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France’s Top Court Says Arrest Warrant for Assad Is Invalid, New One Can Be Issued
A poster depicting Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad is placed on a building in Damascus, after last week’s rebel seizure of Aleppo marked the biggest offensive for years, Syria, Dec. 5, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Firas Makdesi
France’s highest court ruled on Friday that an arrest warrant for former Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad was invalid as it was issued when he was still in office, but said a new warrant can now be issued as he is no longer a sitting head of state.
French investigating magistrates issued the warrant in November 2023 following a French investigation into chemical weapons attacks in the Syrian city of Douma and Eastern Ghouta district in August 2013 that killed more than 1,000 people.
Then-President Assad‘s government denied using chemical weapons during the country’s civil war that began in 2011. Assad was toppled last December by Islamist rebels whose leader is now the interim president.
The Court of Cassation’s decision overturns one made by the Paris Court of Appeal, which ruled last year that the warrant was valid. Prosecutors, who would need to ask police to carry out the warrant, challenged its validity.
“International custom does not allow any exception to the personal immunity of a foreign head of state during the entire duration of their term in office, even when the alleged acts constitute genocide, war crimes, or crimes against humanity,” the Court of Cassation said in a statement.
“The arrest warrant issued at a time when this person was the head of state of Syria is therefore invalid … However, an arrest warrant for war crimes and crimes against humanity can now be issued since this person no longer holds the position of Head of State.”
‘MISSED OPPORTUNITY’
Mariana Pena, senior legal officer at Open Society Justice Initiative which helped gather evidence against Assad, described the court‘s ruling as “a missed opportunity for justice.”
But she said the fact that France’s top court had agreed to hear the case signaled a growing willingness to challenge immunity. This, she said, was also reflected in “today’s decision which leaves the door open to the prosecution of Assad” now that he is no longer in office.
Separately, French officials issued a warrant in January against Assad for suspected complicity in war crimes, notably the launch of a deliberate attack on civilians, as part of an inquiry into the case of Salah Abou Nabour, a Franco-Syrian national, who was killed in 2017 in a bombing strike in Syria.
Assad fled to Russia in December 2024 when insurgent forces swept through the country in a rapid offensive, ending over 50 years of rule by his family.
While arrest warrants against sitting heads of state are rare due to immunity protection, international law has exceptions when that leader is accused of war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide. France allows the filing of crimes against humanity cases in its courts.
The post France’s Top Court Says Arrest Warrant for Assad Is Invalid, New One Can Be Issued first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Trump Says Hamas ‘Didn’t Want to Make a Deal,’ Now Likely to Get ‘Hunted Down’
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., July 8, 2025. Photo: Kevin Lamarque via Reuters Connect.
i24 News – US President Donald Trump on Friday said the Palestinian jihadists of Hamas did not want to make a deal on a ceasefire and hostage release in Gaza.
“Now we’re down to the final hostages, and they know what happens after you get the final hostages. And basically because of that, they really didn’t want to make a deal,” Trump said.
The comments followed statements by Middle East peace envoy Steve Witkoff and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the effect that Israel was now considering “alternative” options to achieve its goals of bringing its hostages home from Gaza and ending the terror rule of Hamas in the coastal enclave.
Trump added he believed Hamas leaders would now be “hunted down.”
On Thursday, Witkoff said the Trump administration had decided to bring its negotiating team home for consultations following Hamas’s latest proposal. Witkoff said overnight that Hamas was to blame for the impasse, with Netanyahu concurring.
Trump also dismissed the significance of French President Emmanuel Macron’s announcement that Paris would become the first major Western power to recognize an independent Palestinian state.
Macron’s comments, “didn’t carry any weight,” the US leader said.
The post Trump Says Hamas ‘Didn’t Want to Make a Deal,’ Now Likely to Get ‘Hunted Down’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Italy’s Meloni: Recognizing Palestinian State Before It Is Established May Be ‘Counterproductive’
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando, Florida, Feb. 26, 2022. Source: Wikimedia Commons.
Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Saturday that recognizing the State of Palestine before it is established could be counterproductive.
“I am very much in favor of the State of Palestine but I am not in favor of recognizing it prior to establishing it,” Meloni told Italian daily La Repubblica.
“If something that doesn’t exist is recognized on paper, the problem could appear to be solved when it isn’t,” Meloni added.
France’s decision to recognize a Palestinian state at the United Nations General Assembly in September drew condemnation from Israel and the United States, amid the war in Gaza between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas.
On Friday, Italy’s foreign minister said recognition of a Palestinian state must occur simultaneously with recognition of Israel by the new Palestinian entity.
A German government spokesperson said on Friday that Berlin was not planning to recognize a Palestinian state in the short term and said its priority now is to make “long-overdue progress” towards a two-state solution.
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Syria, Israel Agree to Further Talks on De-Escalating Conflict, Ekhbariya TV Reports
A drone view shows the remains of a destroyed tank, following deadly clashes between Druze fighters, Sunni Bedouin tribes and government forces, in Syria’s predominantly Druze city of Sweida, Syria July 25, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi/File Photo
Syrian and Israeli officials agreed to meet again after no final accord was reached in US-mediated talks in Paris on de-escalating the conflict in southern Syria, state-run Ekhbariya TV reported on Saturday, citing a diplomatic source.
The source described the dialogue as “honest and responsible,” in the first confirmation from the Syrian side that talks had taken place.
On Friday, US envoy Tom Barrack said officials from both countries spoke about de-escalating the situation in Syria during the talks on Thursday.
Representatives from the Syrian foreign ministry and intelligence officials were in attendance, Syria’s Ekhbariya reported.
Hundreds of people have been reported killed in clashes in the southern Syrian province of Sweida between Druze fighters, Sunni Bedouin tribes and government forces. Israel intervened with airstrikes to prevent what it said was mass killings of Druze by government forces.
Last week’s clashes underlined the challenges interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa faces in stabilizing Syria and maintaining centralized rule, despite warming ties with the US and his administration’s evolving security contacts with Israel.
The diplomatic source said the meeting involved initial consultations aimed at “reducing tensions and opening channels of communication amid an ongoing escalation since early December.”
The Syrian side held Israel responsible for the latest escalation, saying that the continuation of such “hostile policies” was threatening the region, according to the source. The Syrian delegation also said that Damascus would not accept “imposing new realities on the ground.”
The post Syria, Israel Agree to Further Talks on De-Escalating Conflict, Ekhbariya TV Reports first appeared on Algemeiner.com.