Kurds Make ‘Secret Offer’ to Damascus

Members of the People's Protection Units (YPG) gather in the town of Shadadi. AFP file photo
Members of the People's Protection Units (YPG) gather in the town of Shadadi. AFP file photo
TT

Kurds Make ‘Secret Offer’ to Damascus

Members of the People's Protection Units (YPG) gather in the town of Shadadi. AFP file photo
Members of the People's Protection Units (YPG) gather in the town of Shadadi. AFP file photo

The top commander of the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), Sipan Hemo, has recently visited Damascus and Moscow to make a “secret offer” on the group’s approval to hand over the border area with Turkey to the “Syrian State” in exchange for forming a local administration under Russian guarantees, informed sources told Asharq Al-Awsat on Friday.

The sources said the YPG is aiming to strike a deal on “filling the gap” following the US decision to withdraw from Syria, and to also cut off any Turkish interference in the north and northeast of Syria.

Days after US President Donald Trump’s decision more than two weeks ago to pull US forces out of Syria, Hemo traveled to the Russian military base in Hmeimim, then held a secret meeting in Damascus with Syrian intelligence chief Ali Mamlouk and Defense Minister Gen Ali Abdullah Ayoub, in the presence of a Russian military delegation, the sources told the newspaper.

Also, on Dec. 29, while a high-ranking Turkish delegation, led by Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu visited Moscow, Hemo met with Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu and Chief of the Russian General Staff Valery Gerasimov in the Russian capital.

The YPG stressed in its message to Damascus the need to avoid repeating the mistake committed in Syria’s Afrin.

The Kurds had lost control of the northwest canton of Afrin after an assault by the Turkish military and its proxy fighters.

The Kurdish group expressed willingness to hand over the border area of east Syria to Bashar Assad’s forces and allow the “Syrian State” to have sovereignty there.

The YPG’s offer came as the US administration worked on speeding up arrangements for the withdrawal of its troops from Syria.

Washington is arranging for the visit of White House National Security Adviser John Bolton to the east Euphrates area following talks expected in Ankara next Monday, and before his scheduled trip to Tel Aviv.



Survivors, Bodies Recovered from Capsized Red Sea Tourist Boat

25 November 2024, Egypt: Red Sea Governor Amr Hanafi (R) checks on tourists rescued from capsized tourist boat called "Sea Story" that sank off Egypt's Red Sea coast. (Red Sea Governorate/dpa)
25 November 2024, Egypt: Red Sea Governor Amr Hanafi (R) checks on tourists rescued from capsized tourist boat called "Sea Story" that sank off Egypt's Red Sea coast. (Red Sea Governorate/dpa)
TT

Survivors, Bodies Recovered from Capsized Red Sea Tourist Boat

25 November 2024, Egypt: Red Sea Governor Amr Hanafi (R) checks on tourists rescued from capsized tourist boat called "Sea Story" that sank off Egypt's Red Sea coast. (Red Sea Governorate/dpa)
25 November 2024, Egypt: Red Sea Governor Amr Hanafi (R) checks on tourists rescued from capsized tourist boat called "Sea Story" that sank off Egypt's Red Sea coast. (Red Sea Governorate/dpa)

Rescuers on Tuesday recovered five survivors and four bodies from a dive boat that capsized off Egypt's eastern coast a day earlier, Red Sea governor Amr Hanafi said.  

A military-led team rescued two Belgians, one Swiss national, one Finnish tourist and one Egyptian, the governor said, bringing the total number of survivors from the accident to 33.  

The "Sea Story" had been carrying 31 tourists of multiple nationalities and a 13-member crew when it was hit by a large wave near Marsa Alam in southeastern Egypt early on Monday, causing it to capsize.

The four bodies recovered on Tuesday have not yet been identified, and eight people are still missing after 28 were rescued on Monday.

A government source close to rescue operations said the five survivors were found on Tuesday morning inside the boat, which the governor said had been thrown on its side by an early morning wave but had not completely sunk.  

The group had spent at least 24 hours in the overturned vessel after authorities first received distress calls at 5:30 AM (0330 GMT) on Monday.  

"Rescue operations are ongoing today, supported by a military helicopter and a frigate in addition to multiple divers," the Red Sea governor told AFP Tuesday, declining to provide any further details about the operation.  

The four bodies recovered on Tuesday were also located inside the stricken vessel.  

The boat had embarked on a multi-day diving trip on Sunday and had been due to dock on Friday at the town of Hurghada, 200 kilometers (124 miles) north.  

The governor on Monday said it capsized "suddenly and quickly within 5-7 minutes" of the impact with the wave, leaving some passengers -- among them European, Chinese and American tourists -- unable to set out of their cabins in time.  

- Still missing -  

Rescuers from the military and a passing tourist boat pulled 28 people from the water on Monday.  

According to a source at a hospital in Marsa Alam, six tourists and three Egyptians were admitted with minor injuries and discharged on Monday.   

According to the governor's office, the boat was carrying tourists from Belgium, Britain, China, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Poland, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland and the United States.  

Among the missing are two Polish tourists and one from Finland, according to both countries' foreign ministries.  

Authorities in Egypt have said the vessel was fully licensed and had passed all inspection checks. A preliminary investigation showed no technical fault.  

There were at least two similar boat accidents in the Marsa Alam area earlier this year, but no fatalities.  

The Red Sea coast is a major tourist destination in Egypt, a country of 107 million that is in the grip of a serious economic crisis.  

Nationally, the tourism sector employs two million people and generates more than 10 percent of its GDP.  

Dozens of dive boats crisscross between Red Sea coral reefs and islands off Egypt's eastern coast every day, where safety regulations are robust but unevenly enforced.