holds weapons at the Citadel of Aleppo, after Syrian rebels announced that they have ousted Bashar al-Assad, in Aleppo, Syria, Dec. 9, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Karam al-Masri
Republican and Democratic US senators say it is too soon to consider lifting sanctions on Syria following the removal of President Bashar al-Assad, an indication that Washington is unlikely to change its policy any time soon.
“We’re all really happy that Assad is gone,” Senator Jim Risch, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told Reuters. “We worked at it for a long, long time, and the job is done. The problem is, what comes next?”
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a former al Qaeda affiliate that stormed across Syria and ousted Assad last week, is designated as a terrorist organization by the United States and most other countries, and also sanctioned by the United Nations.
“So, given that, it certainly calls for considerable pause, to watch and see what happens,” he said, noting that while rebel leaders were making encouraging statements about unity and human rights, it remains to be seen how they act.
Risch will chair the foreign relations panel, which oversees US diplomacy, starting in January when President-elect Donald Trump’s fellow Republicans take control of the Senate.
Trump, who takes office on Jan. 20, said the United States should not be involved in the Syrian conflict.
Advocates say issuing waivers and licenses would encourage economic development and foreign investment, providing the rebels’ new government with funding desperately needed to rebuild and establish government institutions.
FOCUS ON HUMAN RIGHTS
But opponents say the risk is too high until they are sure the rebels allow human rights, such as freedom of expression and religion, and do not attack members of minority groups.
Senior Democrats also called for caution.
“It’s too early to tell whether the incoming regime’s record will reflect a different way of doing business,” Senator Ben Cardin, the current committee chairman, told a news conference.
And Senator Chris Murphy, who chairs the Senate’s Middle East subcommittee, also said it was too soon to lift sanctions, given the rebels’ history of terrorist ties, but stressed the importance of communicating with the new authorities in Syria at a time when world powers are jockeying for influence there.
“I do not think the United States should lock ourselves out of a room that everyone else is in,” he told Reuters in a telephone interview, especially given the billions of dollars in assets and US troop deployment in and around Syria.
“I don’t think we should be shy about opening lines of communications,” Murphy said.
Sanctions affect material support for Syria, but do not bar communications with its government.
There have been a few calls in Congress to ease sanctions, but the overwhelming sentiment is against doing so.
The House of Representatives on Wednesday passed the National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, which included an extension until 2029 of the “Caesar sanctions,” which apply to business in Syria and any national dealing with Syria or Russian and Iranian entities in Syria.
The NDAA is expected to pass the Senate next week, sending it to the White House, where President Joe Biden is expected to sign it into law.
The post Far Too Early to Lift US Sanctions on Syria, Lawmakers Say first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Germany: 5 Killed, Scores Wounded after Saudi Man Plows Car Into Christmas crowd
Magdeburg Christmas market, December 21, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Christian Mang
i24 News – A suspected terrorist plowed a vehicle into a crowd at a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg, west of the capital Berlin, killing at least five and injuring dozens more.
Local police confirmed that the suspect was a Saudi national born in 1974 and acting alone.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz expressed his concern about the incident, saying that “reports from Magdeburg suggest something bad. My thoughts are with the victims and their families.”
Police declined to give casualty numbers, confirming only a large-scale operation at the market, where people had gathered to celebrate in the days leading up to the Christmas holidays.
The post Germany: 5 Killed, Scores Wounded after Saudi Man Plows Car Into Christmas crowd first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Syria’s New Rulers Name HTS Commander as Defense Minister
A person waves a flag adopted by the new Syrian rulers, as people gather during a celebration called by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) near the Umayyad Mosque, after the ousting of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, Photo: December 20, 2024. REUTERS/Ammar Awad/File Photo
Syria’s new rulers have appointed Murhaf Abu Qasra, a leading figure in the insurgency which toppled Bashar al-Assad, as defense minister in the interim government, an official source said on Saturday.
Abu Qasra, who is also known by the nom de guerre Abu Hassan 600, is a senior figure in the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group which led the campaign that ousted Assad this month. He led numerous military operations during Syria’s revolution, the source said.
Syria’s de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa discussed “the form of the military institution in the new Syria” during a meeting with armed factions on Saturday, state news agency SANA reported.
Abu Qasra during the meeting sat next to Sharaa, also known by the nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Golani, photos published by SANA showed.
Prime Minister Mohammed al-Bashir said this week that the defense ministry would be restructured using former rebel factions and officers who defected from Assad’s army.
Bashir, who formerly led an HTS-affiliated administration in the northwestern province of Idlib, has said he will lead a three-month transitional government. The new administration has not declared plans for what will happen after that.
Earlier on Saturday, the ruling General Command named Asaad Hassan al-Shibani as foreign minister, SANA said. A source in the new administration told Reuters that this step “comes in response to the aspirations of the Syrian people to establish international relations that bring peace and stability.”
Shibani, a 37-year-old graduate of Damascus University, previously led the political department of the rebels’ Idlib government, the General Command said.
Sharaa’s group was part of al Qaeda until he broke ties in 2016. It had been confined to Idlib for years until going on the offensive in late November, sweeping through the cities of western Syria and into Damascus as the army melted away.
Sharaa has met with a number of international envoys this week. He has said his primary focus is on reconstruction and achieving economic development and that he is not interested in engaging in any new conflicts.
Syrian rebels seized control of Damascus on Dec. 8, forcing Assad to flee after more than 13 years of civil war and ending his family’s decades-long rule.
Washington designated Sharaa a terrorist in 2013, saying al Qaeda in Iraq had tasked him with overthrowing Assad’s rule and establishing Islamic sharia law in Syria. US officials said on Friday that Washington would remove a $10 million bounty on his head.
The war has killed hundreds of thousands of people, caused one of the biggest refugee crises of modern times and left cities bombed to rubble and the economy hollowed out by global sanctions.
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Sweden Ends Funding for UNRWA, Pledges to Seek Other Aid Channels
View of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) building in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib / Flash90.
i24 News – Sweden will no longer fund the U.N. refugee agency for Palestinians (UNRWA) and will instead provide humanitarian assistance to Gaza via other channels, the Scandinavian country said on Friday.
The decision comes on the heels of multiple revelations regarding the agency’s employees’ involvement in the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacre in southern Israel that triggered the war in Gaza.
Sweden’s decision was in response to the Israeli ban, as it will make channeling aid via the agency more difficult, the country’s aid minister, Benjamin Dousa, said.
“Large parts of UNRWA’s operations in Gaza are either going to be severely weakened or completely impossible,” Dousa said. “For the government, the most important thing is that support gets through.”
The Palestinian embassy in Stockholm said in a statement: “We reject the idea of finding alternatives to UNRWA, which has a special mandate to provide services to Palestinian refugees.”
Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel thanked Dousa for a meeting they had this week and for Sweden’s decision to drop its support for UNRWA.
“There are worthy and viable alternatives for humanitarian aid, and I appreciate the willingness to listen and adopt a different approach,” she said.
The post Sweden Ends Funding for UNRWA, Pledges to Seek Other Aid Channels first appeared on Algemeiner.com.