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Türkiye’s Foreign Minister Meets HTS Leader in Damascus

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan speaks during a joint press conference with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the Ministry headquarters in the Turkish capital Ankara Friday, Dec. 13, 2024. (AP)
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan speaks during a joint press conference with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the Ministry headquarters in the Turkish capital Ankara Friday, Dec. 13, 2024. (AP)
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Türkiye’s Foreign Minister Meets HTS Leader in Damascus

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan speaks during a joint press conference with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the Ministry headquarters in the Turkish capital Ankara Friday, Dec. 13, 2024. (AP)
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan speaks during a joint press conference with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the Ministry headquarters in the Turkish capital Ankara Friday, Dec. 13, 2024. (AP)

Türkiye’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan met with Syria's de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa in Damascus on Sunday, Türkiye’s foreign ministry said, without providing further details.

Photographs and footage shared by the ministry showed Fidan and Sharaa, leader of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group, which led the operation to topple Bashar al-Assad two weeks ago, walking ahead of a crowded delegation before posing for photographs.

The two are also seen shaking hands, hugging, and smiling.

On Friday, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said that Türkiye would help Syria's new administration form a state structure and draft a new constitution, adding Fidan would head to Damascus to discuss this new structure, without providing a date.

Ibrahim Kalin, the head of Türkiye’s MIT intelligence agency, also visited Damascus on Dec. 12, four days after Assad's fall.

Ankara had for years backed opposition fighters looking to oust Assad and welcomed the end of his family's brutal five-decade rule after a 13-year civil war. Türkiye also hosts millions of Syrian migrants it hopes will start returning home after Assad's fall, and has vowed to help rebuild Syria.

Fidan's visit comes amid fighting in northeast Syria between Türkiye-backed Syrian fighters and the Kurdish YPG militia, which spearheads the US-allied Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the northeast and Ankara regards as a terrorist organization.

Earlier, Türkiye’s defense minister said Ankara believed that Syria's new leadership, including the Syrian National Army (SNA) armed group which Ankara backs, will drive YPG fighters from all territory they occupy in the northeast.

Ankara, alongside Syrian allies, has mounted several cross-border offensives against the Kurdish faction in northern Syria and controls swathes of Syrian territory along the border, while repeatedly demanding that its NATO ally Washington halts support for the Kurdish fighters.

The SDF has been on the back foot since Assad's fall, with the threat of advances from Ankara and Türkiye-backed groups as it looks to preserve political gains made in the last 13 years, and with Syria's new rulers being friendly to Ankara.

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Arab World

IOM Warns of 'Alarming' Risk of Long-term Mass Displacement in Lebanon

The rubble of a destroyed building, seen from inside a heavily damaged building, after an Israeli strike, amid escalating hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, as the US-Israeli conflict with Iran continues, in Tyre, Lebanon, April 2, 2026. REUTERS/Yara Nardi
The rubble of a destroyed building, seen from inside a heavily damaged building, after an Israeli strike, amid escalating hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, as the US-Israeli conflict with Iran continues, in Tyre, Lebanon, April 2, 2026. REUTERS/Yara Nardi
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IOM Warns of 'Alarming' Risk of Long-term Mass Displacement in Lebanon

The rubble of a destroyed building, seen from inside a heavily damaged building, after an Israeli strike, amid escalating hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, as the US-Israeli conflict with Iran continues, in Tyre, Lebanon, April 2, 2026. REUTERS/Yara Nardi
The rubble of a destroyed building, seen from inside a heavily damaged building, after an Israeli strike, amid escalating hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, as the US-Israeli conflict with Iran continues, in Tyre, Lebanon, April 2, 2026. REUTERS/Yara Nardi

International Organization for Migration chief Amy Pope told AFP on Thursday in Beirut that the prospects for prolonged mass displacement in Lebanon, where Israel and Hezbollah are at war, were "very alarming".

"I think those prospects are very alarming because you look right now at the level of destruction that's happening and... the further destruction that has been threatened," she said when asked about the possibility of prolonged mass displacement.

"There are parts of the south that are being completely flattened... even if the war ends tomorrow, that destruction remains and there needs to be a rebuilding," she said, noting that reconstruction would require funding, resources and peace.

"Unless we start to see those things come into place, that means that people will be displaced now for who knows how long," she added.

Lebanon says more than one million people have been displaced since the country was drawn into the Middle East war last month when the Tehran-backed Hezbollah launched rockets at Israel to avenge the US-Israeli attack that killed Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei.

Israel has responded with massive strikes across Lebanon and a ground invasion, and has issued sweeping evacuation warnings for swathes of south Lebanon and Beirut's densely populated southern suburbs.

Authorities say more than 136,000 people are staying in collective shelters including schools and stadiums, while some people are sleeping on the streets.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz has said his country's military would occupy a swathe of southern Lebanon even after the war ends, and that the return of hundreds of thousands of displaced Lebanese would be "completely prevented" until northern Israel's security was ensured.

- 'Shocking' -

Pope said the current displacement crisis was "far more severe" than during the previous hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel which a 2024 ceasefire sought to end.

She noted the high number of displaced people, shelters struggling to cope and the fact that some people had been unable to return home after being displaced during the previous round of fighting.

People outside Lebanon "absolutely do not understand the scale" of the displacement crisis, which is "coming at a time where resources for humanitarian response are more limited than ever", she said.

The UN has launched a flash humanitarian appeal for more than $300 million for Lebanon, including an IOM appeal for around $19 million, Pope said, "but very, very little of that has now come in".

"We're seeing some of the most basic life-saving support really be needed," she said, including shelter and blankets.

Pope also said a strike this week on Beirut's Jnah district damaged the IOM premises nearby, shattering windows and rendering the agency's health clinic for migrants "basically unusable".

