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Barzani Underlines Importance of Holding Elections in Kurdistan

President of the Kurdistan Region in Iraq, Nechirvan Barzani pays his respects to Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, following her death, during her lying in state at Westminster Hall, in Westminster Palace, in London, Sunday, Sept. 18, 2022. (AP)
President of the Kurdistan Region in Iraq, Nechirvan Barzani pays his respects to Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, following her death, during her lying in state at Westminster Hall, in Westminster Palace, in London, Sunday, Sept. 18, 2022. (AP)
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Barzani Underlines Importance of Holding Elections in Kurdistan

President of the Kurdistan Region in Iraq, Nechirvan Barzani pays his respects to Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, following her death, during her lying in state at Westminster Hall, in Westminster Palace, in London, Sunday, Sept. 18, 2022. (AP)
President of the Kurdistan Region in Iraq, Nechirvan Barzani pays his respects to Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, following her death, during her lying in state at Westminster Hall, in Westminster Palace, in London, Sunday, Sept. 18, 2022. (AP)

President of the Kurdistan Region Nechirvan Barzani underscored the need to hold parliamentary elections later this year.

Taking part in the Munich Security Conference, he said that when he returns home, he will kick off a series of meetings with political parties in the buildup to the polls.

He stressed his commitment to holding the elections, adding that it was his responsibility as president to set a date for them.

Failure to hold them puts the entire political process and legitimacy of the Kurdistan Region under scrutiny, he remarked.

All political parties are expected to take this issue seriously, he urged.

Meanwhile, Iraq’s al-Sabah newspaper dropped a bombshell on Saturday after releasing the results of a survey that showed that the majority of residents of Kurdistan supported the dissolution of the constitutional framework of the Region and returning to the fold of the Baghdad-based federal government.

The poll, titled “Will the Kurdistan Region Be Dissolved,” was held by an Erbil-based company.

The respondents also expressed their “disappointment from the Kurdish political authority and willingness to return to Baghdad.”

The survey sparked outrage among political and government circles, even the opposition, while the people appeared indifferent to it, revealed journalistic information received by Asharq Al-Awsat.

The Kurdish government dismissed the survey, saying it was not based on scientific grounds.

In a statement, it stressed that the survey results were “far removed from the truth.”

It cited a July 2017 referendum in which the majority of the people voted in favor of Kurdistan’s independence.

At the time, the Baghdad government responded to the results with a military offensive and siege against Kurdistan, noted the statement.

Moreover, it added that the people of Iraq attest to the development of Kurdistan over the years, so how can the residents of the Region want to go back to a place [Baghdad] where their prospects will be destroyed?

The Kurdistan Region was formed by the blood of thousands of martyrs and the resistance and courage of the Peshmerga. No newspaper article can dissolve the Region, emphasized the statement.

A Baghdad government spokesman denied that the survey reflected the position of the cabinet or any official party.

An investigation has since been ordered into the survey.

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Arab World

Three Dead After Flooding Hits Northwest Syria

A child watches as civil defense teams open flooded roads in Idlib. (SANA)
A child watches as civil defense teams open flooded roads in Idlib. (SANA)
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Three Dead After Flooding Hits Northwest Syria

A child watches as civil defense teams open flooded roads in Idlib. (SANA)
A child watches as civil defense teams open flooded roads in Idlib. (SANA)

Two children and a Syrian Red Crescent volunteer have died as a result of flooding in the country's northwest, state media said on Sunday.

The heavy rains in Syria's Idlib region and the coastal province of Latakia have also wreaked havoc in displacement camps, according to authorities, who have launched rescue operations and set up shelters in the areas.

State news agency SANA reported "the death of a Syrian Arab Red Crescent volunteer and the injury of four others as they carried out their humanitarian duties" in Latakia province.

The Syrian Red Crescent said in a statement that the "a mission vehicle veered into a valley", killing a female volunteer and injuring four others, as they went to rescue people stranded by flash floods.

"A fifth volunteer was injured while attempting to rescue a child trapped by the floodwaters," it added.

SANA said two children died on Saturday "due to heavy flooding that swept through the Ain Issa area" in the north of Latakia province.

Authorities said Sunday they were working to clear roads in displacement camps in flooded parts of Idlib province.

The emergencies and disaster management ministry said 14 displacement camps in part of Idlib province were affected, with tents swamped, belongings swept away and around 300 families directly impacted.

Around seven million people remain internally displaced in Syria, according to the United Nations refugee agency, some 1.4 million of them living in camps and sites in the country's northwest and northeast.

The December 2024 ouster of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad after more than 13 years of civil war revived hopes for many to return home, but the destruction of housing and a lack of basic infrastructure in heavily damaged areas has been a major barrier.

