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FAO, WFP: Iraq One of the Countries Most Affected by Climate Change

Drought in one of Iraq’s marshes on October 8, 2022. (AFP)
Drought in one of Iraq’s marshes on October 8, 2022. (AFP)
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FAO, WFP: Iraq One of the Countries Most Affected by Climate Change

Drought in one of Iraq’s marshes on October 8, 2022. (AFP)
Drought in one of Iraq’s marshes on October 8, 2022. (AFP)

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Food Program (WFP) in Iraq issued a joint statement on the occasion of World Food Day on Monday on the future of Iraq’s agriculture and food security.

The statement was issued amid a drought wave hitting Iraq for the fourth consecutive year and an arbitrary water policy by upstream countries (Türkiye and Iran) towards Iraq.

The two agencies called for urgent action to address the root causes of today's food and water security crisis amid "limitless" challenges facing the world, including Iraq.

“Iraq has been experiencing increased drought for the past two years, brought about by the rising temperatures, reduced rainfall which is the lowest in 40 years in addition to reduced water flows in Tigris and the Euphrates rivers,” the statement said.

“This led to degradation of arable land, increased water, and soil salinity, which all contribute to serious loss of livelihoods and an increased pressure on the state national budget, which imports cereals to ensure enough food is available to the population.”

The statement quoted WFP Iraq Representative Ali Raza Qureshi as saying that Iraq remains one of the most affected countries globally by the adverse effects of climate change.

He warned that unless mitigation and adaptation are implemented, the future may not be promising for smallholder farmers and vulnerable groups in the country.

“We at WFP believe that food is the path towards peace and as such, serious action must be taken immediately by the government and the international community to adopt climate-smart food systems and long-term resilience building in order to ensure that Iraq and its people are able to navigate these testing times,” he said.

The statement noted that 20% of Iraq's workforce is engaged in the agricultural sector, which is the second largest contributor to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) after the oil sector, accounting for 5% of the total GDP.

Thus, it stressed that the development of agriculture is critical to allow Iraq to achieve its vision of a more diversified economy, in addition to generating employment and boosting private sector engagement.

Iraq’s Ministry of Water Resources complains that it does not receive sufficient funds to modernize the irrigation system, which would reduce waste in the already scarce water.

It further slams the lack of response from the upstream countries (Türkiye and Iran) to its request to hold talks regarding the water issue and the drought Iraq has been facing.

The Ministry’s advisor, Aoun Dhiab, told Iraq’s News Agency INA on Sunday that the two neighboring countries haven’t responded to any request to hold discussions regarding the quantities of water entering Iraq.

He said the issue was raised at high-level meetings, the latest of which was during the United Nations General Assembly meeting.

Activists and specialists have recently launched a wide campaign to save swamplands threatened by drought.

According to the expert in water and marshes affairs, Jassim al-Asadi, the campaign aims to disclose the current conditions of marshes, such as drought, mismanagement of water, and the absence of government support.

Local officials in the marshlands underline the significant decline in these areas, in addition to the migration of dozens of families from rural areas to the city due to drought and lack of pastures, all of which have led to the deterioration of agriculture and the death of large numbers of buffaloes and cows.

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Arab World

US Ambassador: Hezbollah Ties to Iran Affect Lebanon and the Course of Talks

President Joseph Aoun presiding over a ceremony marking the 81st anniversary of General Security (Lebanese Presidency)
President Joseph Aoun presiding over a ceremony marking the 81st anniversary of General Security (Lebanese Presidency)
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US Ambassador: Hezbollah Ties to Iran Affect Lebanon and the Course of Talks

President Joseph Aoun presiding over a ceremony marking the 81st anniversary of General Security (Lebanese Presidency)
President Joseph Aoun presiding over a ceremony marking the 81st anniversary of General Security (Lebanese Presidency)

The stalled US-Iranian negotiations remain uncertain, and their direct or indirect impact on Lebanon continues to loom over efforts to achieve tangible results in talks with Israel, meanwhile President Joseph Aoun reaffirmed the state's commitment to its institutions and role.

US Ambassador to Lebanon Michel Issa made notable remarks, linking developments in southern Lebanon to events unfolding between Washington and Tehran. He also stressed that any engagement with Hezbollah would take place only through the Lebanese state.

Aoun: State moving forward

Aoun said the state was continuing to strengthen its presence and institutions, alongside the negotiations.

"We are engaged in an internal struggle between people who do not want state institutions, who are the antithesis of the state and live at its expense in its absence, and between us and you, who want the state and its institutions," Aoun said during a ceremony marking the 81st anniversary of the General Security.

