From Protests in Busra al-Sham, Southern Syria (AFP)
The Kurdish National Council (KNC) and the Syrian Democratic Council (the political wing of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF)) have declared their full support for the protesters in various cities and provinces of Syria, expressing solidarity with the protests organized by the residents of Sweida and Daraa provinces in the southern part of the country.
These stances from the two poles of the political movement in northeastern Syria come as these protests enter their second week.
The city of Raqqa in the northern part of the country, along with several towns in the eastern countryside of Deir ez-Zor and the city of Qamishli in Hasakah province in the far northeast of Syria, have witnessed supportive gatherings and condemning demonstrations against the government’s decision to lift subsidies on fuel and oil derivatives.
This decision has led to a sharp decline in the Syrian pound against foreign currencies, exacerbating the economic and living conditions.
The KNC, a broad political alliance of opposition Kurdish parties and forces, expressed its solidarity “with the Syrian people and its support for the demands of the residents of Sweida and Daraa for freedom, dignity, and decent human life.”
In a statement released on Friday, the council called upon the United Nations, the Arab League, and the international community to compel the Syrian government to pursue a “political resolution” that would alleviate the Syrians’ sufferings and tragedies and achieve security and stability.
Faisal Youssef, a member of the KNC’s presidential body, affirmed to Asharq Al-Awsat that the KNC stands in solidarity with the uprising for the right to live with freedom and dignity in Sweida, as well as in various afflicted parts of Syria.
“Slogans raised by the protesters affirm that what is happening is an expression of the collective will of the Syrian people, encompassing all its components and sects,” said Youssef.
He emphasized the “urgent need to bring about radical change, end tyranny, implement UN Resolution 2254, and build a democratic and pluralistic Syria for all Syrians.”
Displaced Palestinians gather to receive hot meals distributed by a charity kitchen in the Khan Younis refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip on June 29, 2026. (AFP)
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UN Chief Warns Cash Crunch Threatens Palestinian Refugee Agency
Displaced Palestinians gather to receive hot meals distributed by a charity kitchen in the Khan Younis refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip on June 29, 2026. (AFP)
UN chief Antonio Guterres warned Tuesday of the "increasingly precarious" situation of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees known as UNRWA, saying that millions of people's livelihoods were at risk.
The secretary-general said that further funding cuts for UNRWA -- which Israel has criticized as politically biased -- could "push conditions beyond breaking point."
Because of insufficient funding, UNRWA has scaled back its operations since the start of the year.
"As we meet here today, the safety and welfare of millions of Palestine refugees hangs in the balance," Guterres told a donor conference for the UN agency.
He noted the "utterly appalling" living conditions in Gaza, violence by Israeli settlers in the West Bank and Israeli strikes on Lebanon.
"It [UNRWA] faces sweeping restrictions throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territory. And a cash shortfall that imperils its work across the region," Guterres said.
"I am appalled by continuing efforts to marginalize and undermine UNRWA through disinformation, smear campaigns, legislative actions, operational restrictions, diplomatic roadblocks and more," he said.
Israel has long opposed UNRWA, created by the UN General Assembly in 1949, and intensified its criticism after October 7, alleging that employees participated in the deadly 2023 attack on Israel.
Hundreds of Thousands of Lebanese Head Home as Fighting Eases, Many Still Strandedhttps://english.aawsat.com/arab-world/5290519-hundreds-thousands-lebanese-head-home-fighting-eases-many-still-stranded
Lebanese people drive a vehicle loaded with mattresses as they return to their village in the town of Nabatieh, southern Lebanon, 23 June 2026, amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah. (EPA)
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Hundreds of Thousands of Lebanese Head Home as Fighting Eases, Many Still Stranded
Lebanese people drive a vehicle loaded with mattresses as they return to their village in the town of Nabatieh, southern Lebanon, 23 June 2026, amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah. (EPA)
Some 400,000 Lebanese uprooted by war have returned to southern Lebanon, with more expected to follow in the coming week, a government minister said on Tuesday, encouraged by a lull in the four-month-long conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.
Yet many remain unable to go back. Since March, around 1 million people have been forced to flee their homes, and large numbers are still in shelters or temporary housing because their homes are destroyed or uninhabitable, said Hanine El Sayed, Minister of Social Affairs.
Roughly 40% of those displaced have now returned to their towns and villages. The number of people staying in collective shelters has fallen sharply, to about 13,000 from 37,000, she said.
While some shelters will remain open for families who cannot return, aid programs — including emergency cash support — will continue. The number of shelters has dropped from 692 at the height of the crisis to 479, with additional centers opened in Nabatieh for those wanting to stay near their home areas.
El Sayed said the headline figures conceal a gap between those able to return and those still displaced.
"These are families that are able to return to something, at least the basic minimum," she told Reuters. "The fact that the others have not returned means they have a much harder situation."
Authorities expect further returns in the coming days and hope within about a week to better gauge how many families cannot go back at all.
"In about a week's time ... we would really know the size of the problem - how many absolutely cannot return because their homes have been totally damaged," she said.
CHALLENGES OF GOING HOME
For many, returning home does not mean a return to normal life. Families are often finding damaged houses, scarce electricity and water, and destroyed businesses and livelihoods, as the government works to restore basic services and expand cash assistance, rental support and employment programs.
Yet despite these hardships, many are choosing to return.
"Many of the people of the south are very attached to their land and they want to rightfully make a claim back to it," El Sayed said.
The government estimates Lebanon will need billions of dollars to rebuild damaged homes and infrastructure, funding that it does not currently have, El Sayed said.
