عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Arab World

Arab, Western Demands to Implement Resolution 2254, Continue Cross-Border Aid to Syria

A girl stands amidst the rubble of damaged buildings in the northern Syrian town of al-Bab, Syria, February 28, 2017. (Reuters)
A girl stands amidst the rubble of damaged buildings in the northern Syrian town of al-Bab, Syria, February 28, 2017. (Reuters)
    wa
TT
TT

Arab, Western Demands to Implement Resolution 2254, Continue Cross-Border Aid to Syria

A girl stands amidst the rubble of damaged buildings in the northern Syrian town of al-Bab, Syria, February 28, 2017. (Reuters)
A girl stands amidst the rubble of damaged buildings in the northern Syrian town of al-Bab, Syria, February 28, 2017. (Reuters)

The representatives of 11 Arab and Western States, as well as the Arab League and the European Union, called Thursday on all Syrian parties to resume the meetings of the Constitutional Committee and to implement UN Security Council resolution 2254.

Representatives of Saudi Arabia, the Arab League, Egypt, the European Union, France, Germany, Iraq, Jordan, Norway, Qatar, Türkiye, the United Kingdom, and the United States met August 30-31 at the envoy level  in Geneva to discuss the crisis in Syria.

“We reaffirmed our commitment to reaching a political solution to the Syrian crisis consistent with UN Security Council resolution 2254, including continued support for implementing and sustaining an immediate nation-wide ceasefire, the Constitutional Committee, free and fair elections, the end of arbitrary detention, and the release of all those unjustly held,” the representatives said in a joint statement.

They also reiterated the need to create secure conditions for the safe, dignified, and voluntary return of refugees and internally displaced persons, consistent with UNHCR standards.

The representatives stressed the need to support the provision of sufficient and sustainable aid to the displaced and their host countries and communities until such conditions are in place.

They additionally noted with concern the continuing threat posed by ISIS and reiterated their commitment to the mission of the Global Coalition Against ISIS, and to the fight against terrorism in all its forms and manifestations.

“We called on all parties, in particular the government-nominated bloc, to resume meetings of the Syrian-led and Syrian-owned Constitutional Committee under UN auspices in Geneva and to advance an inclusive political solution that will protect the territorial integrity, unity, and sovereignty of Syria and the rights and dignity of all Syrians,” they stressed in their joint statement.

The representatives reiterated that there is no military solution to the Syrian crisis, reaffirming their continued support of UN Special Envoy Geir Pedersen and his tireless efforts to advance a UN-facilitated political process consistent with UNSC resolution 2254.

They also expressed their deep concern about the dire humanitarian situation in Syria and the ongoing suffering of the Syrian people.

“We emphasized the importance of continuing to provide life-saving and early recovery humanitarian assistance across Syria through all modalities, including expansion and extension of the UNSC resolution 2642 cross-border aid mechanism, for which there is no alternative that can match its scope and scale,” the representatives said.

Most Viewed

 
 
Arab World

High-Level Turkish Team to Visit Damascus on Monday for Talks on SDF Integration 

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan attends a press conference, with Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil Pinto (not pictured), in Caracas, Venezuela February 24, 2024. (Reuters)
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan attends a press conference, with Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil Pinto (not pictured), in Caracas, Venezuela February 24, 2024. (Reuters)
TT
TT

High-Level Turkish Team to Visit Damascus on Monday for Talks on SDF Integration 

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan attends a press conference, with Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil Pinto (not pictured), in Caracas, Venezuela February 24, 2024. (Reuters)
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan attends a press conference, with Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil Pinto (not pictured), in Caracas, Venezuela February 24, 2024. (Reuters)

A high-level Turkish delegation will visit Damascus on Monday to discuss bilateral ties and the implementation of a deal for integrating the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) into Syria's state apparatus, a Turkish Foreign Ministry source said.

The visit by Türkiye’s foreign and defense ministers and its intelligence chief comes amid efforts by Syrian, Kurdish and US officials to show some progress with the deal. But Ankara accuses the SDF of stalling ahead of a year-end deadline.

Türkiye views the US-backed SDF, which controls swathes ‌of northeastern Syria, as ‌a terrorist organization and has ‌warned of ⁠military action ‌if the group does not honor the agreement.

Last week Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said Ankara hoped to avoid resorting to military action against the SDF but that its patience was running out.

The Foreign Ministry source said Fidan, Defense Minister Yasar Guler and the head of Türkiye’s MIT intelligence agency, Ibrahim Kalin, ⁠would attend the talks in Damascus, a year after the fall of ‌former President Bashar al-Assad.

ANKARA SAYS ITS ‍NATIONAL SECURITY IS AT ‍STAKE

The source said the integration deal "closely concerned Türkiye’s national ‍security priorities" and the delegation would discuss its implementation. Türkiye has said integration must ensure that the SDF's chain of command is broken.

Sources have previously told Reuters that Damascus sent a proposal to the SDF expressing openness to reorganizing the group's roughly 50,000 fighters into three main divisions and smaller ⁠brigades as long as it cedes some chains of command and opens its territory to other Syrian army units.

Türkiye sees the SDF as an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) group and says it too must disarm and dissolve itself, in line with a disarmament process now underway between the Turkish state and the PKK.

Ankara has conducted cross-border military operations against the SDF in the past. It accuses the group of wanting to circumvent the integration deal ‌and says this poses a threat to both Türkiye and the unity of Syria.

