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US Will Not Back Efforts to Normalize ‘Dictator’ Assad after UAE FM Meets Syrian President

State Department spokesperson Ned Price speaks during a media briefing at the State Department, Wednesday, July 7, 2021, in Washington. (AP)
State Department spokesperson Ned Price speaks during a media briefing at the State Department, Wednesday, July 7, 2021, in Washington. (AP)
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US Will Not Back Efforts to Normalize ‘Dictator’ Assad after UAE FM Meets Syrian President

State Department spokesperson Ned Price speaks during a media briefing at the State Department, Wednesday, July 7, 2021, in Washington. (AP)
State Department spokesperson Ned Price speaks during a media briefing at the State Department, Wednesday, July 7, 2021, in Washington. (AP)

The United States is concerned by a meeting between the United Arab Emirates’ foreign minister and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Tuesday, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said, urging states in the region to carefully consider “atrocities” perpetrated by Assad.

The meeting was a sign of improving ties between Assad and the UAE.

“We are concerned by reports of this meeting and the signal it sends,” Price said at a regular press briefing.

“As we’ve said before, this administration will not express any support for efforts to normalize or to rehabilitate Bashar al-Assad who is a brutal dictator.”

Assad received UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan in Damascus on Tuesday.

A presidency statement said Sheikh Abdullah led a delegation of senior Emirati officials that discussed bilateral relations and cooperation in a meeting with Syrian counterparts.

The participants discussed exploring “new horizons for this cooperation, especially in vital sectors in order to strengthen investment partnerships in these sectors,” the statement said.

Sheikh Abdullah is the most senior Emirati dignitary to visit Syria in the decade since the eruption of the country’s war.

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Israeli Rights Group Accuses Prison Authority of Failing Palestinian Prisoners after Scabies Outbreak

Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir attends a discussion called on by the opposition on the release of the Israeli hostages held by Hamas, at the Knesset in Jerusalem, Israel, 18 November 2024. (EPA)
Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir attends a discussion called on by the opposition on the release of the Israeli hostages held by Hamas, at the Knesset in Jerusalem, Israel, 18 November 2024. (EPA)
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Israeli Rights Group Accuses Prison Authority of Failing Palestinian Prisoners after Scabies Outbreak

Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir attends a discussion called on by the opposition on the release of the Israeli hostages held by Hamas, at the Knesset in Jerusalem, Israel, 18 November 2024. (EPA)
Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir attends a discussion called on by the opposition on the release of the Israeli hostages held by Hamas, at the Knesset in Jerusalem, Israel, 18 November 2024. (EPA)

An Israeli rights group said Monday that more than a quarter of all Palestinian prisoners currently held by Israel had contracted scabies since an outbreak was identified in May, and accused the prison authority of improper care and prevention.

Physicians for Human Rights-Israel said that more than 2,800 prisoners had caught the rash-like infection, with more than 1,700 still actively infected. The outbreak was seen in five different detention facilities, the group said. It was citing figures it said came from the Israel Prison Service.

The group said it filed a legal petition calling on the prison service “to eradicate the scabies epidemic,” accusing the authorities of failing “to implement widely recognized medical interventions necessary to contain the outbreak.”

It said that it halted the legal proceedings after it received a commitment from the prison service to address the outbreak. The prison service said the court had cancelled the petition because the prisons had shown they were dealing with the outbreak in a “systematic and thorough” way.

Nadav Davidovich, an Israeli public health expert who wrote a medical analysis for the group’s court proceedings, said the outbreak was a result of overcrowding in prisons and apparent neglect from prison authorities. He said such outbreaks could be prevented if prisoners were held “in more reasonable conditions.” If the first infections were treated as needed, such an outbreak could have been avoided, he said.

Physicians for Human Rights-Israel also said that the Israel Prison Service had cited scabies as a reason for postponing lawyers' visits and court appearances for prisoners. It said those steps “violate prisoners’ rights and serve as punitive measures rather than public health responses.”

Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who oversees the prisons, has boasted about hardening conditions to the bare minimum required by law.