US Official to Asharq Al-Awsat: Normalization with Assad Linked to Behavior Change

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem (C) and his Abkhazian counterpart Daur Vadimovich Kove (R) attend the opening of the Abkhazian embassy in Damascus, Syria, 06 October 2020. EPA/YOUSSEF BADAWI
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem (C) and his Abkhazian counterpart Daur Vadimovich Kove (R) attend the opening of the Abkhazian embassy in Damascus, Syria, 06 October 2020. EPA/YOUSSEF BADAWI
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US Official to Asharq Al-Awsat: Normalization with Assad Linked to Behavior Change

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem (C) and his Abkhazian counterpart Daur Vadimovich Kove (R) attend the opening of the Abkhazian embassy in Damascus, Syria, 06 October 2020. EPA/YOUSSEF BADAWI
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem (C) and his Abkhazian counterpart Daur Vadimovich Kove (R) attend the opening of the Abkhazian embassy in Damascus, Syria, 06 October 2020. EPA/YOUSSEF BADAWI

Washington urged states not to establish diplomatic relations or economic cooperation with Syrian President Bashar Assad before addressing the atrocities committed by his regime against the Syrian people, a spokesperson for the US Department of State told Asharq Al-Awsat on Tuesday.

The official said Assad’s regime was responsible for countless horrors, in addition to repeatedly using chemical weapons against his people.

The regime also invited Iranian and Russian forces to fight on its territories, therefore, threatening neighboring countries and the entire region, the US spokesperson explained.

“Any attempt to reestablish or improve diplomatic relations, without addressing the atrocities committed by the regime against the Syrian people, shall damage efforts to enhance accountability and to move towards a sustainable, peaceful and political solution of the Syrian conflict, in line with UNSC Resolution 2254,” he said.

Assad and his regime should take irreversible steps to end all types of violence against the Syrian people and to implement UNSC Resolution 2254 or face continued diplomatic and economic isolation, the official added.

The statement came a few days after Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem received a copy of the credentials of Turki Mahmood al-Busaidi, the extraordinary and plenipotentiary Ambassador of Oman to Syria.

Abkhazia opened its embassy in Damascus on Tuesday and raised its flag during a ceremony attended by Moallem and a high-ranking Abkhazian delegation that is paying a visit to Syria, including head of presidential administration Alkhas Kvitsinia, Foreign Minister Daur Vadimovich Kove.

Abkhazia and Damascus agreed on enhancing bilateral relations and on mutual exemption of visas for the citizens in both countries for bearers of diplomatic and official and private passports.

“The embassy will be the cornerstone in the bilateral relations and it may be a step to encourage others who closed their embassies in Damascus to reopen them,” the Syrian FM said, expressing readiness to provide all support and assistance to enable the Abkhazian ambassador perform his duties successfully.

Kvitsinia reviewed the history of relations between Abkhazia and Syria, starting with mutual recognition in May 2018, the signature of a treaty of friendship and cooperation, two agreements on the establishment of a joint committee for cooperation in various fields and facilitating and developing trade and economic cooperation between the two countries besides the establishment of diplomatic relations at the level of embassies.

Syria recognized Georgia’s two Russian-occupied regions of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali as independent states back in 2018, a step which was condemned by the international community.



Israeli Strikes Kill 44 Palestinians in Gaza, UN Warns of Man-Made Drought

Smoke billows after an Israeli strike in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on June 19, 2025. (AFP)
Smoke billows after an Israeli strike in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on June 19, 2025. (AFP)
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Israeli Strikes Kill 44 Palestinians in Gaza, UN Warns of Man-Made Drought

Smoke billows after an Israeli strike in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on June 19, 2025. (AFP)
Smoke billows after an Israeli strike in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on June 19, 2025. (AFP)

Israeli fire killed at least 44 Palestinians in Gaza on Friday, many of whom had been trying to get food, local officials said, while the United Nations' children's agency warned of a looming man-made drought in the enclave as its water systems collapse. 

At least 25 people awaiting aid trucks were killed by Israeli fire south of Netzarim in central Gaza Strip, the Hamas-run local health authority said. 

Asked by Reuters about the incident, the Israel Defense Force said its troops had fired warning shots at suspected gunmen who advanced in a crowd towards them. 

An Israeli aircraft then "struck and eliminated the suspects", it said in a statement, adding that it was aware of others being hurt in the incident and was conducting a review. 

Separately, Gazan medics said at least 19 others were killed in other Israeli military strikes across the enclave, including 12 people in a house in Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza Strip, taking Friday's total death toll to at least 44. 

In a statement on Friday, the Hamas group, which says Israel is using hunger as a weapon against the population of Gaza, accused Israel of systematically targeting Palestinians seeking food aid across the enclave. Israel denies this and accuses Hamas of stealing food aid, which the group denies. 

Meanwhile UNICEF, the UN's children's agency, warned in Geneva of drought conditions developing in Gaza. 

"Children will begin to die of thirst ... Just 40% of drinking water production facilities remain functional," UNICEF spokesperson James Elder told reporters. "We are way below emergency standards in terms of drinking water." 

UNICEF also reported a 50% increase in children aged six months to 5 years admitted for treatment of malnutrition from April to May in Gaza, and half a million people going hungry. 

FOOD AID 

Elder, who was recently in Gaza, said he had many testimonials of women and children injured while trying to receive food aid, including a young boy who was wounded by a tank shell and later died of his injuries. 

A lack of public clarity on when the sites - some of which are in combat zones - are open is causing mass casualty events, he added. 

The route near Netzarim has become dangerous since the start of a new US-backed aid distribution system run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), witnesses told Reuters, with desperate Gazans heading to a designated area late at night to try and get something from aid supplies due to be handed out after dawn. 

The route has also been used by aid trucks sent by the United Nations and aid groups, and people have also been heading there in the hope of grabbing bags off trucks. 

UNICEF said GHF was "making a desperate situation worse". 

On Thursday, at least 70 people were killed by Israeli gunfire and military strikes, including 12 people who tried to approach a site operated by the GHF in the central Gaza Strip. 

In an email to Reuters, GHF accused Gazan health officials of regularly releasing inaccurate information. It said Palestinians do not access the nearby GHF site via the Netzarim corridor. The statement did not address a question about whether GHF was aware of Thursday's incident. 

The GHF said in a statement on Thursday it had so far distributed nearly three million meals across three of its aid sites without incident. 

The Red Cross told Reuters that the "vast majority" of patients that arrived at its Field Hospital during mass casualty incidents had reported that they were wounded while trying to access aid, at or around aid distribution points. 

Between May 27 and Thursday, the aid group received 1,874 patients wounded by weapons, according to Red Cross figures. 

The Gaza war was triggered when Palestinian Hamas fighters attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. 

Israel's subsequent military assault on Gaza has killed nearly 55,700 Palestinians, according to Gaza's health ministry, while displacing almost the entire population of more than 2 million and causing a hunger crisis.