Blinken, Guterres Discuss Expanding Aid to Syria

A camp for earthquake survivors in Jindires, northern Syria (Reuters)
A camp for earthquake survivors in Jindires, northern Syria (Reuters)
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Blinken, Guterres Discuss Expanding Aid to Syria

A camp for earthquake survivors in Jindires, northern Syria (Reuters)
A camp for earthquake survivors in Jindires, northern Syria (Reuters)

Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke Tuesday with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on the urgent need to facilitate humanitarian access in Syria so the UN and humanitarian actors can deliver life-saving assistance to those affected by the February 6 earthquakes.

Secretary Blinken underscored the need for the Assad regime to meet its commitment to open the Bab Al-Salam and Al-Rai border crossings for humanitarian purposes, including through a Security Council authorization, if necessary, according to US State Department spokesman Ned Price.

The Secretary noted that an expanded resolution would give the UN and humanitarian actors the flexibility they need to more effectively deliver aid to people in need in Syria.

“Important conversation with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on expanding UN access to earthquake victims in Türkiye and Syria. In addition to providing aid through USAID and State PRM, we offer our full support to UN-led efforts to surge humanitarian aid,” Blinken tweeted.

For her part, the US Representative to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield welcomed the UN diplomacy, hinting at the arrangement between the UN and Assad to use the Bab Al-Salam and Al-Rai crossings.

She said the UN welcomes the news that some UN aid moved through the Bab Al-Salam and Al-Rai crossings, and that they look forward to receiving more from the UN about how this arrangement is playing out on the ground.

“We have made that call when it comes to the regime. We have made that call when it comes to opponents of the regime. Everyone should put aside their agendas and affiliations in service of one pursuit and one pursuit only, and that’s addressing the humanitarian emergency, the humanitarian nightmare that’s unfolding in parts of northwest Syria,” Price said.

He noted that the US “responded immediately in the aftermath of these earthquakes.”

“We deployed the Disaster Assistance Response Teams within hours. We announced last week that we’re providing an additional $85 million above and beyond our initial response. We deployed the urban search and rescue teams with nearly 200 members, 12 dogs, 170,000 pounds of specialized equipment.”

“The international community also has a collective moral obligation to do all it can,” he stressed.

Blinken further added that it is possible to use the military bases in Syria for aid.



Israeli Likud Party Ministers Urge Netanyahu to Annex West Bank

Israeli soldiers in Tubas in the north of the occupied West Bank on September 11, 2024. (AFP)
Israeli soldiers in Tubas in the north of the occupied West Bank on September 11, 2024. (AFP)
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Israeli Likud Party Ministers Urge Netanyahu to Annex West Bank

Israeli soldiers in Tubas in the north of the occupied West Bank on September 11, 2024. (AFP)
Israeli soldiers in Tubas in the north of the occupied West Bank on September 11, 2024. (AFP)

Cabinet ministers in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party called on Wednesday for Israel to annex the Israeli-occupied West Bank before the Knesset recesses at the end of the month.

They issued a petition ahead of Netanyahu's meeting next week with US President Donald Trump, where discussions are expected to center on a potential 60-day Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal with Hamas.

The petition was signed by 15 cabinet ministers and Amir Ohana, speaker of the Knesset, Israel's parliament.

There was no immediate response from the prime minister's office. Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, long a confidant of Netanyahu, did not sign the petition. He has been in Washington since Monday for talks on Iran and Gaza.

"We ministers and members of Knesset call for applying Israeli sovereignty and law immediately on Judea and Samaria," they wrote, using the biblical names for the West Bank captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war.

Their petition cited Israel's recent achievements against both Iran and Iran's allies and the opportunity afforded by the strategic partnership with the US and support of Trump.

It said the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Israel demonstrated that the concept of Jewish settlement blocs alongside the establishment of a Palestinian state poses an existential threat to Israel.

"The task must be completed, the existential threat removed from within, and another massacre in the heart of the country must be prevented," the petition stated.

Most countries regard Jewish settlements in the West Bank, many of which cut off Palestinian communities from one another, as a violation of international law.

With each advance of Israeli settlements and roads, the West Bank becomes more fractured, further undermining prospects for a contiguous land on which Palestinians could build a sovereign state long envisaged in Middle East peacemaking.

Israel's pro-settler politicians have been emboldened by the return to the White House of Trump, who has proposed Palestinians leave Gaza, a suggestion widely condemned across the Middle East and beyond.