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Iraqi President Meets Kurdish Leaderships to Prepare for Negotiations

Iraqi President Fuad Masoum. (Reuters)
Iraqi President Fuad Masoum. (Reuters)
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Iraqi President Meets Kurdish Leaderships to Prepare for Negotiations

Iraqi President Fuad Masoum. (Reuters)
Iraqi President Fuad Masoum. (Reuters)

Iraqi President Fuad Masoum held talks in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region on Sunday with a number of party leaders to pave the way for negotiations between Irbil and Baghdad.

A source from Masoum’s office told Asharq Al-Awsat that he will continue his consultations with all political powers in Kurdistan in order to prepare the conditions to launch the Baghdad-Irbil negotiations that will tackle the pending issues between the two sides.

The president’s talks are aimed at unifying stances on the formation of the Kurdish delegation that will head to Baghdad for the negotiations, it explained.

Masoum is expected to visit Irbil within two days in order to continue his consultations.

His talks in al-Sulaimaniya coincided with protests by hundreds of displaced Tuz Khurmatu residents against poor living conditions.

They called for meting the president in order to relay their demands to him and urge him to exert efforts with the federal Iraqi and Kurdish governments to ensure their return to their homes.

They raised posters condemning either governments’ silence over their living conditions and pleaded to the United Nations and foreign embassies in Iraq.

“We declare that the government and international community’s silence over the injustice against us is a blatant violation of all humanitarian laws. The regional government’s silence is no less unjust than than the violations committed against us by political forces,” the demonstrators said.

They stressed that after the Iraqi army and Popular Mobilization Forces seized their city, Turkmen mobilization forces set fire in dozens of their houses. They accused them of committing all forms of oppression and violence against the remaining Kurdish residents at a time when these same Kurds fought with Turkmen and Arabs against ISIS terrorists.

“It is odd that Tuz Khurmatu residents are being displaced by the same people that they defended,” said the protesters.

“We are here to deliver a message of peace to all sides and demand that the government facilitate our honorable return to our homes,” they urged.

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Arab World

WHO Says over 100 Killed in Attacks on Sudan Kindergarten and Hospital

Sudanese people who fled El-Fasher rest upon their arrival at the Al-Afad camp for displaced people in the town of Al-Dabba, northern Sudan, on November 19, 2025. (Photo by Ebrahim Hamid / AFP)
Sudanese people who fled El-Fasher rest upon their arrival at the Al-Afad camp for displaced people in the town of Al-Dabba, northern Sudan, on November 19, 2025. (Photo by Ebrahim Hamid / AFP)
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WHO Says over 100 Killed in Attacks on Sudan Kindergarten and Hospital

Sudanese people who fled El-Fasher rest upon their arrival at the Al-Afad camp for displaced people in the town of Al-Dabba, northern Sudan, on November 19, 2025. (Photo by Ebrahim Hamid / AFP)
Sudanese people who fled El-Fasher rest upon their arrival at the Al-Afad camp for displaced people in the town of Al-Dabba, northern Sudan, on November 19, 2025. (Photo by Ebrahim Hamid / AFP)

More than 100 people, including dozens of children, were killed in attacks on a kindergarten in Sudan that continued even as parents and caretakers rushed the wounded to a nearby hospital, the World Health Organization said on Monday.

Health facilities in Sudan have repeatedly come under attack near the frontlines of the country's 2-1/2-year civil war. A massacre also occurred in October in the city of El-Fasher, Reuters reported.

The latest attacks on December 4 began with repeated strikes on a kindergarten in South Kordofan state, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X. "Disturbingly, paramedics and responders came under attack as they tried to move the injured from the kindergarten to the hospital," he said.

Sudan's Foreign Ministry condemned the attacks that it said were carried out by the Rapid Support Forces using drones.

The WHO database said heavy weapons were used and that 114 people, including 63 children, were killed and 35 wounded.

A WHO spokesperson said the toll combines casualties from the kindergarten strikes, the transfer of patients to the adjacent rural hospital, and attacks at the facility itself. Most children were killed in the initial strike, while parents and medics were later among the victims, he added.

The RSF did not immediately respond to requests for comment. It has previously denied harming civilians and said that it will hold its forces to account for any violations.

Survivors have since been moved to another hospital, and urgent appeals are being made for medical support and blood donations, Tedros said.

Arab World

Syria’s Sharaa Calls for United Efforts to Rebuild a Year After Assad’s Ouster 

People celebrate and wave Syrian flags as they wait for a parade by the new Syrian army marking the first anniversary of the ousting of the Bashar al-Assad regime in Damascus, Syria, Monday, Dec. 8, 2025. (AP)
People celebrate and wave Syrian flags as they wait for a parade by the new Syrian army marking the first anniversary of the ousting of the Bashar al-Assad regime in Damascus, Syria, Monday, Dec. 8, 2025. (AP)
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Syria’s Sharaa Calls for United Efforts to Rebuild a Year After Assad’s Ouster 

People celebrate and wave Syrian flags as they wait for a parade by the new Syrian army marking the first anniversary of the ousting of the Bashar al-Assad regime in Damascus, Syria, Monday, Dec. 8, 2025. (AP)
People celebrate and wave Syrian flags as they wait for a parade by the new Syrian army marking the first anniversary of the ousting of the Bashar al-Assad regime in Damascus, Syria, Monday, Dec. 8, 2025. (AP)

President Ahmed al-Sharaa on Monday urged Syrians to work together to rebuild their country, still marred by insecurity and divisions, as they marked a year since the ousting of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad.  

The atmosphere in Damascus was jubilant as thousands of people took to the streets of the capital, AFP correspondents said, after mosques in the Old City began the day broadcasting celebratory prayers at dawn.  

