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Arab World

Egypt Warns Against Liquidating Palestinian Cause, Asserts Displacement as 'Red Line'

Displaced Palestinians return to their homes as they walk near houses destroyed in an Israeli strike (Reuters)
Displaced Palestinians return to their homes as they walk near houses destroyed in an Israeli strike (Reuters)
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Egypt Warns Against Liquidating Palestinian Cause, Asserts Displacement as 'Red Line'

Displaced Palestinians return to their homes as they walk near houses destroyed in an Israeli strike (Reuters)
Displaced Palestinians return to their homes as they walk near houses destroyed in an Israeli strike (Reuters)

Egypt renewed its categorical rejection of the forced displacement of Palestinians, stating that this is "a red line," which it will not allow to be crossed.

Egypt's Commander-in-Chief and Minister of Defense Mohamed Zaki warned on Monday that the current escalations in the Gaza Strip aim at "imposing a reality that leads to the liquidating of the Palestinian cause."

Speaking at the Egypt Defense Expo (EDEX 2023) in Cairo, Zaki said peace eventually must have a "power to protect it."

Earlier, President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi affirmed his country's rejection of the "forced displacement" of Gazans, stressing that Egypt will not allow the issue to be settled at the expense of neighboring countries.

Last Saturday, Sisi met with US Vice President Kamala Harris in Dubai on the sidelines of the UN Climate Conference (COP28). Egypt and the US categorically rejected the coerced displacement of the Palestinians, the forced transfer from Gaza or the West Bank, and the siege imposed on Gaza.

On Monday, Sisi witnessed the inauguration of EDEX 2023 for defense and military industries and inspected several pavilions in the exhibition.

Minister Zaki said the exhibition is an important global event under the patronage of the President, coinciding with the current conflicts and wars that threaten regional and international security and stability.

Egypt continues to aim to unite efforts and end conflicts seeking to establish peace, said Zaki, noting that the exhibition is a place for exchanged experiences to enhance capabilities and develop relations between countries in defense and military industries.

He also asserted that it aims to protect the pillars of common national security and deepen the partnership and cooperation with friendly countries in all military fields.

The Minister also stressed that the armed forces will remain a guardian of the nation's security and stability, seeking to defeat any aggression against Egypt.

Meanwhile, Egypt's Ambassador to Belgium, Luxembourg, and its EU and NATO representative, Badr Abdel-Aty, confirmed that Egypt categorically rejects the forced displacement of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip inside or outside its territory, asserting it was a red line that will not be crossed.

Abdel-Aty told the "Global Alliance Against Trafficking in Persons" that Egypt adopted a comprehensive approach to dealing with migrants that includes security, development, economic, and social aspects to address the root causes.

The conference is organized by the European Commission to enhance international cooperation in combating migrant smuggling.

The ambassador said his country hosts about nine million refugees, who enjoy essential services like Egyptian citizens.

Egypt has been receiving hundreds of thousands of Sudanese since the outbreak of the recent crisis.

Last month, Egypt criticized Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who supported a call by two Knesset members, Danny Danon (Likud) and Ram Ben-Barak (Yesh Atid), who wrote in a Wall Street Journal editorial that Western countries should accept Gazan families who expressed a desire to relocate.

Smotrich said it was a voluntary migration plan for the refugees of Gaza.

"I welcome the initiative of the voluntary emigration of Gaza Arabs to countries around the world," Smotrich said in a statement.

"This is the right humanitarian solution for the residents of Gaza and the entire region after 75 years of refugees, poverty, and danger."

He said an area as small as the Gaza Strip without natural resources could not survive alone and added: "The State of Israel will no longer be able to accept the existence of an independent entity in Gaza."

Last Wednesday, Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry affirmed that the policy of forced displacement remains a goal for Israel "as it seeks to drive Palestinians from their land by making life in the Gaza Strip impossible."

Shoukry was speaking at the Joint Press Encounter by the Ministerial Committee assigned by the Joint Arab-Islamic Extraordinary Summit as part of a periodic briefing session held by the UNSC on the situation in the Gaza Strip.

