Western, Regional Powers Pledge to Support Syria Transition

 France's President Emmanuel Macron, Syria's Minister of Foreign Affairs Asaad al-Shibani and participants pose for a family photograph during the International Conference on Syria in Paris, France February 13, 2025. (Reuters)
France's President Emmanuel Macron, Syria's Minister of Foreign Affairs Asaad al-Shibani and participants pose for a family photograph during the International Conference on Syria in Paris, France February 13, 2025. (Reuters)
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Western, Regional Powers Pledge to Support Syria Transition

 France's President Emmanuel Macron, Syria's Minister of Foreign Affairs Asaad al-Shibani and participants pose for a family photograph during the International Conference on Syria in Paris, France February 13, 2025. (Reuters)
France's President Emmanuel Macron, Syria's Minister of Foreign Affairs Asaad al-Shibani and participants pose for a family photograph during the International Conference on Syria in Paris, France February 13, 2025. (Reuters)

Twenty regional and Western powers agreed in a joint statement on Thursday to do their utmost to help Syria's new authorities and shield the country during its fragile transition amid ongoing instability across the Middle East.

Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shibani led a delegation for a first trip to the European Union since the December overthrow of Syria's autocratic President Bashar al-Assad, and a few days after President Emmanuel Macron invited Syria's transitional President Ahmed al-Sharaa to France.

Al-Shibani did not address the media during the meeting.

Regional ministers, including from Saudi Arabia, Türkiye and Lebanon, were joined by Western partners at the gathering, though the US had only a low-level diplomatic presence.

The meeting aimed to coordinate efforts to ensure Syria's sovereignty and security through its transition, and mobilize its main neighbors and partners for aid and economic support.

"We want Syria to stop being used to destabilize the region. On the contrary, we want the Syrians to be able to focus today on the success of the transition and the recovery of their country," French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said at the start of the meeting.

In a statement agreed by 20 countries, including Syria, most Arab and Western states, but excluding the United States as diplomats said the administration was still defining policy, the participants said they would work to "ensure the success of the post-Assad transition in the framework of a process that is Syrian-led and Syria-owned in the spirit of the fundamental principles of UN Security Council resolution 2254."

They would also "provide the support it requires to ensure terrorist groups cannot re-establish a safe haven in Syrian territory."

The meeting did not aim to raise funds, which will be left to an annual pledging conference in Brussels on March 17, but issues such as the lifting of sanctions imposed on Syria during Assad's iron-fisted rule were to be discussed.

The EU agreed in principle last month to lift sanctions but there has been no follow-through due to Greek and Cypriot objections to maritime boundary talks between Syria and Türkiye that affect waters claimed by Greece and Cyprus.

Greece and Cyprus also want assurances that sanctions could be restored quickly, two diplomats said.

They said they were hopeful a compromise could be reached this month. Barrot said sanctions-lifting was a work in progress and German counterpart Annalena Baerbock said it would be done "step by step".

Ahead of the meeting, the main international aid donors met in Paris to take stock of Syria's humanitarian situation, notably in the northeast, where the impact of US aid cuts has had a "terrifying" impact, according to a European official.

The agreed to establish a working group under UN auspices to coordinate their future efforts, Barrot said.

France will provide 50 million euros ($52.1 million) in 2025 to help stabilize Syria, Barrot said.

Speaking at the conference, French President Emmanuel Macron said Paris was ready to do more to help the country tackle terrorist groups and urged the transition to consider working with the Western-led Inherent Resolve operation in neighboring Iraq to fight ISIS.



Hamas Fires at Tel Aviv in First Riposte to Deadly Israel Assault

Palestinians gather around bodies outside the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza - AFP
Palestinians gather around bodies outside the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza - AFP
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Hamas Fires at Tel Aviv in First Riposte to Deadly Israel Assault

Palestinians gather around bodies outside the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza - AFP
Palestinians gather around bodies outside the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza - AFP

Hamas said it fired rockets at Israeli commercial hub Tel Aviv on Thursday in its first military response to the growing civilian death toll from Israel's resumption of air and ground operations in Gaza.

Israel said it had closed off the territory's main north-south route as troops expanded the ground operations they resumed on Wednesday.

Gaza's civil defense agency said 504 people had been killed so far in the Israeli assault, including more than 190 children. Its previous death toll was at least 470.

The armed wing of Hamas, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, said it fired rockets at Tel Aviv in response to Israel's "massacres" of Gaza civilians.
The Israeli army said it intercepted one projectile fired from Gaza and that two others struck an uninhabited area, AFP reportd.

After weeks of stalemate, Israel resumed its air campaign early Tuesday with a wave of deadly strikes that drew widespread condemnation.

The offensive shattered a relative calm that had pervaded in the war-ravaged Palestinian territory since a ceasefire took hold on January 19.

At the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza, grieving families knelt by the bodies of their loved ones enveloped in blood-stained white shrouds.

"We want a ceasefire! We want a ceasefire!" one of them, Mohammed Hussein, told AFPTV, appealing for the international community to stop the killing.

"We are defenceless Palestinian people," he added.

On Thursday, the Israeli army banned traffic on the territory's main north-south artery.

Palestinians were seen fleeing south along Salaheddin Road near the Nusseirat refugee camp atop donkey-drawn carts piled high with belongings.

"Over the past 24 hours, Israeli soldiers have begun a targeted ground operation in the central and southern Gaza Strip in order to expand the security zone between the northern and southern parts," army spokesman Avichay Adraee said on X.

Movement along Salaheddin Road between the north and south of the Gaza Strip is prohibited "for your safety", he said.

"Instead, travel from northern Gaza to the south is possible via the Al-Rashid coastal road," Adraee added, without spelling out whether that meant movement from south to north was banned.

Asked by AFP for clarification, the army had no immediate comment.

- 'Inhumane ordeals' -

An official from Gaza's Hamas-run interior ministry said the Israeli army had closed what it calls Netzarim Junction, on Salaheddin Road just south of Gaza City, on Wednesday evening.

The official said Israeli tanks had deployed at the junction, where the road artery crosses Israel's main supply route, "following the withdrawal of American special security forces yesterday (Wednesday) morning".

He was referring to American private security contractors deployed in February after the pullback of Israeli forces under the terms of the January ceasefire.

The first stage of the ceasefire expired early this month amid deadlock over next steps.

Israel rejected negotiations for a promised second stage, calling instead for the return of all of its remaining hostages under an extended first stage.

That would have meant delaying talks on a lasting ceasefire, and was rejected by Hamas as an attempt to renegotiate the original deal.

The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) on Thursday deplored "an endless unleashing of the most inhumane ordeals" on the people of Gaza since Israel resumed its military offensive.

"Israeli Forces bombardment continues from air & sea for the third day," Philippe Lazzarini wrote on X. "Under our daily watch, people in Gaza are again & again going through their worst nightmare."