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Arab World

Syria Says Arabic Remains Sole Official Language after Hasakah Unrest

People gather as prisoners from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) arrive after being released under an agreement between the SDF and the Syrian government, in Hasakah, Syria, April 11, 2026. REUTERS/Orhan Qereman
People gather as prisoners from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) arrive after being released under an agreement between the SDF and the Syrian government, in Hasakah, Syria, April 11, 2026. REUTERS/Orhan Qereman
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Syria Says Arabic Remains Sole Official Language after Hasakah Unrest

People gather as prisoners from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) arrive after being released under an agreement between the SDF and the Syrian government, in Hasakah, Syria, April 11, 2026. REUTERS/Orhan Qereman
People gather as prisoners from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) arrive after being released under an agreement between the SDF and the Syrian government, in Hasakah, Syria, April 11, 2026. REUTERS/Orhan Qereman

Syrian authorities released a new group of SDF-linked detainees on Friday, in a sign that the government is pressing ahead with a prisoner release clause under an integration agreement with the Syrian Democratic Forces.

The move came as the government insisted Arabic remains Syria’s only official language under current laws, a position that drew renewed attention after SDF-affiliated Revolutionary Youth attacked the Justice Palace in Hasakah and its staff on Thursday.

The incident coincided with arrangements to hand the building over to the government and formally reopen it.

The detainees, SDF members held by the state after being arrested during law enforcement operations, left on Friday afternoon for the Melabiya area south of Hasakah ahead of their release.

The Hasakah Media Directorate said the move was supervised by the presidential team and came in implementation of the Jan. 29 agreement.

Sources had told the ANHA agency that the government was expected to release about 300 prisoners on Thursday or Friday. They said intensive preparations had been underway since Tuesday to speed up the release of a new batch.

At the time, ANHA quoted sources as saying the number of detainees still held by the government was estimated at between 500 and 600. No exchanges had been recorded since April 11.

The release went ahead despite Thursday’s disruption of the planned handover of the Justice Palace in Hasakah.

Members of the SDF-affiliated Revolutionary Youth attacked the building and its staff as arrangements were underway to hand it over to the government and reopen it.

Kurdish websites said dozens of residents had protested after Kurdish was removed from the Justice Palace sign, leaving only Arabic and English.

Hasakah Deputy Governor Ahmad al-Hilali, spokesman for the presidential team tasked with implementing the integration agreement, said in a Facebook statement that the Justice Palace is an official institution bound by Syrian state laws.

“Regarding what has been misunderstood about placing a sign on the Justice Palace building in Hasakah that does not include the Kurdish language, it is important to clarify that the Justice Palace represents an official institution that embodies justice and commitment to the laws in force in the Syrian state,” Hilali said.

He said Decree No. 13 recognizes Kurdish as a national language and allows it to be taught in public and private schools in areas where Kurds make up a notable share of the population, through optional curricula or cultural and educational activities.

But Hilali said Arabic remains the only official language of the Syrian Arab Republic under the constitution and current legislation, and must be used in official institutions, education, legal documentation, and state transactions.

He said protecting Arabic and using it exclusively in official correspondence and transactions were part of state sovereignty and public order.

These laws, he added, cannot be bypassed at this stage under the constitutional declaration except through future constitutional and legal amendments approved by the relevant legislative bodies, foremost among them the Syrian People’s Assembly, which is expected to convene soon.

The Justice Ministry strongly condemned the unrest and vandalism targeting the Justice Palace in Hasakah, saying in a statement on its official accounts that the acts violated public order, state authority and the rule of law.

It said it would take all necessary legal measures against those involved.

The integration of judicial institutions has been faltering since its implementation began in April.

Shalal Kedo, head of the Kurdish Left Party in Syria, said the attack by dozens of members of the Revolutionary Youth, affiliated with the SDF and the Autonomous Administration linked to the Democratic Union Party, pointed to divisions within that structure over the integration agreement.

Kedo, whose party is part of the Kurdish National Council, told Asharq Al-Awsat that some parties within the structure were moving toward implementing the agreement and integrating institutions, while others were trying to obstruct it.

“It is clear that there are parties within this structure moving toward implementing the agreement and integrating institutions, as we are seeing on the ground, while other parties, such as the Revolutionary Youth, are trying to create obstacles and put sticks in the wheels to disrupt the course of understandings,” he said.

