New Round of Negotiations on Syria to Kick Off in Astana

Russian Foreign Ministry Sergey Lavrov and UN envoy to Syria Geir Pedersen (AFP)

Moscow: Raed Jaber

09:37-19 January 2024 AD ـ 09 Rajab 1445 AH

09:36-19 January 2024 AD ـ 09 Rajab 1445 AH

Moscow: Raed Jaber

09:37-19 January 2024 AD ـ 09 Rajab 1445 AH

09:36-19 January 2024 AD ـ 09 Rajab 1445 AH

New Round of Negotiations on Syria to Kick Off in Astana

Russian Foreign Ministry Sergey Lavrov and UN envoy to Syria Geir Pedersen (AFP)

The parties involved in the Astana peace process talks on Syria will hold a new round of negotiations next week in the Kazakh capital, according to Syrian and Russian sources on Friday.
The initiative came from the UN envoy to Syria, Geir Pedersen, who conducted preliminary rounds of talks with the parties before announcing the date. However, Russia seemed less enthusiastic about this round.
On Thursday, Syrian newspaper al-Watan quoted diplomatic sources saying preparations have been completed to launch the 21st round of the talks, scheduled for Jan. 23 and 24.
The sources added that the Syrian government delegation will be headed by Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Bassam Sabbagh.
According to the newspaper, the latest Syrian developments were discussed during the talks that brought Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian and Pedersen together on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos.
Pedersen touched on Syria's political, security, and economic situation, discussing his initiatives and proposals for the crisis.
Last June, the previous round of talks in Astana focused on confidence-building measures, which included prisoner issues, improving conditions to facilitate the voluntary return of refugees, and the situation in areas not under the Syrian regime's control.
But the main focus was on the normalization efforts launched by Moscow between Turkiye and the Syrian government.
During the talks, the two parties failed to achieve breakthroughs, especially after the government delegation called for Turkish withdrawal from Syrian territory.
The three guarantor states, Russia, Türkiye, and Iran, stressed in a joint final statement the necessity of supporting the safe, dignified, and voluntary return of refugees to Syria.
They called on the international community to provide necessary assistance to facilitate the safe, dignified, and voluntary return of refugees to their places of residence in Syria and to ensure their right to return and be supported.
- Ending the process
Kazakhstan's withdrawal from the Astana talks after hosting 20 rounds since its launch in early 2017 was the most important and striking element of the former round.
At the time, the announcement raised speculation about ending the process, but the three guarantors announced their commitment to continue the talks without specifying a future date or location for future rounds.
Moscow activated its contacts with Astana following the last round, after which the Kazakh side retracted the announcement.
Russia did not officially announce the arrangements for the new round of negotiations.
A Russian diplomat told Asharq Al-Awsat that Moscow could only welcome any effort aimed at continuing to bring viewpoints closer, reduce tension, and revitalize communications between the parties.
The diplomat acknowledged that Moscow would have preferred not to rush to set a date for the new round of negotiations, especially amid the escalating tensions in Gaza and developments in the Red Sea.
He indicated that Moscow hoped the new round would be preceded by a good level of preparation, aiming to achieve progress."
However, the diplomat stressed that Russia could not oppose the effort made by the international envoy to Syria, which resulted in setting a date and location for this round.
Novosti news agency quoted the Syrian opposition delegation, headed by Ahmed Touma, as saying that the delegation plans to attend the new round of Astana talks after they received an invitation.
Touma confirmed to the Russian Agency his participation in the 21st round of negotiations, adding that their efforts will focus on resuming the work of the Syrian Constitutional Committee, resolving the issue of releasing detainees, and allowing the entrance of sufficient quantities of humanitarian aid.
The official said they'd also address stabilizing the ceasefire, resuming the political settlement process through the Constitutional Committee, and advancing humanitarian files to create a safe environment for a political settlement in Syria.