The Minister stated that what is happening in the Gaza Strip met with a similar policy in the West Bank that forcibly displaces its residents, whether through unleashing settler violence or demolition operations, evictions, and military incursions into West Bank cities.

He noted that the recent developments were in addition to the annexation of land through systematic settlement operations that cemented the illegitimate occupation.

Furthermore, Cyprus President Nikos Christodoulides will visit Egypt and Jordan on Tuesday as part of an initiative to establish a humanitarian aid corridor to Israeli-besieged Gaza, reported Reuters.

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Arab World

Australia, Canada, France and United Kingdom Regret Postponement of Palestinian Elections

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (Reuters)
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (Reuters)
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Australia, Canada, France and United Kingdom Regret Postponement of Palestinian Elections

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (Reuters)
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (Reuters)

The foreign ministers of Australia, Canada, France and the United Kingdom on Tuesday expressed deep “regret” over the Palestinian President's decision to postpone the Palestinian Legislative Council elections and the Presidential elections to September 2027.

“Nearly two decades have passed since the last Palestinian Legislative Council elections and five years since the planned 2021 elections were postponed,” the ministers said in a joint statement.

“An entire generation of Palestinians has reached adulthood without the opportunity to choose their elected representatives,” they said, adding that this delay will be deeply disappointing and once again deprive Palestinians of the opportunity to vote and will further erode public confidence in democratic institutions.

“We acknowledge that significant challenges and impediments have affected the ability to conduct elections in a manner fully consistent with international standards and with the participation of all eligible Palestinians,” the ministers said.

They commended the important work of the Central Elections Commission in advancing practical preparations to address these challenges and facilitate voter participation.

The votes were set to happen next month. On Saturday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas issued a decree calling for simultaneous presidential and legislative elections on Sept. 11, 2027, canceling a legislative vote scheduled for Nov. 28, 2026, after his Fatah movement and other Palestinian factions agreed to postpone it.

The widely anticipated decision sets a new date for Palestinians to elect both their president and lawmakers amid concerns over Israeli restrictions and the security situation in Gaza and the West Bank.

In their statement, the foreign ministers said credible elections are an important element of the commitment that Abbas and the Palestinian Authority made to reform, including democratic renewal and accountable governance, and are in line with the July 2025 New York Declaration.

They also noted that strengthening Palestinian governance is essential to continue building the institutional foundations of a viable two-state solution, which is the only path to lasting peace and security for both Israel and Palestine.

The ministers then called on the Palestinian Authority to reconsider the decision to postpone elections and to take the necessary steps to hold legislative and presidential elections, without further delay.

“We will continue to support efforts to deliver on these elections. We reiterate our call on Israel to refrain from actions that could impede the conduct of elections, including the practical arrangements necessary for all Palestinians to participate,” they said.

The four ministers also reiterated their longstanding position that Hamas can have no role in the future governance of Palestine.

Arab World

Watchdog Chief Says Urgent to Find Remaining Assad-Era Chemical Weapons

Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani (R) and OPCW Director General Dallafior (L) attend a joint press conference at the Tishreen Palace in Damascus, Syria, 13 October 2026. (EPA)
Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani (R) and OPCW Director General Dallafior (L) attend a joint press conference at the Tishreen Palace in Damascus, Syria, 13 October 2026. (EPA)
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Watchdog Chief Says Urgent to Find Remaining Assad-Era Chemical Weapons

Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani (R) and OPCW Director General Dallafior (L) attend a joint press conference at the Tishreen Palace in Damascus, Syria, 13 October 2026. (EPA)
Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani (R) and OPCW Director General Dallafior (L) attend a joint press conference at the Tishreen Palace in Damascus, Syria, 13 October 2026. (EPA)

The head of the world's chemical weapons watchdog on a visit Tuesday to Syrian capital Damascus said the remaining chemical weapons from the era of ousted president Bashar al-Assad must be urgently identified and destroyed.

Assad was repeatedly accused of using chemical weapons during Syria's 13-year civil war, and there has been widespread concern about the fate of Syria's stocks since his 2024 ousting.