Kedo said the Kurdish language issue, which sparked Thursday’s events in Hasakah, remains a natural and legitimate right for Syria’s Kurds. Kurdish, he said, should be the country’s second official language.

He said Decree No. 13 on Kurdish rights carries important implications that should be built on, developed and included in the new Syrian constitution.

“In all cases, the Kurdish language issue cannot be reduced to the integration agreement, because the Kurdish issue is much older and deeper than that. It has existed since the emergence of the modern Syrian state,” Kedo said.

“As for the SDF issue, that is a different matter. The SDF, as a military faction, signed an agreement to integrate into the Syrian army, while the institutions affiliated with the Autonomous Administration are being integrated into Syrian state institutions,” he said.

“For our part, we support normalization, the Jan. 29 agreement, and the integration of the Autonomous Administration’s institutions and its security and military formations into Syrian state institutions and the Syrian army,” Kedo added.

“At the same time, however, the demand to establish Kurdish as a second official language and as a language of education, culture and media is a legitimate demand.”

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Arab World

Syrian Troop Killings Expose Repeated Attacks, Security Lapses

Syrian army personnel on a military vehicle in Deir Hafer, rural Aleppo, in January 2026. (Reuters)
Syrian army personnel on a military vehicle in Deir Hafer, rural Aleppo, in January 2026. (Reuters)
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Syrian Troop Killings Expose Repeated Attacks, Security Lapses

Syrian army personnel on a military vehicle in Deir Hafer, rural Aleppo, in January 2026. (Reuters)
Syrian army personnel on a military vehicle in Deir Hafer, rural Aleppo, in January 2026. (Reuters)

The recent killing of two Syrian army members near Manbij, east of Aleppo, was not an isolated attack. It was part of a recurring pattern of strikes on government forces, exposing serious administrative and security gaps that groups opposed to Syria’s new administration are using to target its personnel.

Syria’s Ministry of Defense media and communications department said on June 20 that two soldiers from the 76th Division were killed after unknown gunmen attacked them near Manbij.

The soldiers were riding a motorcycle on a road near the city when they came under direct fire.

Since the fall of the Assad regime, Asharq Al-Awsat has tracked many similar attacks on Syrian security and army personnel. Most have occurred as members were heading to or leaving their posts, often on motorcycles or via irregular transport.

Many see the pattern as evidence of weak protection measures and poor organization of personnel rotations.

Rural Aleppo has witnessed several assassinations this year. Among the most prominent were the killing of two Syrian army members in March and another member of the Interior Ministry in April near the town of al-Rai.

Similar incidents have also been reported across most Syrian provinces, including Daraa, Latakia, rural Hama and Homs.

Embarrassing the Syrian state

Demands have grown for personnel to avoid moving alone, wearing military uniforms or using motorcycles in remote areas where the risk is high and support is hard to reach.

Major Khaled al-Abdullah, director of the Syrian interior minister’s office, said the defense and interior ministries had repeatedly issued circulars banning personnel from wearing official uniforms outside working hours and requiring them to follow safety measures suited to Syria’s current conditions.

He said the immediate aim of attacks by groups opposed to the new administration, including Islamic State and remnants of the ousted regime, was to “try to embarrass the Syrian state.”

Abdullah stressed that authorities were working hard to impose security, eliminate armed groups and organizations, and had made significant progress on what he called a difficult path.

But in remarks to Asharq Al-Awsat, he also pointed to “continued internal and external challenges that the Syrian state is working to overcome and whose danger it seeks to end.”

Manbij, the most dangerous route

Abu Mohammed al-Hussein, who oversees a cluster of checkpoints in eastern rural Aleppo, said the movement of personnel had become a problem. He said he had repeatedly asked for buses to transport rotating shift members, especially in rural areas far from the city center.

Hussein said one member of his checkpoint group survived an assassination attempt on the Manbij-al-Bab road in eastern rural Aleppo at the end of March. The incident pushed him to issue special orders regulating how his personnel move.

“A civilian car offered to take one of my men to Aleppo city,” he said. “After they had driven several miles, they claimed there was an emergency and said they had to return. As soon as he got out, the driver’s companion fired several shots at him with a pistol. Two hit his magazine pouch and one pierced his foot. He survived by a miracle.”