Arab World

Hamas’s Meshal Rejects Disarmament or 'Foreign Rule'

Boys walk past the rubble of destroyed buildings in the Jabalia camp for Palestinian refugees in the northern Gaza Strip on February 8, 2026. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
Boys walk past the rubble of destroyed buildings in the Jabalia camp for Palestinian refugees in the northern Gaza Strip on February 8, 2026. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
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Hamas’s Meshal Rejects Disarmament or 'Foreign Rule'

Boys walk past the rubble of destroyed buildings in the Jabalia camp for Palestinian refugees in the northern Gaza Strip on February 8, 2026. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
Boys walk past the rubble of destroyed buildings in the Jabalia camp for Palestinian refugees in the northern Gaza Strip on February 8, 2026. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)

A senior Hamas leader said Sunday that the Palestinian movement would not surrender its weapons nor accept foreign intervention in Gaza, pushing back against US and Israeli demands.

"Criminalizing the resistance, its weapons, and those who carried it out is something we should not accept," Khaled Meshal said at a conference in Doha.

"As long as there is occupation, there is resistance. Resistance is a right of peoples under occupation ... something nations take pride in," said Meshal, who previously headed the group.

A US-brokered ceasefire in Gaza is in its second phase, which foresees that demilitarization of the territory -- including the disarmament of Hamas -- along with a gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces.

Hamas has repeatedly said that disarmament is a red line, although it has indicated it could consider handing over its weapons to a future Palestinian governing authority.

Israeli officials say that Hamas still has around 20,000 fighters and about 60,000 Kalashnikovs in Gaza.

A Palestinian technocratic committee has been set up with a goal of taking over the day-to-day governance in the battered Gaza Strip, but it remains unclear whether, or how, it will address the issue of demilitarization.

The committee operates under the so-called "Board of Peace," an initiative launched by US President Donald Trump.

Originally conceived to oversee the Gaza truce and post-war reconstruction, the board's mandate has since expanded, prompting concerns among critics that it could evolve into a rival to the United Nations.

Trump unveiled the board at the World Economic Forum in the Swiss ski resort of Davos last month, where leaders and officials from nearly two dozen countries joined him in signing its founding charter.

Alongside the Board of Peace, Trump also created a Gaza Executive Board - an advisory panel to the Palestinian technocratic committee - comprising international figures including US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, as well as former British prime minister Tony Blair.

On Sunday, Meshal urged the Board of Peace to adopt what he called a "balanced approach" that would allow for Gaza's reconstruction and the flow of aid to its roughly 2.2 million residents, while warning that Hamas would "not accept foreign rule" over Palestinian territory.

"We adhere to our national principles and reject the logic of guardianship, external intervention, or the return of a mandate in any form," Meshal said.
"Palestinians are to govern Palestinians. Gaza belongs to the people of Gaza and to Palestine. We will not accept foreign rule," he added.

Arab World

Rescue Teams Search for Survivors in Building Collapse that Killed at Least 2 in Northern Lebanon

A Lebanese flag is pictured, in the aftermath of a massive explosion, in Beirut's damaged port area, Lebanon August 17, 2020. REUTERS/Hannah McKay
A Lebanese flag is pictured, in the aftermath of a massive explosion, in Beirut's damaged port area, Lebanon August 17, 2020. REUTERS/Hannah McKay
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Rescue Teams Search for Survivors in Building Collapse that Killed at Least 2 in Northern Lebanon

A Lebanese flag is pictured, in the aftermath of a massive explosion, in Beirut's damaged port area, Lebanon August 17, 2020. REUTERS/Hannah McKay
A Lebanese flag is pictured, in the aftermath of a massive explosion, in Beirut's damaged port area, Lebanon August 17, 2020. REUTERS/Hannah McKay

At least two people were killed and four rescued from the rubble of a multistory apartment building that collapsed Sunday in the city of Tripoli in northern Lebanon, state media reported.

Rescue teams were continuing to dig through the rubble. It was not immediately clear how many people were in the building when it fell.

The bodies pulled out were of a child and a woman, the state-run National News Agency reported.

Dozens of people crowded around the site of the crater left by the collapsed building, with some shooting in the air.

The building was in the neighborhood of Bab Tabbaneh, one of the poorest areas in Lebanon’s second largest city, where residents have long complained of government neglect and shoddy infrastructure. Building collapses are not uncommon in Tripoli due to poor building standards, according to The AP news.

Lebanon’s Health Ministry announced that those injured in the collapse would receive treatment at the state’s expense.

The national syndicate for property owners in a statement called the collapse the result of “blatant negligence and shortcomings of the Lebanese state toward the safety of citizens and their housing security,” and said it is “not an isolated incident.”

The syndicate called for the government to launch a comprehensive national survey of buildings at risk of collapse.