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UN Envoy Meets Sharaa, Urges ‘Credible and Inclusive’ Transition in Syria

UN Syria envoy Geir Pedersen meets with head of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and Syria's de facto leader, Ahmad al-Sharaa in Damascus, Syria in this handout released on December 15, 2024. (Hayat Tahrir al-Sham/Handout via Reuters)
UN Syria envoy Geir Pedersen meets with head of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and Syria's de facto leader, Ahmad al-Sharaa in Damascus, Syria in this handout released on December 15, 2024. (Hayat Tahrir al-Sham/Handout via Reuters)
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UN Envoy Meets Sharaa, Urges ‘Credible and Inclusive’ Transition in Syria

UN Syria envoy Geir Pedersen meets with head of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and Syria's de facto leader, Ahmad al-Sharaa in Damascus, Syria in this handout released on December 15, 2024. (Hayat Tahrir al-Sham/Handout via Reuters)
UN Syria envoy Geir Pedersen meets with head of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and Syria's de facto leader, Ahmad al-Sharaa in Damascus, Syria in this handout released on December 15, 2024. (Hayat Tahrir al-Sham/Handout via Reuters)

The United Nations told the leader of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group which toppled Bashar al-Assad that Syria must have a "credible and inclusive" transition.

The UN special envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen who arrived in Damascus on Sunday, has met Ahmad al-Sharaa, previously known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani, Pedersen's office said Monday in a statement.

He also met interim prime minister Mohammed al-Bashir, it said.

Pedersen met them after Saturday's international meeting on Syria in Jordan, and stressed "the need for a credible and inclusive Syrian-owned and led political transition based on the principles of United Nations Security Council resolution 2254 (2015)".

The UN envoy also underlined "the intention of the United Nations to render all assistance to the Syrian people" and was briefed on their "challenges and priorities", the statement added.

"The Special Envoy stressed the intention of the United Nations to render all assistance to the Syrian people," it continued.

It said Pedersen had several engagements planned in the days ahead, but did not elaborate.

Assad was toppled by a lightning 11-day opposition offensive that swept down from northwest Syria, with fighters entering the capital on December 8.

Abandoned by his Russian and Iranian backers, Assad fled into exile in Moscow, bring to an end five decades of abuses by his family.

The HTS group that led his overthrow is a former branch of Al-Qaeda in Syria, and the United States and other Western governments still classify it as a "terrorist" group.

Several countries including the United States and Britain have said they have already made contact with Sharaa.

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Israeli Airstrikes Hit Yemen's Capital and Port City after Houthi Attack Targets Israel

A Houthi supporter carries a mock missile during an anti-US and anti-Israel protest in Sana'a, Yemen, 13 December 2024. EPA/YAHYA ARHAB
A Houthi supporter carries a mock missile during an anti-US and anti-Israel protest in Sana'a, Yemen, 13 December 2024. EPA/YAHYA ARHAB
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Israeli Airstrikes Hit Yemen's Capital and Port City after Houthi Attack Targets Israel

A Houthi supporter carries a mock missile during an anti-US and anti-Israel protest in Sana'a, Yemen, 13 December 2024. EPA/YAHYA ARHAB
A Houthi supporter carries a mock missile during an anti-US and anti-Israel protest in Sana'a, Yemen, 13 December 2024. EPA/YAHYA ARHAB

A series of intense Israeli airstrikes shook Yemen's Houthi-held capital and a port city early Thursday and killed at least nine people, officials said, shortly after a Houthi missile targeted central Israel.
Thursday’s strikes risk further escalating conflict with the Iranian-backed Houthis, whose attacks on the Red Sea corridor have drastically impacted global shipping. The militants have so far avoided the same level of intense military strikes that have targeted the Palestinian Hamas militant group and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, fellow members of Tehran’s self-described “Axis of Resistance.”
The Houthi-controlled satellite channel al-Masirah said that some of the strikes targeted power stations in the capital, as well as the Ras Isa oil terminal on the Red Sea. The channel, citing its correspondent in the port city of Hodeidah, said at least seven people had been killed at the nearby port of Salif, while another two had been killed at the Ras Isa oil terminal.
Others suffered wounds at the Hodeidah port as well, it said.
An Israeli military statement offered no specifics on the targets hit, nor any damage assessment.
“The targets struck by the (Israeli military) were used by the Houthi forces for military purposes,” the statement said. “The strikes degrade the Houthi terrorist regime, preventing it from exploiting the targets for military and terrorist purposes, including the smuggling of Iranian weapons to the region.”
Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, an Israeli military spokesman, said the strikes hit energy and port infrastructure, which he alleged the militants “have been using in ways that effectively contributed to their military action.”
“Israel will not hesitate to act in order to defend itself and its citizens from the Houthi attacks,” Hagari said.
Houthi-held Hodeidah, some 145 kilometers (90 miles) southwest of Sanaa, has been key for food shipments into Yemen as its decades long war has gone on. There's also longstanding suspicion that weapons from Iran have been transferred through the port.
The strikes happened just after the Israeli military said its air force intercepted a missile launched from Yemen before it entered the country’s territory.
“Rocket and missile sirens were sounded following the possibility of falling debris from the interception,” the Israeli military said. Sirens sounded near Tel Aviv and the surrounding areas, and a large explosion was heard overhead at the time. The Houthis did not immediately claim the missile attack, but said an important military statement would be issued in the coming hours, following a pattern of how they claim their assaults.
Israel previously struck Hodeidah and its oil infrastructure in July after a Houthi drone attack killed one person and wounded 10 in Tel Aviv. In September, Israel struck Hodeidah again, killing at least four people after a militant missile targeted Israel’s Ben Gurion airport as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was arriving back to the country.
American forces have also launched a series of strikes on the Houthis over nearly a year due to Houthi attacks on shipping in the Red Sea corridor. On Monday, the US military's Central Command said it hit “a key command-and-control facility" operated by the Houthis in Sanaa, later identified as the al-Ardi complex once home to the government's Defense Ministry.
But Israel appears to have carried out Thursday's strikes alone. A US military official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the attacks, said America had no part in them.
The Houthis have targeted some 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones since the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip started in October 2023 after Hamas' surprise attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people and saw 250 others taken hostage. Israel's grinding offensive in Gaza has killed over 45,000 Palestinians, local health officials say.
The Houthis have seized one vessel and sunk two in a campaign that has also killed four sailors. Other missiles and drones have either been intercepted by separate US- and European-led coalitions in the Red Sea or failed to reach their targets, which have also included Western military vessels.
The Houthis maintain that they target ships linked to Israel, the US or the United Kingdom to force an end to Israel’s campaign against Hamas in Gaza. However, many of the ships attacked have little or no connection to the conflict, including some bound for Iran.