He added: “We here tell them, whatever you do, we will continue. Not for your sake, but for the sake of citizens to whom we owe a duty."

Issa: Southern Lebanon talks tied to Washington-Tehran Tension

US Ambassador to Lebanon Michel Issa said negotiations over southern Lebanon cannot be separated from regional developments, particularly talks between Washington and Tehran.

He said Hezbollah must surrender its weapons to the state, adding that continued links between the group and Iranian decision-making are affecting Lebanon and the course of negotiations.

Ministerial sources said US-Lebanese-Israeli talks would continue, with a new round expected in Rome in September, but acknowledged that progress hinges partly on the outcome of US-Iranian negotiations and Tehran’s ties with Hezbollah.

Issa clarifies US position: Any Contact with Hezbollah to Go Through the State

US Ambassador Michel Issa clarified that any US engagement with Hezbollah would take place through the Lebanese state, saying Washington could help bridge differences through negotiations. He reiterated that Hezbollah must surrender its weapons and accused the group of taking orders from Iran.

Issa also said talks with Israel are between the Lebanese and Israeli states, with Washington seeking to narrow differences while pressing Israel to reduce strikes in southern Lebanon. He added that Hezbollah’s future would depend partly on whether Iran maintains its support for the group.

Arab World

Arms Embargo: Can Washington Breach the Wall of Sudan’s War?

Massad Boulos, senior adviser to the US president for Arab and African affairs (AFP) 
Massad Boulos, senior adviser to the US president for Arab and African affairs (AFP) 
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Arms Embargo: Can Washington Breach the Wall of Sudan’s War?

Massad Boulos, senior adviser to the US president for Arab and African affairs (AFP) 
Massad Boulos, senior adviser to the US president for Arab and African affairs (AFP) 

The United States has stirred the stagnant waters of Sudan’s war by announcing plans to expand an arms embargo imposed on Darfur for more than two decades to cover the entire country.

The move appears aimed at shifting from limited sanctions to a direct attempt to reduce the warring parties’ ability to keep fighting and force them to reconsider the cost of seeking a military victory compared with returning to negotiations. It is a risky step, but one that also signals Washington’s determination to make a breakthrough in a war described as one of the world’s largest and most severe humanitarian crises.

Massad Boulos, senior advisor to the US president for Arab and African affairs, told the UN Security Council days ago that the US proposal would cover drones, related technologies and components, while strengthening the work of the sanctions panel of experts tasked with monitoring violations.

The current Darfur arms embargo expires Sept. 12, making the coming weeks a test of Washington’s ability to build consensus in the Security Council. Russia has voiced clear reservations, saying it would not accept measures affecting the Sudanese army’s capabilities, while China has taken a cautious position on expanding sanctions, leaving adoption of the proposal in its current form uncertain.

Washington views the proposed embargo as a pressure tool rather than merely a punitive measure. According to The Associated Press, the US administration believes restricting the flow of weapons to the belligerents could push them back to the negotiating table. UN political affairs chief Rosemary DiCarlo has meanwhile warned against the parties’ continued reliance on a military solution and the steady influx of sophisticated weapons.

Sudan’s Sovereignty Council chairman and army chief Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, however, has played down the possible impact of sanctions, saying they would neither affect Sudan nor weaken the armed forces’ resolve. He insisted the army would continue fighting until it retakes all areas controlled by the Rapid Support Forces.

The contrast shows the political struggle surrounding the US proposal. Washington wants to convince both sides that the flow of weapons cannot remain open-ended, while Sudan’s military leadership continues to speak in terms of retaking territory by force. The RSF is likewise reinforcing its positions and relying on supply networks, weapons and drones.

The US premise is that the ability to rearm prolongs the war: As long as each side believes it can replace its losses and obtain more drones, ammunition, fuel and financing, its incentive to compromise remains limited. If supplies become more difficult and costly, military calculations could gradually shift toward a settlement.

Drone use has expanded significantly in recent months, with attacks extending beyond front lines to cities, markets, electricity and water facilities and health infrastructure. Rosemary DiCarlo, the UN's under secretary-general for political and peacebuilding affairs, said sophisticated weapons, including drones, have become a major factor in increasing the war’s toll on civilians.

Restricting drones and their components, ammunition and heavy weapons could therefore yield an immediate humanitarian benefit by reducing long-range attacks, civilian casualties, displacement and disruption to hospitals and electricity and water networks, while improving humanitarian access.

But the plan’s success will depend on enforcement. The Darfur embargo, in place since 2005, failed to stop weapons from entering the region, exposing the limits of UN resolutions without effective monitoring and enforcement mechanisms.

