Kurdish Media Report Deal on Integrated Project for Northern, Eastern Syria

Members of the Syrian National Army during training in the countryside of Aleppo (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Members of the Syrian National Army during training in the countryside of Aleppo (Asharq Al-Awsat)
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Kurdish Media Report Deal on Integrated Project for Northern, Eastern Syria

Members of the Syrian National Army during training in the countryside of Aleppo (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Members of the Syrian National Army during training in the countryside of Aleppo (Asharq Al-Awsat)

The US aims to present an "integrated plan" on northern and eastern Syria after it agreed with Türkiye on a specific formula.

The deal was discussed during the meetings of US envoy to eastern Syria Nicholas Granger with various parties in the region, according to Kurdish media.

Over the past two weeks, Granger has held talks with Kurdish, Arab, Syriac, and Assyrian officials in northeastern Syria ahead of an integrated regional project and a conference for those parties.

According to reports, the US envoy has not proposed anything concrete but is discussing general ideas, such as maintaining stability, including everyone in managing the region, and keeping a non-hostile relationship with Türkiye.

Diplomats concerned with the Syrian file continue to meet, especially after the visit of Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu to Washington.

Observers believe Ankara slowed its attempts towards normalization with the Assad regime after Cavusoglu visited the US, which explicitly rejected the move.

However, Türkiye aspired to press its demands in northern Syria on the US and Russia's pledge to keep the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) away from its borders for a distance of 30 kilometers to establish a safe zone and complete the secured areas to accommodate the Syrian refugees.

Meanwhile, Türkiye announced it would continue to support the efforts of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to ensure accountability for using these weapons in Syria.

On Friday, OPCW issued the third report of its Investigation and Identification Team (IIT), addressing the chlorine gas attack in Douma, Syria, in 2018, which killed 48 persons.

Commenting on the report, the Turkish Foreign Ministry stated that OPCW established a mandate to identify the parties responsible for the chemical weapons in Syria and concluded in its third report that the regime is the perpetrator of the chlorine gas attack.

The regime's responsibility for another chemical weapons attack has been confirmed, said the ministry.

"Türkiye will continue to support the efforts, first and foremost by the UN and OPCW, aiming at ensuring accountability in Syria," it added.

The OPCW said in its report that its team concluded that there were reasonable grounds to believe that the Syrian Arab Air Forces were the perpetrators of the chemical weapons attack on April 7, 2018 in Douma.

The report stated that based on the assessment of the large volume and wide range of evidence gathered and analyzed, the IIT concluded that in 2018, at least one helicopter of the Syrian "Tiger Forces" Elite Unit dropped two yellow cylinders containing toxic chlorine gas on two apartment buildings in a civilian-inhabited area in Douma.



Beirut Blast Investigator Resumes Work After Two Years

An aerial view shows the massive damage at Beirut port's grain silos and the area around it on August 5, 2020, one day after a massive explosion hit the heart of the Lebanese capital. (AFP)
An aerial view shows the massive damage at Beirut port's grain silos and the area around it on August 5, 2020, one day after a massive explosion hit the heart of the Lebanese capital. (AFP)
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Beirut Blast Investigator Resumes Work After Two Years

An aerial view shows the massive damage at Beirut port's grain silos and the area around it on August 5, 2020, one day after a massive explosion hit the heart of the Lebanese capital. (AFP)
An aerial view shows the massive damage at Beirut port's grain silos and the area around it on August 5, 2020, one day after a massive explosion hit the heart of the Lebanese capital. (AFP)

Lebanese judge Tarek Bitar resumed his investigation into the deadly 2020 Beirut port blast on Thursday, charging 10 people including security, customs and military personnel, a judicial official said.

The fresh charges come after a two-year hiatus in the investigation into the August 4, 2020 explosion that killed more than 220 people, injured thousands and devastated swathes of Lebanon's capital.

Authorities said the explosion was triggered by a fire in a warehouse where a huge stockpile of ammonium nitrate fertilizer had been haphazardly stored for years.

But nobody has been held responsible for the blast, one of history's largest non-nuclear explosions.

The probe stalled two years ago after Lebanese group Hezbollah had accused Bitar of bias and demanded his dismissal, and after officials named in the investigation had filed a flurry of lawsuits to prevent it from going forward.

The resumption comes with Hezbollah's influence weakened after its recent war with Israel.

It also follows the election of a Lebanese president after the top position had been vacant for more than two years, with the new head of state Joseph Aoun last week pledging to work towards the "independence of the judiciary".

The judicial official told AFP that "procedures in the case have resumed", speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.

The official said that "a new charge sheet has been issued, charging three employees and seven high-ranking officers in the Lebanese army, in the General Security, (and) in customs" with negligence and "possible intent to commit murder". Their interrogations would begin next month.

In March and April, "investigating sessions" would resume for those previously charged in the case, including former ministers, lawmakers, security and military officers, judges and port management employees, after which Bitar would ask public prosecutors to issue indictments, according to the judicial official.

Analysts say Hezbollah's weakening in its war with Israel last year allowed Lebanon's deeply divided political class to elect Aoun last week and back his naming of Nawaf Salam as premier on Monday.

Salam, until recently the presiding judge at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, on Tuesday promised "justice for the victims of the Beirut port blast".

Hundreds of individuals and organizations, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, had previously called for the United Nations to establish a fact-finding mission on the disaster -- a demand Lebanese officials have repeatedly rejected.

Cecile Roukoz, a lawyer whose brother died in the explosion, said she was optimistic after "the promises made by the president and the prime minister, then the probe resuming".

"There is hope that the rights of the victims, for whom we never stopped fighting, won't be forgotten," said the attorney, one of several representing the relatives of those killed.

Visiting Lebanon on Thursday, UN rights chief Volker Turk called for the "resumption of an independent investigation into the explosion".

"I repeat that those responsible for that tragedy must be held to account and offer the support of my office in this regard," he said.

The probe has been repeatedly stalled since 2020.

In December of that year, lead investigator Fadi Sawan charged former prime minister Hassan Diab -- who had resigned in the explosion's aftermath -- and three ex-ministers with negligence.

But Sawan was later removed from the case after mounting political pressure, and the probe was suspended.

His successor, Bitar, also summoned Diab for questioning and asked parliament, without success, to lift the immunity of lawmakers who had served as ministers.

The interior ministry also refused to execute arrest warrants issued by Bitar, further undermining his efforts.

The public prosecutor at the time, Ghassan Oueidat, thwarted his attempt to resume investigations in early 2023 after Bitar charged him in the case.