He said shift rotations are “decided centrally by sector commanders” and are often carried out at night because service areas are far from where personnel live. He said a ban on carrying weapons and moving through residential areas had also made personnel easier targets.

“With repeated assassination attempts, I issued a decision banning nighttime shift rotations, prohibiting movement in civilian cars or on motorcycles, which have also become easy targets, and limiting transport to road security vehicles,” he added.

Hussein said they were still waiting for approval of a request to allocate a bus to transport security and military checkpoint personnel deployed along the Aleppo-Manbij road.

He described it as “one of the most dangerous land routes,” linking Aleppo to outlying areas and Raqqa province, and passing through an area that remained for years under the control of the ousted regime and the Syrian Democratic Forces.

Ban on keeping weapons

Haider al-Mohammed, a special tasks member, disagreed. He said “transport buses are, in practice, the easy target” and are often attacked, meaning the problem of securing personnel goes beyond transport.

He said decisions that stripped personnel of the means to protect their safety and identity were the direct reason behind the rise in assassinations, alongside the exceptional conditions in the country and the process of “clearing out groups that believe they can create chaos and fear.”

He said among the most important of these decisions were “the ban on wearing face coverings, the ban on keeping registered weapons, and the strict instruction not to carry personal weapons, along with leniency over wearing official uniforms.”

As a result, he said, personnel are exposed, easy targets for these groups, and left without weapons to defend themselves.

On this point, Major Khaled al-Abdullah said Syria’s security and military institutions were working to “implement solutions to facilitate and reduce regular movement in a way that helps end the threat and strengthen the safety of their personnel.”

He said the pattern of attacks “confirms their randomness.” The failure to select specific targets or have prior knowledge of the personnel being targeted, he said, was “an attempt to create chaos and confuse the Syrian state.”

Arab World

Hamas Seeks to Put Gaza on US-Iran Talks Agenda

A Palestinian child weeps next to the body of his brother, killed in an Israeli strike in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, on Wednesday (AFP)
A Palestinian child weeps next to the body of his brother, killed in an Israeli strike in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, on Wednesday (AFP)
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Hamas Seeks to Put Gaza on US-Iran Talks Agenda

A Palestinian child weeps next to the body of his brother, killed in an Israeli strike in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, on Wednesday (AFP)
A Palestinian child weeps next to the body of his brother, killed in an Israeli strike in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, on Wednesday (AFP)

At a time when a purported ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip faces continued Israeli breaches and violations, Hamas has moved toward Iran in a step that showed it was counting on a “supportive” position on Gaza by having the issue placed on the agenda of ongoing talks between Washington and Tehran.

The Hamas move came in an announced phone call on Tuesday between Basem Naim, deputy head of the movement’s Arab and Islamic Relations Office, and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.

According to a Hamas statement, Araghchi and Naim “discussed the latest developments in the Iranian-US negotiations and the Palestinian issue, especially as it relates to the Gaza Strip,” with Naim praising “Iran’s positions toward the Palestinian cause and its continued support for Gaza amid the continued Israeli aggression.”

A statement published by Iran’s Tasnim news agency on Wednesday quoted Araghchi as telling Naim that “the Iranian team will raise the Palestinian issue in the ongoing negotiations,” adding that it would also raise “the issue of the occupation’s continued aggression in all international forums.”

The call came amid Iranian-US negotiations that include an understanding on a ceasefire in Lebanon between Hezbollah and Israel.

It was the second Hamas-Iran call in June. On June 4, Araghchi called Khalil Al-Hayya, Hamas’s leader in Gaza and head of its negotiating delegation. The statement at the time, however, did not clearly refer to bringing Gaza into the Iranian-US negotiations.

It only said Hayya had praised the Iranian negotiating team’s position, which stressed the need for a simultaneous halt to the war on all fronts in the region.

Asharq Al-Awsat tried to contact Hamas official Basem Naim, but he did not respond to calls.

“Not a replacement for mediators”

Two senior Hamas sources abroad told Asharq Al-Awsat in separate remarks that the call between Naim and Araghchi came as part of “continued communication with various parties in an attempt to consolidate the ceasefire in Gaza.”

