Aoun Renews Calls for Resolving Syrian Refugees Issue

President Michel Aoun speaks during a ceremony held in honor of Australia’s Governor Sir Peter Cosgrove and his wife at the Baabda Palace, Oct. 23, 2017 (Dalati & Nohra)
President Michel Aoun speaks during a ceremony held in honor of Australia’s Governor Sir Peter Cosgrove and his wife at the Baabda Palace, Oct. 23, 2017 (Dalati & Nohra)
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Aoun Renews Calls for Resolving Syrian Refugees Issue

President Michel Aoun speaks during a ceremony held in honor of Australia’s Governor Sir Peter Cosgrove and his wife at the Baabda Palace, Oct. 23, 2017 (Dalati & Nohra)
President Michel Aoun speaks during a ceremony held in honor of Australia’s Governor Sir Peter Cosgrove and his wife at the Baabda Palace, Oct. 23, 2017 (Dalati & Nohra)

Lebanese President Michel Aoun and Australia’s Governor Sir Peter Cosgrove agreed on the need to bolster Lebanese-Australian relations at various levels and develop mechanisms of cooperation between the two countries to serve common interests.

In a joint press conference with his Australian counterpart at the Presidential Palace in Baabda on Monday, Aoun underlined the importance of unifying international efforts to combat terrorism, finding a political solution to the Syria crisis and resolving the issue of Syrian refugees.

He also called on the international community to support Lebanon to become a UN-acknowledged international center for dialogue of religions, civilizations and races, stressing the necessity to implement UN Security Council resolutions, including Resolution 1701, which calls for the withdrawal of Israeli forces from all the occupied territories.

“We focused on the need to reach political solutions to the Syrian crisis as well as on the means to find an immediate solution to the Syrian refugees’ issue that contributes to their return to the safe areas,” the Lebanese president said.

“I informed [Cosgrove] of Lebanon’s demand to become an international center accredited by the United Nations for the dialogue of religions and civilizations,” he added, noting that he asked Australia’s governor to support the country in defending its legitimate rights at international forums, “without ignoring the obligation of implementing the international resolutions, including resolution 1701.”

For his part, Sir Cosgrove stressed the deep-rooted relations between the two countries, which he said were based on broad social ties.

He also expressed his country’s commitment to consolidate cooperation with Lebanon, especially trade and investment relations.

He noted that his country “follows with interest what is happening in the Middle East in general, and in Lebanon in particular, and welcomes the victory achieved by the Lebanese Army in liberating the territories from terrorist organizations.”

He stressed in this regard “Australia’s readiness to support Lebanon to face the repercussions of the Syrian displacement” pointing to “financial allocations by his country to this end.”



Evidence of Ongoing 'Crimes Against Humanity' in Darfur, Says ICC Deputy Prosecutor

A boy sits atop a hill overlooking a refugee camp near the Chad-Sudan border, November 9, 2023. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig/File Photo
A boy sits atop a hill overlooking a refugee camp near the Chad-Sudan border, November 9, 2023. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig/File Photo
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Evidence of Ongoing 'Crimes Against Humanity' in Darfur, Says ICC Deputy Prosecutor

A boy sits atop a hill overlooking a refugee camp near the Chad-Sudan border, November 9, 2023. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig/File Photo
A boy sits atop a hill overlooking a refugee camp near the Chad-Sudan border, November 9, 2023. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig/File Photo

There are "reasonable grounds to believe that war crimes and crimes against humanity" are being committed in war-ravaged Sudan's western Darfur region, the deputy prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) said.

Outlining her office's probe of the devastating conflict which has raged since 2023, Nazhat Shameem Khan told the UN Security Council that it was "difficult to find appropriate words to describe the depth of suffering in Darfur," AFP reported.

"On the basis of our independent investigations, the position of our office is clear. We have reasonable grounds to believe that war crimes and crimes against humanity, have been and are continuing to be committed in Darfur," she said.

The prosecutor's office focused its probe on crimes committed in West Darfur, Khan said, interviewing victims who fled to neighboring Chad.

She detailed an "intolerable" humanitarian situation, with apparent targeting of hospitals and humanitarian convoys, while warning that "famine is escalating" as aid is unable to reach "those in dire need."

"People are being deprived of water and food. Rape and sexual violence are being weaponized," Khan said, adding that abductions for ransom had become "common practice."

"And yet we should not be under any illusion, things can still get worse."

The Security Council referred the situation in Darfur to the ICC in 2005, with some 300,000 people killed during conflict in the region in the 2000s.

In 2023, the ICC opened a fresh probe into war crimes in Darfur after a new conflict erupted between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

The RSF's predecessor, the Janjaweed militia, was accused of genocide two decades ago in the vast western region.

ICC judges are expected to deliver their first decision on crimes committed in Darfur two decades ago in the case of Ali Mohamed Ali Abd-Al-Rahman, known as Ali Kosheib, after the trial ended in 2024.

"I wish to be clear to those on the ground in Darfur now, to those who are inflicting unimaginable atrocities on its population -- they may feel a sense of impunity at this moment, as Ali Kosheib may have felt in the past," said Khan.

"But we are working intensively to ensure that the Ali Kosheib trial represents only the first of many in relation to this situation at the International Criminal Court," she added.