Opposition Welcomes Proposal

Sudanese civilian opposition forces welcomed the US proposal while stressing that it should be linked to a comprehensive political process.

Khalid Omer Yousif, a leader in the Sumoud alliance, said pressure on both warring parties should be part of an “integrated package” to end the fighting and restore the civilian political process, rather than an isolated punitive measure.

Yasir Arman, head of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement–Revolutionary Democratic Current, warned that piecemeal measures could lead to “managing the war rather than ending it,” calling for a joint African Union-UN roadmap to halt the fighting and preserve Sudan’s unity.

The real test of Washington’s seriousness will be whether it can move from a Security Council resolution to pursuing supply networks, including flights, land routes, brokers, companies and individuals facilitating the purchase and transfer of weapons to Sudan.

Washington does not appear to be relying on the embargo alone to end the war. Rather, the proposal is likely part of a broader effort to raise the cost of continued fighting while pushing for negotiations. US officials say the goal is not to hand victory to one side over the other, but to reduce both sides’ ability to wage an open-ended war.

Ultimately, the seriousness of the US effort will be measured by its willingness to pressure the parties’ backers, not only the Sudanese belligerents themselves. If weapons continue to flow, expanding the embargo will amount to little more than a legal framework with limited effect. But if combined with monitoring, sanctions and simultaneous diplomatic pressure to reopen negotiations, it could become one of the strongest international tools of pressure deployed since the war began.

At its core, the US proposal brings two opposing calculations into direct confrontation: Washington wants to make continuing the war harder and more costly, while both sides insist on fighting until they recover all territory. Between them, civilians stand to benefit most from any measure that genuinely reduces the flow of instruments of war, even before a comprehensive political settlement is reached.

 

 

 

Arab World

Syria Sentences to Death Former Regime Informant as Moscow Says Took in Assad on Humanitarian Grounds

The fourth Criminal Court of the transitional justice in Damascus sentences former regime informant Abdel Nasser Buraqi to death. (SANA)
The fourth Criminal Court of the transitional justice in Damascus sentences former regime informant Abdel Nasser Buraqi to death. (SANA)
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Syria Sentences to Death Former Regime Informant as Moscow Says Took in Assad on Humanitarian Grounds

The fourth Criminal Court of the transitional justice in Damascus sentences former regime informant Abdel Nasser Buraqi to death. (SANA)
The fourth Criminal Court of the transitional justice in Damascus sentences former regime informant Abdel Nasser Buraqi to death. (SANA)

The fourth Criminal Court of the transitional justice in Damascus issued on Thursday a death sentence against former regime informant Abdel Nasser Buraqi after convicting him of grave crimes during the rule of ousted President Bashar al-Assad.

The accusations include forced disappearance, denial of freedom, participation in murder, torture leading to death, theft and criminal defamation.

Lawyer Radif Mustafa, Director of the Accountability and Justice Department at the National Commission for Transitional Justice, told the state news agency SANA that the court relied on international law to characterize the offenses as war crimes and crimes against humanity, in line with the Constitutional Declaration, to determine the nature, gravity, and causes of the crimes. Meanwhile, the court based its sentencing on the provisions of Syrian national law

Mustafa said the court decided to merge the sentences and apply the harshest penalty, which is execution.

It upheld the provisional seizure of the convict's assets, converting it into an executive seizure, and denied him any discretionary mitigating circumstances due to the massive scale and gravity of the committed crimes, he said in a post on Facebook.

He added that the ruling was a "the first judicial precedent in Syria's history."

"While informants were protected during the era of the ousted regime, they are now facing justice. This is the group that harmed people the most," he stressed.

Meanwhile, internal security forces in Latakia announced the arrest of Major Generals Haitham Barakat and Marwan Barakat, both officers from the ousted regime, during an operation in the city of Qardaha.

This operation follows several similar ones across various governorates. Security forces in Daraa announced on August 15 the arrest of Musab Abu Rukba, a former regime lieutenant colonel in the Raqqa Political Security branch.

The forces said the arrests are part of counter-terrorism efforts aimed at strengthening security and stability.

Separately, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Russia granted Assad asylum on humanitarian grounds, not political ones.

Speaking at a press conference during which she was asked whether Moscow would turn him over to the new Syrian authorities, she replied: "There were and are no political grounds behind his stay in our country. The decision was made solely on humanitarian grounds: the dramatic circumstances of the change of power in Syria meant that he and his family faced death."

The authorities in Syria sentenced Assad to death in absentia earlier in August.