"What happened over the past year seems like a miracle," said Iyad Burghol, 44, a doctor, citing developments including a warm welcome in Washington by President Donald Trump for Sharaa. 

"People are demanding electricity, lower prices and higher salaries" after years of war and economic crisis, Burghol said. 

"But the most important thing to me is civil peace, security and safety," he added, taking a photo of people carrying a huge Syrian flag and sending it to his friends abroad.  

Sharaa's opposition alliance launched a lightning offensive in late November last year, taking the capital Damascus on December 8 after nearly 14 years of war and putting an end to more than five decades of the Assad family's iron-fisted rule.  

Since then, Sharaa has managed to restore Syria's international standing and has won sanctions relief, but he faces major challenges in guaranteeing security, rebuilding crumbling institutions, regaining Syrians' trust and keeping his fractured country united.  

"The current phase requires the unification of efforts by all citizens to build a strong Syria, consolidate its stability, safeguard its sovereignty, and achieve a future befitting the sacrifices of its people," Sharaa said following dawn prayers at Damascus's famous Umayyad Mosque.  

He was wearing military garb as he did when he entered the capital a year ago.  

- 'Heal deep divisions' -  

As part of the celebrations in Damascus, hundreds of military personnel marched down a major thoroughfare as helicopters flew overhead and people lined the streets to watch.  

Sharaa and several ministers were in attendance, state media reported.  

Monday's events, including an expected speech by Sharaa, are the culmination of celebrations that began last month as Syrians began marking the start of last year's lightning offensive.  

Multi-confessional Syria's fragile transition has been shaken this year by sectarian bloodshed in the country's Alawite and Druze minority heartlands, alongside ongoing Israeli military operations.  

In a statement, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that "what lies ahead is far more than a political transition; it is the chance to rebuild shattered communities and heal deep divisions".  

"It is an opportunity to forge a nation where every Syrian -- regardless of ethnicity, religion, gender or political affiliation -- can live securely, equally, and with dignity," he said in the statement, urging international support.  

On Sunday, the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria, which investigates international human rights law violations since the start of the war, warned the country's transition was fragile and said that "cycles of vengeance and reprisal must be brought to an end".  

The US-backed Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces that control swathes of northeast Syria said Monday that "the next phase requires launching a real, inclusive dialogue... and establishing a new social contract that guarantees rights, freedoms and equality".  

The Kurdish administration in the northeast has announced a ban on public gatherings on Monday, citing security concerns, while also banning gunfire and fireworks.  

Under a March deal, the Kurdish administration was to integrate its institutions into the central government by year-end, but progress has stalled.  

On Saturday, a prominent Alawite spiritual leader in Syria urged members of his religious minority, to which the Assad family also belongs, to boycott the celebrations, in protest against the new authorities. 

Arab World

Syrian Refugee Returns Set to Slow as Donor Support Fades

People sit after receiving bread from Ecir Kapici, Turkish humanitarian NGO at Al-Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp, after Syria's Bashar Al-Assad was ousted, in Damascus, Syria, December 20 , 2024. (Reuters)
People sit after receiving bread from Ecir Kapici, Turkish humanitarian NGO at Al-Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp, after Syria's Bashar Al-Assad was ousted, in Damascus, Syria, December 20 , 2024. (Reuters)
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Syrian Refugee Returns Set to Slow as Donor Support Fades

People sit after receiving bread from Ecir Kapici, Turkish humanitarian NGO at Al-Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp, after Syria's Bashar Al-Assad was ousted, in Damascus, Syria, December 20 , 2024. (Reuters)
People sit after receiving bread from Ecir Kapici, Turkish humanitarian NGO at Al-Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp, after Syria's Bashar Al-Assad was ousted, in Damascus, Syria, December 20 , 2024. (Reuters)

More than 3 million Syrians have returned home since the collapse of Bashar al-Assad's rule a year ago but a decline in global funding could deter others, the UN refugee agency said on Monday.

Some 1.2 million refugees in addition to 1.9 million internally displaced people have gone back home following the civil war that ended with Assad's overthrow, but millions more are yet to return, according to UNHCR.

The agency said much more support was needed to ensure the trend continues.

"Syrians are ready to rebuild – the question is whether the world is ready to help them do it," said UNHCR head Filippo Grandi. Over 5 million refugees remain outside Syria's borders, mostly in neighboring countries like Jordan and Lebanon.

RISK OF REVERSALS

Grandi told donors in Geneva last week that there was a risk that those Syrians who are returning might even reverse their course and come back to host states.

"Returns continue in fairly large numbers but unless we step up broader efforts, the risk of (reversals) is very real," he said.

Overall, Syria's $3.19 billion humanitarian response is 29% funded this year, according to UN data, at a time when donors like the United States and others are making major cuts to foreign aid across the board.

The World Health Organization sees a gap emerging as aid money drops off before national systems can take over.

As of last month, only 58% of hospitals were fully functional and some are suffering power outages, affecting cold-chain storage for vaccines.

"Returnees are coming back to areas where medicines, staff and infrastructure are limited – adding pressure to already thin services," Christina Bethke, Acting WHO Representative in Syria, told reporters.

The slow pace of removing unexploded ordnance is also a major obstacle to recovery, said the aid group Humanity & Inclusion, which reported over 1,500 deaths and injuries in the last year. Such efforts are just 13% funded, it said.

Some aid officials say Syria is one of the first crises to be hit by aid funding cuts because the end of the war means it no longer counts as an emergency, eligible for priority funding.

Others may have held back as they wait to see if authorities under President Ahmed al-Sharaa make good on promises of reform and accountability.