Sabrina Dallafior, the head of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), hailed cooperation with the new authorities over chemical weapons which Assad allegedly used in mass attacks against his own citizens during the war.

"The most urgent priority now is to assess those sites of most concern from a proliferation perspective," Dallafior said during a joint press conference with Syria's foreign minister.

"That means identifying and securing any remnants of the Assad-era chemical weapons program," she said.

She said that "the OPCW verified the destruction by Syria of 42 chemical aerial bombs for the first time. Verified destruction in cooperation with the new government. This is a milestone."

Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani meanwhile said that eliminating chemical weapons was "a responsibility towards the victims and a commitment to ensuring that future generations never experience such atrocities again".

He said he had discussed with Dallafior "a roadmap to build on the progress made and move towards the final closure of the file".

The top diplomat said Syria had handed over more than 100,000 official documents to the OPCW and granted the watchdog access to records and witnesses.

Izumi Nakamitsu, head of the UN disarmament office, said an OPCW team in August "verified the irreversible destruction of 42 aerial bombs" by Syrian authorities.

"This significant development means that, for the first time since 2014, the OPCW has verified the destruction of chemical munitions from the Syrian Arab Republic," she said.

The OPCW reinstated Syria in July, following an unprecedented move in 2021 of stripping Syria of its voting rights after finding its air force had used nerve agent sarin and chlorine gas on its own people.

In 2013, Syria agreed to join the OPCW and disclose and hand over its toxic stockpile under Russian and US pressure, and to avert the threat of air strikes by Washington and its allies.

This came after a suspected chemical attack on the Eastern Ghouta suburb of Damascus that killed more than 1,000 people, according to US intelligence, and was attributed to the Syrian government, which denied involvement and blamed opposition forces.

Arab World

Move to Repeal Syria’s Anti-Brotherhood Law Raises Questions over Group’s Political Return

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa and several ministers attend a military parade in Damascus. (Syrian Defense Ministry)
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa and several ministers attend a military parade in Damascus. (Syrian Defense Ministry)
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Move to Repeal Syria’s Anti-Brotherhood Law Raises Questions over Group’s Political Return

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa and several ministers attend a military parade in Damascus. (Syrian Defense Ministry)
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa and several ministers attend a military parade in Damascus. (Syrian Defense Ministry)

Syrian lawmakers are gathering signatures to propose repealing a law that makes membership in the Muslim Brotherhood punishable by death, as the group signals it wants to return to politics after decades of prohibition.

The parallel moves have raised questions about whether Syria’s transitional authorities will allow the Brotherhood back into political life, and how much room they will give political parties.

Abdel Nasser Houshan, chairman of the People’s Assembly’s Constitutional and Legislative Affairs Committee, told Asharq Al-Awsat that the proposal to repeal Law No. 49 of 1980 was still at the signature-gathering stage and had not been submitted to the assembly.

Under the assembly’s rules, 17 members must first approve the proposal before a bill can be drafted and submitted for referral to the relevant committee, he said.

The legacy of Law 49

Media leaks had suggested lawmakers could discuss the proposal at their next session, expected in the middle of this month. Houshan’s comments indicate that the steps needed to bring it before the assembly remain incomplete.

Enacted in July 1980 under former President Hafez al-Assad, Law 49 classified every member of the Muslim Brotherhood as a criminal punishable by death. It became a key weapon in the former government’s confrontation with the group, whose members and supporters faced decades of arrests and persecution.

Hussam Jazmati, a researcher on Islamist organizations and groups, expects “broad support inside and outside the assembly” for repealing the law, given the abuses associated with it under the former government.

Repealing the “strange” law matters regardless of whom it targeted, he told Asharq Al-Awsat.

He called it “one of the instruments of state terror under the Assad regime,” saying security agencies used it to pursue people merely suspected of belonging to the Brotherhood.

The law left a deep legacy of intimidation in Syrian society, particularly in conservative and religious communities, he said.

“Sympathy for its victims could provide a basis for supporting its repeal, even among groups that do not support the Brotherhood politically.”

Yet the law’s legal status is itself unclear.