Nearly 90,000 housing units have been totally or partially destroyed in the latest conflict, adding to widespread damage from earlier fighting.
Aoun Optimistic on ‘Best Possible’ Deal for Lebanon, Banks on US Rolehttps://english.aawsat.com/arab-world/5290516-aoun-optimistic-%E2%80%98best-possible%E2%80%99-deal-lebanon-banks-us-role
In this photo, released by the Lebanese Presidency press office, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, right, shakes hands with Adm. Brad Cooper, the top US military commander in the Middle East, at the presidential place in Baabda, east of Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, June 29, 2026. (Lebanese Presidency press office via AP)
Aoun Optimistic on ‘Best Possible’ Deal for Lebanon, Banks on US Role
In this photo, released by the Lebanese Presidency press office, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, right, shakes hands with Adm. Brad Cooper, the top US military commander in the Middle East, at the presidential place in Baabda, east of Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, June 29, 2026. (Lebanese Presidency press office via AP)
In one phrase, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun answers critics of the framework agreement Lebanon and Israel signed late last week, an agreement he admits is “not ideal”, “Give me the alternative.”
For more than three years, Lebanon has been reeling from the fallout of Hezbollah’s successive “support” wars, first for Gaza in late 2023 and then for Iran on March 2 in wake of the war with the United States and Israel. Still, visitors to Aoun come away with a clear impression that the president is optimistic about the path opened by the agreement.
A senior Lebanese source said the reality created by those wars has added to Lebanon’s burden. Beirut had been negotiating over Israel’s withdrawal from five hills it occupied in the first round.
It then found itself negotiating under fire and occupation, as Israel’s presence expanded to the outskirts of Nabatieh in the east and Tyre on the coast, seizing Bint Jbeil in between.
The source placed direct responsibility for the war on Hezbollah. “Had it not been for its six rockets, which it fired last March, we would not be in this position today,” the source said.
The agreement is the result of facts imposed by the battlefield and by Lebanon’s condition as it buckles under rising human and material losses, with no clear path to a solution, it added.
A framework, not yet an agreement
Still, the source insisted the agreement “is not bad. More precisely, it has not become an agreement yet. It is a framework agreement that sets broad guidelines, pending the fine details that will be negotiated gradually.”
Lebanon is betting on the new US momentum to press Israel into making concessions on those details, it continued.
The clearest sign that the agreement is not bad, according to the source, “was Israel’s fierce rejection of it at first. That rejection would not have turned into approval without the major US pressure applied in the final hours before signing.”
The second sign was how quickly Israeli leaders moved to craft their own version of the agreement, “which has nothing to do with the truth,” the source said.
“Ninety percent of what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said is not true,” it stressed.
An Israeli military vehicle maneuvers on the Lebanese side of the Israel-Lebanon border, as seen from the Upper Galilee, 28 June 2026, amid an Israel-Lebanon ceasefire. (EPA)
US support
Lebanon sees clear US support as its best weapon against Israel’s lack of interest in a solution and its tilt toward constant escalation.
The strongest proof, Lebanese officials believe, is that US President Donald Trump has called Aoun twice so far. Both calls were highly positive, as were calls from other US officials who contacted Aoun more than once, including Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who remained in continuous contact with him.
The source asked: Can Lebanon afford to risk losing US support when everyone knows the Americans are the only party able to exert real pressure on Israel?
The source said Trump, in his latest call with Aoun, was very clear in adopting Lebanon’s demands for a full Israeli withdrawal “despite the disruptions.”
Trump also expressed readiness to help revive Lebanon and put it back on track. That track includes the return of displaced people, reconstruction, and extending state authority through its own forces across all Lebanese territory, a Lebanese demand above anyone else’s.
The Doha cell and a Hezbollah representative
The Americans are closely tracking developments in Lebanon.
Although Washington is separating what is being agreed on in the Pakistan with Iran track from the Lebanese-Israeli track, it is working in parallel on the Lebanese file. That includes setting up the cell provided for in the US-Iranian understanding to monitor the ceasefire in Lebanon.
The source said the committee would operate from a liaison point in the Qatari capital, Doha. It would include representatives of the United States, Lebanon, Qatar and Iran, as well as Hezbollah, likely the group’s representative in Tehran.
When practical negotiations over the withdrawal began, Aoun proposed starting with an Israeli pullback from Kfar Tibnit and the historic Beaufort Castle, the last point reached by Israeli forces in their advance. The aim was to push Israeli forces away from Nabatieh after they had reached the city’s outskirts.
But the proposal collided with Israel’s determination to reach the Ali al-Taher heights, believed to contain a massive underground Hezbollah military facility.
Aoun called Rubio and proposed that the Lebanese army enter the area, while the Israeli army would withdraw beyond the Litani River. Rubio contacted the Israelis. Aoun, through intermediaries, contacted Hezbollah.
Israel approved the proposal. Hezbollah gave two contradictory answers. The first allowed the army to deploy without entering the facility. The second rejected the idea completely.
Later, Hezbollah settled on one answer: the matter was absolutely unacceptable. The proposal collapsed.
The area’s importance goes beyond Hezbollah’s facility. If Israeli forces position themselves there, they would directly overlook Nabatieh. From the other side, the heights overlook Israeli settlements, especially Metula, just a few kilometers from Nabatieh.
The idea of a withdrawal from that area was shelved. Instead, the focus shifted to another pullback from Zawtar al-Gharbieh and to the launch of a “pilot zone” there and the towns of Froun and Ghandourieh in the central sector.
That was the middle-ground solution. A withdrawal from the coastal line falls under the same equation because of its proximity to the southern border and, therefore, its high sensitivity for Israel.
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