One of them said: “This does not amount to abandoning the negotiations track through the main mediator countries, Egypt, Qatar and Türkiye.”

One source said Naim’s mandate was to communicate with all Arab and Islamic parties as part of a policy of openness to all sides, in a way that serves the interests of the Palestinian people, especially in Gaza, as Israeli violations continue and no party has been able to compel Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to stop its violations in the enclave.

Still, the second source did not conceal that Hamas was “looking for a pressing Iranian role in the current negotiations to place Gaza on their agenda, as was the case in Lebanon, where Iran succeeded through its efforts in reaching a ceasefire,” according to his assessment.

The second source said: “We, Hamas, count on any position that supports us, the Gaza Strip and the Palestinian cause in general. But it is unlikely that such a step will succeed, given the insistence of the United States and Israel on separating the fronts as much as possible, and given the consensus and understanding inside the movement that the Gaza file has for some time been separate during the war.”

“Positive signs from Lebanon create an opening”

The two sources agreed, however, that there had been “a positive development on the Lebanon front” imposed by the Iranian-US negotiations. That has tempted some Hamas leadership circles to try to “use the opportunity to push for placing Gaza on the negotiations agenda, even though they expect their efforts to fail.”

In recent days, Hamas media outlets have intensified a similar narrative, attributed to an unnamed Iranian source, saying the negotiations include consolidating the ceasefire in Gaza.

A third Hamas source in Gaza said the movement had consistently looked for an Iranian position in support of it in the negotiations during the war. But “it is clear that the United States did not allow, and will not allow, that. It considers Gaza a separate front, and there are efforts being made on that front to consolidate the ceasefire.”

The source added: “It can be said clearly that Iran adopted the halt to the war on the Lebanon, Yemen, and Iraq fronts on the basis that those fronts entered the war more broadly after the assassination of former Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, while the war in Gaza had started much earlier.”

A fourth source from a Palestinian faction that receives support from Iran said, “The leaders and members of factions linked to Tehran had hoped it would succeed in stopping the war in Gaza.”

“That would have counted heavily in their favor and in favor of the factions, given the inability of mediators and guarantors to compel Israel to abide by the agreement and stop the violations.”

Factional sources had said that “during the factions’ meetings in Cairo, leaders from several sides advised the Hamas leadership not to count on the Iranian negotiations track, and to take more important steps within the framework of a unified Palestinian position to produce a positive response to proposals related to weapons and other issues.”

Hamas’s evolving position, after the latest call between Naim and Araghchi, appears to come amid voices rejecting amendments made by Nickolay Mladenov, the High Representative for Gaza at the Board of Peace.

Some parties inside the movement viewed the amendments as “primarily serving Israel, and not adhering to US President Donald Trump’s plan, under which the ceasefire agreement was signed in October 2025.”

Arab World

Israel Army Says Struck Suspected Hezbollah Fighters in Lebanon ‘Security Zone’

Stray dogs walk past the rubble of flattened homes and businesses, destroyed by the Israeli military, in the southern Lebanese village of Tibnin on June 24, 2026. (AFP)
Stray dogs walk past the rubble of flattened homes and businesses, destroyed by the Israeli military, in the southern Lebanese village of Tibnin on June 24, 2026. (AFP)
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Israel Army Says Struck Suspected Hezbollah Fighters in Lebanon ‘Security Zone’

Stray dogs walk past the rubble of flattened homes and businesses, destroyed by the Israeli military, in the southern Lebanese village of Tibnin on June 24, 2026. (AFP)
Stray dogs walk past the rubble of flattened homes and businesses, destroyed by the Israeli military, in the southern Lebanese village of Tibnin on June 24, 2026. (AFP)

The Israeli military said it carried out an airstrike targeting suspected Hezbollah fighters who crossed into the so-called "security zone" it has created in southern Lebanon, the second such incident it reported within hours on Wednesday.

"A short while ago, a vehicle carrying suspects was identified crossing the security zone in the Ali al-Taher Ridge area, posing a threat to Israeli soldiers," the military said.

"Following the identification, the Israeli Air Force struck the suspects in order to remove the threat," it added, vowing that the military "would not allow Hezbollah" fighters to harm its troops.