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Turkish Electricity Company Expands Rapidly in Northwest Syria

An aerial photo of solar energy production cells in northern Syria near the Turkish border on June 9 (AFP)
An aerial photo of solar energy production cells in northern Syria near the Turkish border on June 9 (AFP)
    Idlib, London - Firas Karam, Asharq Al-Awsat
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Turkish Electricity Company Expands Rapidly in Northwest Syria

An aerial photo of solar energy production cells in northern Syria near the Turkish border on June 9 (AFP)
An aerial photo of solar energy production cells in northern Syria near the Turkish border on June 9 (AFP)

In cooperation with the Syrian opposition Salvation Government’s General Electricity Corporation (GEC), a Turkish private firm is setting up power transmission lines to all parts of Syria’s opposition-held northwest governorate of Idlib.

In Idlib, the GEC oversees the management of power services, but the bulk of electricity feeding the governorate’s new power grid comes from Turkey.

“After the contracting company assigned to build the power-supply project in Idlib concluded its work…our company started delivering electricity to the densely populated cities of Idlib, Harem, Salqin, Al-Dana and Sarmada with high quality, efficiency and speed,” revealed the media relations officer at Turkey’s “Green Energy” company.

The energy project in Syria’s Idlib included building substations with the capacity to receive (66 kV) from Turkey, establishing a voltage line linking the power networks in the two countries to each other, and equipping and maintaining high-voltage networks located in the region.

For citizens in Idlib, connecting to the new grid will require them to purchase a pre-paid electric meter and draw a cable from the network. At the network, both single-phase and three-phase electric power meters are available to subscribers.

Getting a single-phase meter would cost TRY 350 with an additional subscription fee of TRY 100, while the price of a three-phase meter is set at TRY900 with a TRY400 subscription fee.

Moreover, a domestic kilowatt would cost 0.9 TRY, while the price of a commercial or industrial kilowatt stands at 1TRY, according to Green Energy.

Separately, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported on Turkish intelligence agreeing with ally Syrian opposition factions to send fighters to Afghanistan.

“There is an agreement between Turkish intelligence and the leaders of Syrian opposition factions, whether in the northern city of Afrin or other areas under their influence in Syria, to send members of the factions to Afghanistan, specifically to Kabul,” said the Observatory, noting that combatants were also sent to Libya and the Nagorno-Karabakh region.

Unlike previous deployments to Libya and Nagorno-Karabakh, fighters will be sent to Afghanistan after getting enlisted in Turkish security companies with official contracts.

“Turkish intelligence will work to recruit these people into Turkish security companies with official contracts and deploy them officially,” explained the Observatory.

There was no official comment from Ankara or Syrian opposition factions on the report, but the Observatory said that the operation is likely to start in September.

“Turkish intelligence will supervise the process of selecting Syrian personnel--because they do not trust faction leaders,” noted the Observatory.

According to the human rights watchdog, the main task of those deployed to Afghanistan will be to protect Kabul airport, government facilities, and headquarters and guard international forces.

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Arab World

Asharq Al-Awsat Publishes Palestinian Factions’ Amendment to 8th Clause of Gaza Agreement

Palestinians are seen at a school sheltering displaced people in Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza on Tuesday. (AFP)
Palestinians are seen at a school sheltering displaced people in Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza on Tuesday. (AFP)
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Asharq Al-Awsat Publishes Palestinian Factions’ Amendment to 8th Clause of Gaza Agreement

Palestinians are seen at a school sheltering displaced people in Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza on Tuesday. (AFP)
Palestinians are seen at a school sheltering displaced people in Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza on Tuesday. (AFP)

Mediators of Gaza’s fragile ceasefire, along with Palestinian factions, are counting on US President Donald Trump’s administration to press Israel to accept the agreed wording on a 15-point roadmap received by Hamas last April.

Palestinian factions reached “close” positions with mediators from Egypt, Qatar, and Türkiye on amendments to the roadmap, focusing mainly on the disputed eighth clause on weapons in Gaza.

The amended wording of the eighth clause, seen by Asharq Al-Awsat, calls for the inventorying and storage of weapons, including infrastructure, to be carried out gradually and in stages, according to a timetable.

The process would take place in parallel with Israel’s withdrawal from the areas it controls in the Gaza Strip and the completion of the first phase of the ceasefire agreement with all its requirements.

Those include “the full implementation of the humanitarian protocol, the halt to targeted attacks, Israel’s commitment to withdrawal from the enclave, the entry of the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza and its assumption of duties, the deployment of the International Stabilization Force, and the dismantling of armed militias.”