Shock and Grief in a Jordanian Village after Church Attack

This handout picture released by the Jordanian Royal Palace on October 23, 2026, shows Jordan's King Abdullah II (R) visiting Prince Ali Military Hospital in Karak to check on those who were injured in the attack on a Greek Orthodox church in the village of Hammoud in Karak governorate. (Photo by Jordanian Royal Hashemite Court (RHC) / AFP)

Asharq Al Awsat

11:13-25 October 2026 AD ـ 14 Jumada Al-Ula 1448 AH

Asharq Al Awsat

11:13-25 October 2026 AD ـ 14 Jumada Al-Ula 1448 AH

Shock and Grief in a Jordanian Village after Church Attack

Workers were cleaning the last traces of blood from St George's Church in Jordan's Hammoud the day after a deadly attack, when visitors arrived to express their solidarity amid an atmosphere of shock and grief.

At noon on Saturday, the bells of the Greek Orthodox church in Jordan's Karak Governorate, south of Amman, rang in unison alongside churches across Jordan, mourning the victims of the unprecedented attack against Christians in the kingdom, which left nine dead and 25 wounded according to the latest toll from the authorities.

Sayel al-Khaitan, a doctor who was inside the church when the attack, which took place during a funeral, began, described what happened as a tragedy.

"It is a criminal, dark, spiteful, Daesh-style attack", he said, referring to the ISIS group, saying it targeted Jordanian society as a whole.

He described coming under heavy gunfire, saying, "It was likely that we would have fallen as martyrs in the massive attack, but, by a miracle, we survived".

Jordan's Interior Minister Mazen Al-Faraya said the attackers were extremists.

They are still on the run.

- 'Hunting people' -

Bullet holes marred the church's walls and wooden pews, with windows shattered and glass shards gathered into a pile outside.

Security forces have been deployed at the entrances and exits of the church in the small, predominantly Christian village.

Christians make up about three percent of the Muslim-majority kingdom.

On Saturday, preparations were underway for the victims' funerals the following day and church officials have dug a mass grave, which will become a memorial.

Father Yohanna Hamati told AFP about 170 to 200 people taking part in the funeral of a woman from his parish when the volley of bullets began outside shortly after 2 pm.

He said the mourners "at first did not grasp what was happening".

But as people fled into the church, "we began to realize there was an attack".

"They were hunting people," he said. "Nothing like it has ever happened, neither to a church nor to a mosque."

He said some of the wounded mourners were Muslim, adding "we make no distinction between Muslim and Christian" and stressing that what happened "does not reflect Jordanian morals".

In the village's guest hall, condolences were pouring in from clerics, military officials, the Vatican ambassador to Jordan and local dignitaries.

In the provincial capital Karak, dozens of people visited Prince Ali Military Hospital, where most of the wounded were taken, to donate blood or express solidarity.

Youth activist Murooj Al-Nuwaysa, wearing a pink hijab, said she came with about 25 young men and women, carrying a bouquet of flowers with a card reading, "Our loss is one".

- 'Shock and pain' -

Nuwaysa says she was at the hospital on Friday visiting a patient at the time of the attack.

"I didn't have my phone with me, and I didn't know what was happening."

"Ambulances were arriving in large numbers... It was very strange. Then there was the sight of the blood and the people... We later heard there had been an attack on a church," she said.

She said the youth delegation's visit on Saturday was an expression of "solidarity and our feeling of shock and pain."

"Our friends, colleagues and relatives, Muslims and Christians, live together and share each other's occasions. It is a huge shock."

Jordan's King Abdullah II visited the injured in the hospital, dressed in military fatigues and carrying a pistol on his hip.

"We will show them," he vowed to the victims.

Outside the hospital, Majed Jaafar, dressed in traditional Arab robes and the red-and-white Jordanian keffiyeh, said with a mix of sadness and anger: "We cried for them. Christians are cousins, neighbors and relatives. There is nothing between us but love."

"This is the first time something like this has happened in Jordan," he said.

Wisam al-Burqan, one of the villagers, said he arrived at the site of the attack minutes after the assailants fled.

"These people are not a danger to Christians alone... they are a danger to society as a whole," he said, demanding the government "strike with an iron fist, uproot them and show them no mercy".