The declaration issued at the “Victory Conference” on Jan. 29, 2025, after the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s government, suspended all exceptional laws. It remains unclear whether that covered Law 49 — or whether the law still requires a legislative repeal.

The declaration also dissolved the Baath Party, the parties of the National Progressive Front and their affiliated organizations, and banned their reconstitution.

It dissolved military factions and revolutionary political and civilian bodies, requiring their integration into state institutions.

But it did not dissolve all political parties without exception, leaving unresolved the legal basis for party activity during the transition.

A test of political will

For Abdel Rahman al-Haj, a researcher specializing in Islamist movements, bringing the repeal before the People’s Assembly would be “a test of the transitional government’s political will.”

An indefinite delay could signal that the authorities do not want to ease the Brotherhood’s return to politics or allow it an active role in the next phase, he told Asharq Al-Awsat.

“Leaving the law in place without invalidating it in the constitutional declaration, and leaving it to the People’s Assembly, will be understood as additional pressure on the group,” he said.

The Brotherhood had already faced various forms of pressure to dissolve itself, he added.

The Syrian Brotherhood’s Shura Council held its fifth regular session on Sept. 27, 2026, issuing a 16-point statement on political, security and economic developments, as well as regional and international issues.

The statement affirmed the group’s desire to participate in political life and called for pluralism and rules governing party activity. Observers read it as preparation for a return to politics inside Syria.

Al-Haj said its second and sixth points showed that “the group wants to engage in party competition and is preparing for the return of political life as set out in the constitutional declaration.”

The Brotherhood appears to feel it faces “systematic exclusion and marginalization,” he said. At this stage of the transition, he added, it needs to test how serious the government is about establishing a legal framework for political activity ahead of an agreed political transition.

Jazmati sees a more immediate obstacle.

“The return of political life depends on the authorities’ will,” he said, adding that they do not appear to want organized parties, at least during the transition.

Still, he believes the Brotherhood could return to political activity “in one way or another.” Syria has a broad religious current that could find expression in several political parties and organizations, whether or not a new political parties law is enacted.

Sympathy for victims, doubts about the group

Jazmati draws a distinction between sympathy for the Brotherhood’s treatment under Assad and support for the organization today.

“There is widespread sympathy for the victims of arrests, persecution and abuses committed by the former regime, and support for addressing the injustices and providing redress for the harm they suffered,” he said.

That sympathy, however, “does not necessarily mean support for the group’s return in its current organizational form.”

The Brotherhood’s record during the Syrian revolution draws a less favorable assessment, he said, citing accusations that it tried to dominate opposition institutions and bore some responsibility for their failures, along with criticism of its management of political and relief work.

He described that negative view as resting on “a set of facts as well as a set of exaggerations,” stressing the need to distinguish between former detainees and victims of the government and the political organization that exists today.

Early in the revolution, sections of the Brotherhood’s support base welcomed its participation in preparatory conferences to establish the opposition Syrian National Council. Criticism of its performance within opposition institutions later intensified.

“The group’s popularity declined during those years, while other Islamist currents rose, particularly the current from which the leaders of Syria’s present authorities emerged,” Jazmati said.

Could a return spur other groups?

The Brotherhood’s signals have also raised questions about what its return could mean for Islamist organizations and other political forces waiting for rules governing party activity.

Al-Haj sees the prospect of its return encouraging other Islamist organizations as “possible, but unlikely.”

The Brotherhood’s presence rests on “its organizational and political history, rather than solely on its Islamist ideology,” he said. Other currents compete to represent that ideology, including the one from which Hayat Tahrir al-Sham emerged.

He expects the group to attract some Syrians who share its ideological outlook and are dissatisfied with the course of the transition.

Its return could do more to encourage non-Islamist organizations than Islamist ones to prepare for political participation, he said. But the transition’s uncertain contours make the consequences difficult to predict.

With the repeal proposal still at an early stage and the rules for party activity unresolved, the Brotherhood’s return to politics would test more than its own future.

It would also test the limits of pluralism Syria’s transitional authorities are prepared to allow.