The amendment added that implementation shall be carried out through the national committee, with the support of international forces and in cooperation with Palestinian organizations.

All of this comes within the framework of Trump’s plan and in accordance with relevant international resolutions and laws.

Indirect talks between Israel on one side and Hamas and other factions on the other have stalled over moving to new phases of the Gaza ceasefire announced last October, which Israel has repeatedly breached, killing more than 970 Palestinians since then.

The Palestinian side has insisted on implementing the requirements of the first phase, including the Israeli army’s withdrawal from the territory it occupies and the entry of aid and goods into Gaza. Tel Aviv, meanwhile, is pressing for the factions to disarm, describing this as the most prominent provision of the second phase.

Hamas delegation stays in Cairo

According to two Hamas sources and other sources from Palestinian factions involved in the Cairo meetings, the Hamas delegation was asked to stay in Cairo and await the response to the agreed wording.

Other faction delegations that had come from abroad left, while some members who had recently been based in Egypt remained.

A Hamas source said the movement’s delegation in Egypt would likely be asked to hold further consultations with the mediators on some issues that Israel, and even the Trump administration, may object to in the proposed amendments, mainly over the text rather than the substance.

According to the four sources, the mediators told the factions that took part in the meetings that they would seek agreement with the US administration and Israel on the wording reached and would brief them on developments from consultations with all parties.

Another Hamas source said Türkiye was playing “an important and major role” in persuading the US administration, while Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani was in direct contact with US envoy Steve Witkoff to push for the success of the important step that had been reached.

Nickolay Mladenov, the High Representative for Gaza at the Board of Peace, is expected to arrive in Cairo on Wednesday or Thursday.

But a source close to the Board of Peace team told Asharq Al-Awsat that Mladenov would likely begin his visit “in Israel first, to reach understandings with officials there before moving on to Cairo.”

Palestinian sources were pessimistic about Israel’s response and expected it to be “negative” toward the wording of the roadmap amendments.

Gulf

GCC Commits to Peace and Good Neighborliness, Says Security of Gulf States Is ‘Indivisible’

Heads of delegations are seen at the 167th Ministerial Council of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in Manama on Wednesday. (GCC)
Heads of delegations are seen at the 167th Ministerial Council of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in Manama on Wednesday. (GCC)
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GCC Commits to Peace and Good Neighborliness, Says Security of Gulf States Is ‘Indivisible’

Heads of delegations are seen at the 167th Ministerial Council of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in Manama on Wednesday. (GCC)
Heads of delegations are seen at the 167th Ministerial Council of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in Manama on Wednesday. (GCC)

The 167th Ministerial Council of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) condemned on Wednesday the latest Iranian attacks against Bahrain, Kuwait and Jordan as “flagrant violations against their sovereignty and security of their people.”

Meeting in Manama, the council slammed the attacks as violations of international law, United Nations Charter and values of good neighborliness.

“These hostile acts do not serve any understanding or rapprochement, but rather distance peoples from one another, undermine the foundations of trust, sow discord and close the doors of dialogue to which the GCC states have always called for,” it said in a statement.

“Aggression does not build relations, and intimidation does not create stability,” it stressed, while expressing its full solidarity with Bahrain, Kuwait and Jordan.

“The security of the GCC states is indivisible, and that any attack against one of them is an attack against them all,” it went on to say.

The council reassured the citizens of its states and residents on their territories that the joint defense capabilities and air defense systems are confronting these attacks with high efficiency and readiness, and that the leaderships of the GCC states are moving forward in safeguarding the security and stability of the region.

“These attacks will only increase the cohesion, determination and resolve of the peoples of the GCC states to resist and confront them,” continued the statement.

Moreover, it underscored the right of GCC states to defend themselves “individually and collectively, and to respond to this aggression by all legitimate means, in accordance with Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations, which guarantees the inherent right of states to defend themselves if an armed attack occurs against them.”

“The council holds Iran fully responsible for these acts and their grave repercussions on the security of the region, international navigation and energy supplies, and demands their immediate cessation and a complete end to any targeting of the GCC states, their interests and their citizens,” urged the statement.

The council called upon the Security Council and the international community to assume their responsibilities in condemning this aggression and holding its perpetrators accountable, in a manner that ensures respect for the sovereignty of states and the preservation of regional and international peace and security.

The council, while renewing the GCC states’ commitment to the option of peace, good neighborliness and diplomatic solutions as a means of settling disputes, posed “a fundamental question to the aggressor: How can future relations be built amid the continuation of these attacks and the insistence on pursuing them?”

