Palestinian-US Officials Discuss Tensions with Israel

Israeli soldiers combing the vicinity of the Elon Moreh settlement near Nablus (AFP)
Israeli soldiers combing the vicinity of the Elon Moreh settlement near Nablus (AFP)
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Palestinian-US Officials Discuss Tensions with Israel

Israeli soldiers combing the vicinity of the Elon Moreh settlement near Nablus (AFP)
Israeli soldiers combing the vicinity of the Elon Moreh settlement near Nablus (AFP)

The Secretary-General of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Hussein al-Sheikh, met in Ramallah with the US Special Representative for Palestinian Affairs, Hady Amr, to discuss the recent field tensions with Israel.

In a statement by the German News Agency, Sheikh said that he briefed Amr on the latest political and field developments and the Israeli escalatory measures against the Palestinian people.

Sheikh stressed the need for an effective and influential American intervention in placing pressure on Israel and forcing it to stop its escalatory measures against the Palestinian people.

The Palestinian territories witnessed a decrease in tension during the past two days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu banned Israelis from entering al-Aqsa Mosque for the last ten days of Ramadan Month.

The Islamic Endowments Department in Jerusalem said the Israeli authorities had tightened entry restrictions for Palestinians at al-Aqsa Mosque and its gates.

Tensions grew after the Israeli police stormed al-Aqsa Mosque, followed by the launch of rockets on Israeli targets from the Gaza Strip, Lebanon, and Syria. Israel responded with several strikes.

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry also condemned the Israeli “oppressive and racist” tight restrictions imposed against Palestinian Christians, which aim to limit the number of Christians’ access to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem’s Old City during the Holy Light ceremony on Saturday.

The Palestinian ministry in a statement slammed the Israeli measures as a collective punishment that targets the Palestinian presence in Jerusalem and its holy sites, denouncing them as a gross encroachment on the city's legal and historical status quo.

On Wednesday, the churches of Jerusalem complained of Israeli restrictions on those celebrating the Holy Saturday, which has been taking place in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher for nearly 2,000 years in the Holy City.

Meanwhile, Palestinian sources reported 17 Palestinian operations during the past 24 hours against Israeli targets in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, including three shootings, the throwing of Molotov cocktails, and several clashes that broke out between Palestinian shooters and the Israeli army in Tubas in the West Bank, without causing any casualties.

The Palestinian Prisoners Club said that the Israeli army arrested 12 Palestinians following raids in separate areas of the West Bank governorates.



US Drops $10 Million Reward for Syria’s al-Sharaa

US Drops $10 Million Reward for Syria’s al-Sharaa
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US Drops $10 Million Reward for Syria’s al-Sharaa

US Drops $10 Million Reward for Syria’s al-Sharaa

The Biden administration said Friday it has decided not to pursue a $10 million reward it had offered for the capture of Ahmad al-Sharaa, whose group led fighters that ousted Syrian President Bashar Assad earlier this month.

The announcement followed a meeting in Damascus between al-Sharaa and the top US diplomat for the Middle East, Barbara Leaf, who led the first US diplomatic delegation into Syria since Assad’s ouster.

Al-Sharaa's Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, remains designated a foreign terrorist organization, and Leaf would not say if sanctions stemming from that designation would be eased.

However, she told reporters that Sharaa had committed to renouncing terrorism and as a result the US would no longer offer the reward.
Leaf said the US would make policy decisions based on actions and not words.

"It was a good first meeting. We will judge by the deeds, not just by words," Leaf said in a briefing and added that the US officials reiterated that Syria's new government should be inclusive. It should also ensure that terrorist groups cannot pose a threat, she said.
"Ahmed al-Sharaa committed to this," Leaf said. "So, based on our discussion, I told him we would not be pursuing rewards for justice," she said, referring to a $10 million bounty that US had put on the HTS leader's head.

The US delegation also worked to uncover new information about US journalist Austin Tice, who was taken captive during a reporting trip to Syria in 2012, and other American citizens who went missing under Assad.

US Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs Roger Carstens, who was part of the delegation, said Washington would work with Syria's interim authorities to find Tice.

Carstens, who has been in the region since Assad's fall, said he has received a lot of information about Tice, but none of it had so far confirmed his fate one way or another.