Arab World

Israel Demolishes Residential Building in East Jerusalem 

Israeli forces gather as an excavator demolishes a building built without a permit in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Wadi Qaddum on December 22, 2025. (AFP)
Israeli forces gather as an excavator demolishes a building built without a permit in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Wadi Qaddum on December 22, 2025. (AFP)
TT
TT

Israel Demolishes Residential Building in East Jerusalem 

Israeli forces gather as an excavator demolishes a building built without a permit in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Wadi Qaddum on December 22, 2025. (AFP)
Israeli forces gather as an excavator demolishes a building built without a permit in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Wadi Qaddum on December 22, 2025. (AFP)

Israeli bulldozers tore through a four-storey residential building in east Jerusalem on Monday, displacing scores of Palestinians in what activists said was the largest such demolition in the area this year.

The building, located in the Silwan neighborhood near the Old City, comprised a dozen apartments housing approximately 100 people, many of them women, children and elderly residents.

It was the latest in a series of buildings to be torn down as Israeli officials target what they describe as unauthorized structures in annexed east Jerusalem.

"The demolition is a tragedy for all residents," Eid Shawar, who lives in the building, told AFP.

"They broke down the door while we were asleep and told us we could only change our clothes and take essential papers and documents," said the father of five.

With nowhere else to go, Shawar said his seven-member family would have to sleep in his car.

Three bulldozers began ripping into the structure early on Monday as residents looked on, their clothes and belongings scattered across nearby streets, an AFP journalist saw.

Israeli police cordoned off surrounding roads, with security forces deployed across the area and positioned on rooftops of neighboring houses.

Built on privately owned Palestinian land, the building had been slated for demolition for lacking a permit, activists said.

Palestinians face severe obstacles in obtaining building permits due to Israel's restrictive planning policies, according to activists, an issue that has fueled tensions in east Jerusalem and across the occupied West Bank for years.

- 'Ongoing policy' -

The building's destruction "is part of a systematic policy aimed at forcibly displacing Palestinian residents and emptying the city of its original inhabitants", the Jerusalem governorate, affiliated with the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority, said in a statement.

"Any demolition that expels residents from their homes constitutes a clear occupation plan to replace the land's owners with settlers."

The Jerusalem municipality, which administers both west and east Jerusalem, has previously said demolitions are carried out to address illegal construction and to enable the development of infrastructure or green spaces.

In a statement, the municipality said the demolition of the building was based on a 2014 court order, and "the land on which the structure stood is zoned for leisure and sports uses and construction, and not for residential purposes".

Activists, however, accuse Israeli authorities of frequently designating areas in east Jerusalem as national parks or open spaces to advance Israeli settlement interests.

The demolition was "carried out without prior notice, despite the fact that a meeting was scheduled" on Monday to discuss steps to legalize the structure, the Israeli human rights groups Ir Amin and Bimkom said in a statement, calling it the largest demolition of 2025.

"This is part of an ongoing policy. This year alone, around 100 east Jerusalem families have lost their homes," they added.

The status of Jerusalem remains one of the most contentious issues in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Israel occupied east Jerusalem, including the Old City, in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, and swiftly annexed the area.

Silwan begins at the foot of the Old City, where hundreds of Israeli settlers live among nearly 50,000 Palestinians.

Arab World

UNHCR Official Expects One Million Syrian Refugees to Return in 2026

People walk along a street in Damascus, Syria, December 18, 2025. REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi

People walk along a street in Damascus, Syria, December 18, 2025. REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi

TT
TT

UNHCR Official Expects One Million Syrian Refugees to Return in 2026

People walk along a street in Damascus, Syria, December 18, 2025. REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi

People walk along a street in Damascus, Syria, December 18, 2025. REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi


The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has projected that around one million Syrian refugees are expected to return to their country during 2026, amid what it described as a “gradual recovery” in Syria following the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime on December 8, 2024.

Speaking in an interview with Türkiye’s Anadolu Agency, UNHCR’s Representative in Syria, Gonzalo Vargas Llosa, said that approximately 1.3 million Syrian refugees and nearly two million internally displaced persons have returned to their areas of origin since December 2024.

“This means more than three million Syrians have returned to their homes within a relatively short period of time, in a country exhausted by years of war at the economic, infrastructural, and service levels,” he said.

Vargas Llosa recalled that on December 9, 2024, he and his team traveled to the Lebanese border, where they witnessed thousands of Syrians spontaneously returning home after more than 14 years of forced displacement.

Need for International Support
Concerning future prospects, Llosa said since Assad’s fall, most returnees came to Syria from Türkiye, Lebanon, and Jordan, with smaller numbers returning from Egypt and Iraq.

“UNHCR estimates suggest that more that more than four million Syrians may return within the next two years,” he added.

“This large-scale return is taking place under extremely difficult conditions,” Losa said, stressing that international financial support is an urgent and critical necessity to ensure stability and prevent a further deterioration of the humanitarian situation.

Active Turkish Role
The UN official praised Türkiye’s role, noting that Ankara’s long-term hosting of refugees and its support for the new Syrian government after December 8, 2024, have helped create a positive climate for recovery.

“Representatives from the Turkish private sector have started visiting Syria to explore investment opportunities,” describing the trend as a sign of a new phase of reconstruction.

End of Isolation
Assessing the current situation, Llosa said Syria is witnessing a complex transition that will require time, given the vast destruction left by 14 years of war.

He noted that Syria’s recovery after a long war will not be immediate.
However, he praised the Syrian government and people for successfully reconnecting the country with the world in a relatively short time.

“This is a positive sign,” he said, stressing that coordinated international support is needed to improve economic conditions.

Key for Recovery
The UNHCR representative noted that lifting sanctions and encouraging private investment will be key to accelerating the reconstruction process.

Llosa noted that the UN agency and its partners are providing direct support to returnees, particularly in re-issuing official documents.

He said one quarter of returnees lack basic documents, including IDs and property papers.

On Thursday, US President Donald Trump signed the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2026, which included the lifting of sanctions imposed on Syria under the Caesar Act.