“Persistence in the path of aggression will only lead to further isolation, while the door to understanding remains open to those who choose the language of wisdom and good neighborliness,” it added.

World

Bill Gates Tells Lawmakers Meeting Epstein Was a ‘Grave Error in Judgment’ in Closed-Door Hearing

Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, arrives on Capitol Hill for a closed-door interview with the House Oversight Committee investigating convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, in Washington, Wednesday, June 10, 2026. (AP)
Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, arrives on Capitol Hill for a closed-door interview with the House Oversight Committee investigating convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, in Washington, Wednesday, June 10, 2026. (AP)
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Bill Gates Tells Lawmakers Meeting Epstein Was a ‘Grave Error in Judgment’ in Closed-Door Hearing

Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, arrives on Capitol Hill for a closed-door interview with the House Oversight Committee investigating convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, in Washington, Wednesday, June 10, 2026. (AP)
Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, arrives on Capitol Hill for a closed-door interview with the House Oversight Committee investigating convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, in Washington, Wednesday, June 10, 2026. (AP)

Bill Gates said Wednesday that he made a “grave error in judgment" by ever meeting with Jeffrey Epstein as the Microsoft co-founder faced questions behind closed doors from lawmakers about his relationship with the disgraced financier.

In an opening statement provided to The Associated Press, Gates said he “should never have met with Epstein in the first place,” but that he “never witnessed nor had any indication that Epstein was engaged in ongoing criminal conduct.”

The tech billionaire became the latest powerful figure linked to Epstein to testify before the House Oversight Committee. As Gates arrived at the Capitol, he noted that he was there voluntarily and said he hoped his testimony would be useful.

“I hope my testimony is helpful to the work, the important work, of the committee, to find justice for the victims,” he said.

The committee chairman, Republican US Rep. James Comer, formally requested that Gates testify after he appeared multiple times in a trove of documents released by the Justice Department as part of its Epstein probe. Before the interview on Wednesday, Comer told reporters that “no one’s accusing Bill Gates of any wrongdoing.”

“This is about the survivors" of Epstein and his confidant Ghislaine Maxwell. "This is about trying to figure out how the government failed,” Comer said.

Gates said he was introduced to Epstein through people involved in his professional and philanthropic work and was drawn in by Epstein’s claims that he could help raise billions of dollars for global health initiatives. Gates says he ended the relationship in 2014 after concluding Epstein could not deliver on those promises.

Gates added that he never went to Epstein's island or his other infamous properties.

“I have never victimized anyone. While he may have sought to foster a personal relationship, I was never interested in that and never reciprocated,” Gates said.

The remarks come as lawmakers review documents detailing Gates’ interactions with Epstein. Included in the files are calendar entries for meetings between Gates and Epstein, email correspondence between the two about philanthropic projects and photos of Gates at events that Epstein also attended.

Their relationship began in 2011, three years after Epstein pleaded guilty in Florida to soliciting prostitution from a minor, and continued until at least late 2014, according to the documents.

Gates, who chairs the Gates Foundation, has not been accused of wrongdoing in connection with Epstein and has repeatedly denied any knowledge of Epstein’s abuse of girls. He has said the two met only to discuss philanthropy and previously described the relationship as “a huge mistake.”

Both Gates and his ex-wife, Melinda French Gates, have said his association with Epstein created tension in their marriage.

The foundation acknowledged in February that a small number of employees had met with Epstein based on his “claims that he could mobilize significant philanthropic resources for global health.” They never created a charitable fund together, and the foundation made no payments to Epstein.

Epstein was federally indicted in July 2019 on charges of sex trafficking of minors and conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of minors. The Justice Department alleged that Epstein formed a vast network of girls, some as young as 14, for him to sexually abuse between 2002 and 2005. He died by suicide in a New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial.

The files released by the Justice Department read like a who’s who of powerful men across tech, finance, politics and other industries. All have denied involvement in Epstein’s crimes, but some maintained or formed friendships with him even after his history of sexual abuse came to light.

At another closed-door deposition in February, former President Bill Clinton faced more than six hours of questioning from lawmakers about his association with Epstein more than two decades ago. Epstein visited the White House several times during Clinton’s presidency, and Clinton flew occasionally on Epstein's private jet.

The former Democratic president said he saw no signs of Epstein’s sexual abuse and stopped associating with him long before Epstein's 2008 guilty plea. Clinton has not been accused of any wrongdoing in connection with Epstein.