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More Countries Evacuate Nationals from Lebanon

Brazilian citizens living in Lebanon disembark the Brazilian Air Force KC-30 aircraft in Sao Paulo, Brazil, 06 October 2024. (EPA)
Brazilian citizens living in Lebanon disembark the Brazilian Air Force KC-30 aircraft in Sao Paulo, Brazil, 06 October 2024. (EPA)
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More Countries Evacuate Nationals from Lebanon

Brazilian citizens living in Lebanon disembark the Brazilian Air Force KC-30 aircraft in Sao Paulo, Brazil, 06 October 2024. (EPA)
Brazilian citizens living in Lebanon disembark the Brazilian Air Force KC-30 aircraft in Sao Paulo, Brazil, 06 October 2024. (EPA)

A German air force plane is flying another 89 German citizens out of Lebanon, the fourth such flight in the past 10 days.

The Foreign Ministry wrote on X on Tuesday that the military Airbus A321 flew 2 tons of medical aid for Lebanese civilians to Beirut.

Germany already organized three military flights out of Beirut last week, which took a total of 460 of the country’s nationals out of Lebanon.

Meanwhile, the second repatriation flight from Lebanon organized by the Brazilian government landed in Sao Paulo with 227 people, including 49 children, the Brazilian air force said.

On its journey to Lebanon, the plane chartered by the Brazilian air force took medical and hospital supplies donated by Brazil, the Foreign Ministry said, adding that more flights will follow.

About 21,000 Brazilians live in Lebanon, which is home to the largest community of Brazilians in the Middle East. Two Brazilian adolescents have been killed by Israeli bombardments in Lebanon.

China evacuated more than 200 citizens from Lebanon by ship and chartered flight, the Foreign Ministry said Tuesday.

A total of 211 residents of mainland China, three Hong Kong residents and a Taiwan resident have been evacuated, according to ministry spokesperson Mao Ning.

At the request of the Lebanese government, Beijing has agreed to provide Lebanon with emergency humanitarian medical supplies, Mao added.

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US and Regional Countries Team Up to Resolve the Issue of ISIS Prisoners in Syria

File photo: Aleppo central prison. AAWSAT AR
File photo: Aleppo central prison. AAWSAT AR
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US and Regional Countries Team Up to Resolve the Issue of ISIS Prisoners in Syria

File photo: Aleppo central prison. AAWSAT AR
File photo: Aleppo central prison. AAWSAT AR

Türkiye, the United States, Syria and Iraq have formed a working group to try to resolve the issue of ISIS group prisoners held in Syria, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in comments published Thursday.

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF, control large parts of northeast Syria bordering Türkiye and Iraq and oversee more than a dozen prison camps holding thousands of suspected ISIS fighters and their families.

US President Donald Trump asked the Syrian government to “assume responsibility” for some 9,000 ISIS prisoners when he met Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa in Saudi Arabia on May 14.

Erdogan said a committee had been formed to work out what to do with the prisoners, particularly women and children held at refugee camps such as Al-Hol in northern Syria. His comments on the presidential website were released as he returned from a trip to Hungary.

“Iraq needs to focus on the issue of the camps,” Erdogan said. “The vast majority of women and children in the Al Hol camp in particular belong to Iraq and Syria. They should do what is necessary for them.”

In 2014, ISIS declared a caliphate in large parts of Iraq and Syria and attracted tens of thousands of supporters from around the world. The extremists were defeated by a US-led coalition in Iraq in 2017 and in Syria in 2019. Tens of thousands of people linked to the group were taken to al-Hol camp close to the Iraqi border.

It is anticipated that the government in Damascus will take control of the prison camps, a move Erdogan said would make it easier to integrate the Kurdish forces in Syria.

Kurdish fighters in Syria have ties to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which on May 12 agreed to dissolve and lay down its weapons following a four-decade insurgency against Türkiye.

Meanwhile, Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said Thursday that Türkiye will start exporting natural gas to provide electricity to Syria.

“We will soon start exporting gas that will reach Aleppo and Homs, with an annual contribution of approximately 2 billion cubic meters, or 1,200 to 1,300 megawatts, to the electricity production here,” he said during a joint news conference in Damascus.

Syrian Energy Minister Mohammed Bashir said a gas pipeline coming from Türkiye’s Kilis would become operational in June. The heat from burning gas is used to create electricity by spinning a turbine that in turn powers a generator.

Bayraktar said the increase in gas exports represented a tripling of the present level. He added that Türkiye was helping Syria to exploit its own oil and gas resources as well as “discovering new resources, on both land and sea, and using the economic values ... from these in Syria’s reconstruction and infrastructure.”