Arab World

Days before Israeli Election, Military Conducts Massive West Bank Operation

Palestinians cross on foot past a military gate closed to vehicles during an Israeli army operation in Hebron in the occupied West Bank Saturday, Oct. 24, 2026, a day after a Palestinian shooting attack in the area. (AP)

Asharq Al Awsat

10:29-25 October 2026 AD ـ 14 Jumada Al-Ula 1448 AH

Asharq Al Awsat

10:29-25 October 2026 AD ـ 14 Jumada Al-Ula 1448 AH

Days before Israeli Election, Military Conducts Massive West Bank Operation

The Israeli military continued a massive military operation in the occupied West Bank on Sunday, displacing hundreds of Palestinians and placing major restrictions on movement in response to a gun attack that killed two Israeli soldiers and wounded three others in Hebron on Friday.

The operation comes as Israel enters the final days before a tense election, which is largely seen as a referendum on current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s leadership and security policies during the past three years of war, The Associated Press said.

Most Palestinian workers with permits will not be allowed to enter Israeli settlements for work in the occupied West Bank on Sunday and Monday, and crossings into Israel will remain closed until after Israel’s elections on Tuesday, the Israeli military said.

The military said it operated in more than 400 different locations over the weekend and arrested 40 Palestinians it claimed were affiliated with Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad. It said the operation is continuing at the same intensity on Sunday.

Thousands of Palestinians displaced from Hebron

The Hebron municipality said the operation displaced more than 2,200 people, including nearly 300 children under the age of 18.

The military said that troops were conducting searches in the area where the gunmen operated, and warned residents to evacuate Deir Bahha, the suspected gunmen’s neighborhood. After Friday’s attack, Israel’s military said it found weapons in the gunmen’s car and that they were likely planning to attack Israeli civilians before being stopped at the checkpoint.

All entrances and exits to the city remained sealed, with the epicenter of the operation in Deir Bahha and another part of the city called Al-Jalda, according to Hebron Mayor Yousef Zuhair Al-Jabari.

“People cannot reach or enter the city, and they cannot leave it. The blockade has affected every aspect of life,” Al-Jabari said. He added that the blockade is forcing businesses to close and has also shuttered a mosque.

“The army told us that this area would be closed for 12 days. Now they’re saying 12 days, but maybe they’ll leave the area after two or three days,” said Shadi al-Qawasmi, a Hebron resident who was displaced with his family. “This may be because of the elections or some political matter no one knows except God Almighty.”

The operation forced some families to navigate crossings on foot in order to leave Hebron after the roads were closed to traffic. At some military gates, people passed sacks of flour and gas canisters through the gates, while an elderly man pushed his wife in a wheelchair through an opening beside one of them. Another family attempted to navigate the gate to access medical appointments.

Netanyahu vows a strong response as elections loom Hebron municipal officials said families had been displaced from nearly 500 apartments in Deir Bahha and surrounding neighborhoods.

Six Israelis have been killed this year in attacks in the West Bank, which is experiencing a surge of violence. During the same period, 112 Palestinians have been killed, including the suspected gunmen, according to the Ramallah-based Palestinian Health Ministry.

The attack sparked outrage in Israel, with Netanyahu and three members of his right-wing government giving statements from the site of the attack on Friday afternoon, vowing to respond forcefully. “We warned a few weeks ago about attempts by our enemies to harm us, our citizens and our soldiers ahead of the election,” Netanyahu said. “We will act to destroy this place.”

Netanyahu is under pressure to demonstrate a strong show of force against Palestinian attackers to bolster his image for Israelis concerned with security.

Roughly 3 million Palestinians and 540,000 Israeli settlers live in the West Bank, which Israel occupied in the 1967 Mideast war. Hebron is one of its most tense cities and the only place where Jewish settlers live in the heart of a densely populated Palestinian area under Israeli military protection.

Arab World

Israel to Close All Land Crossings with West Bank on Election Day

Israeli soldiers stand guard at the site of a shooting on Friday in Hebron, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, October 24, 2026. (Reuters)

07:45-25 October 2026 AD ـ 14 Jumada Al-Ula 1448 AH

Israel to Close All Land Crossings with West Bank on Election Day

Israeli soldiers stand guard at the site of a shooting on Friday in Hebron, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, October 24, 2026. (Reuters)

Israel said Sunday all land crossings with the West Bank will be closed on the day of next week's election, as it pledged a harder line on militancy after Palestinian gunmen killed two soldiers in the territory.

The announcement came a day after Israeli forces pushed into the occupied West Bank city of Hebron and displaced around 2,000 residents, with Defense Minister Israel Katz saying, "they will not be allowed to return... until we've finished dealing with all the Hamas issues in Hebron".

Hamas, while not claiming credit, hailed Friday's killings at a checkpoint near the Palestinian city, in which attackers shot dead two Israeli soldiers and wounded three more.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to exact a heavy price for the attack just days before polls and said he was planning an operation on a scale not seen since Israel first occupied the West Bank in 1967.

The Israeli army said that, from Sunday, Palestinians would "not be permitted to enter Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria and the Jordan Valley for work", using terms many in Israel use to refer to the West Bank.

Israeli soldiers take up positions during an army operation in the West Bank city of Hebron Saturday, Oct. 24, 2026. (AP)

The army also said it would enforce "a ban on the entry and exit of Palestinian workers throughout Judea and Samaria and the Jordan Valley, including industrial zones, as well as the closure of all land crossings throughout Election Day" on October 27, it added.

Israel's longest serving prime minister Netanyahu is facing a tight race for a new term in Tuesday's polls, with his security-first reputation all but shattered by Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack.

The Palestinian Authority, the semi-autonomous body that governs parts of the West Bank in cooperation with Israel, called for international pressure on Israel to protect residents affected by the military operation.

The Israeli army said that over Friday and Saturday, it operated in 40 areas throughout the territory, with locals reporting that soldiers announced evacuations over loudspeakers late at night.

Israeli forces said they "apprehended approximately 40 suspects, including terrorists affiliated with the Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorist organizations".

Israeli flags hang from a house after the Israeli army forced Palestinians to evacuate the Ein Deir Baha neighborhood in occupied West Bank city of Hebron on October 24, 2026. (AFP)

- 'Painful price' -

In the Hebron neighborhood of Ein Deir Baha, nestled between two hills, vacated buildings were marked by X's and the streets were deserted, save a pair of Israeli military vehicles.

Israeli flags were draped on a house on the slope apparently taken over by troops.

Higazi Shawer al-Tamimi, 70, a shopkeeper who plays a leadership role in the neighborhood, said he was awakened at 1:00 am by soldiers and a senior officer who said he had to leave.

"I asked them how long the evacuation would last. They said: 'Until further notice.'"

He told AFP he had only a short time to pack, adding that for some residents, getting out of the neighborhood was an ordeal.

"For example, my wife's mother, who is 90 years old and lives in the area, had to be carried out because she is ill," he said.

Right-wing Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who also holds a position in the defense ministry overseeing civilian affairs in the West Bank, said he personally ordered "the immediate demolition of a row of illegal structures" following Friday's shooting.

"Anyone who messes with us will quickly understand that he will pay a painful price," he wrote on X.

To Tamimi, the West Bank operation is only happening because Netanyahu wants to win the election on "the blood of the Palestinian people".

He said people were not going anywhere. "I have lived through all the stages of the occupation, and I will die here."

But Tamimi's brother, Khaled Shawer al-Tamimi, 68, said he and his son left after the evacuation order rang out.

"The army was announcing through loudspeakers: 'Leave the area.' So we left."

He told AFP he was surprised to hear Friday's assailants came from the neighborhood, which he described as middle-class and law-abiding.

"We have never seen or even heard a single gunshot being fired," he said from his son's sitting room as children flitted about.

The Israeli military said the operation would last several days, but Netanyahu suggested bigger action was coming.

New Round of Negotiations on Syria to Kick Off in Astana

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