Authorities said the strike killed seven people, while Israel said it killed a senior Hezbollah commander.

Israel has also carried out several strikes on locations near where displaced people have been sheltering or on hotels or apartments reportedly rented by displaced people.

Pope said such strikes were "shocking".

"If people can't find safety, they move. And if they can't find safety at home, they move across borders," she warned.

Arab World

Arab League Urges Action to Force Israel to Repeal Prisoner Execution Law

Meeting at Palestine’s request, the Arab League Council, at the level of permanent representatives, convened an extraordinary session in Cairo on Thursday. (Arab League)
Meeting at Palestine’s request, the Arab League Council, at the level of permanent representatives, convened an extraordinary session in Cairo on Thursday. (Arab League)
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Arab League Urges Action to Force Israel to Repeal Prisoner Execution Law

Meeting at Palestine’s request, the Arab League Council, at the level of permanent representatives, convened an extraordinary session in Cairo on Thursday. (Arab League)
Meeting at Palestine’s request, the Arab League Council, at the level of permanent representatives, convened an extraordinary session in Cairo on Thursday. (Arab League)

The Arab League strongly condemned on Thursday the Israeli Knesset’s approval of a law allowing the execution of Palestinian prisoners.

It urged the international community, particularly the United Nations Security Council and the United Nations Human Rights Council, to act urgently to compel Israel to repeal it.

Meeting at Palestine’s request, the Arab League Council, at the level of permanent representatives, convened an extraordinary session in Cairo, chaired by Bahrain, to address what it described as a “racist and invalid” law, and to discuss Arab and international steps to confront systematic Israeli violations in Jerusalem.

A 21-point resolution adopted at the meeting said limiting the death penalty to Palestinian prisoners amounted to “entrenching an apartheid system imposed by Israel,” holding “Israel, the illegal occupying power, fully responsible for the legal and humanitarian consequences.”

The Arab League called for listing Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and members of his party, along with Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and their party members, on “international, regional, and national terrorism lists,” and welcomed condemnations of the law by several countries and the European Union.

It urged states party to the Fourth Geneva Convention to annul the law, and called on the International Criminal Court to open an urgent investigation and prosecute Israeli officials responsible for its approval, describing it as a “war crime.”

The Arab League also called for activating a legal monitoring unit to document any implementation of the law for use before international courts, and urged Arab parliamentary bodies to work toward suspending the Knesset’s membership in the Inter-Parliamentary Union.

Foreign ministers from Saudi Arabia, Türkiye, Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, Pakistan, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates also condemned the law, warning it entrenches an apartheid system and promotes rhetoric denying the Palestinian people’s inalienable rights and presence in occupied territory.

Regarding Jerusalem, the Arab League condemned what it described as unprecedented Israeli measures to close Al-Aqsa Mosque, calling it a “flagrant violation of international law” and an unprecedented provocation to Muslims worldwide, as well as an assault on freedom of worship. It also condemned measures targeting the Christian presence in the city.

The Arab League denounced Israeli efforts to dismantle the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East and shut its offices and schools in Jerusalem, calling it an attempt to erase the refugee issue from final status talks.

It called for coordinated Arab, Islamic, and international action, political, diplomatic, economic, and legal, to protect Jerusalem and its holy sites, urging the international community, including the UN Security Council, to take a firm stance obliging Israel to halt its violations.

The Arab League reiterated its rejection of any move to alter Jerusalem’s legal status, including relocating diplomatic missions, and warned Argentina against moving its embassy to the city, saying such a move would damage Arab-Argentine relations.

Arab League Assistant Secretary-General for Palestine Affairs Faed Mustafa told the Cairo meeting that developments in Jerusalem and measures targeting Palestinian prisoners are “two facets of one policy,” urging a shift from condemnation to concrete action and impact.

Former Egyptian assistant foreign minister Mohamed Hegazy told Asharq Al-Awsat the meeting was a necessary step toward unifying the Arab stance and moving beyond political condemnation.

He called for a serious international debate on sanctions against Israel if violations continue.

Arab World

Israel Says Hezbollah Chief to Pay ‘Heavy Price’ for Jewish Holiday Attacks

First responders clear the rubble from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted a building in the southern Lebanese village of Hanouiyeh, east of Tyre, on March 30, 2026. (AFP)
First responders clear the rubble from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted a building in the southern Lebanese village of Hanouiyeh, east of Tyre, on March 30, 2026. (AFP)
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Israel Says Hezbollah Chief to Pay ‘Heavy Price’ for Jewish Holiday Attacks

First responders clear the rubble from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted a building in the southern Lebanese village of Hanouiyeh, east of Tyre, on March 30, 2026. (AFP)
First responders clear the rubble from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted a building in the southern Lebanese village of Hanouiyeh, east of Tyre, on March 30, 2026. (AFP)

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz on Thursday warned that Hezbollah chief Sheikh Naim Qassem would pay an "extraordinarily heavy price" for escalating attacks during the ongoing Jewish holidays.

"I have a clear message for Naim Qassem... you and your associates will pay an extraordinarily heavy price for the intensified rocket fire directed at Israeli citizens as they gathered to celebrate Passover Seder," Katz said in a video statement.

"You will be consigned to the depths of hell alongside Nasrallah, Khamenei, Sinwar and the other fallen figures of the axis of evil," he said, referring to the former leaders of Hezbollah, Iran, and the Palestinian Hamas movement, who have been assassinated by Israel over the past two and half years.

"The Hezbollah terrorist organization you now lead, and its supporters in Lebanon, will bear the full and severe consequences," Katz added.

His warning followed claims by Hezbollah that it had carried out a series of rocket attacks on northern Israel late Wednesday and early Thursday, as Israeli Jews began marking the Passover holidays.

Katz also reiterated that Israeli forces "will clear Hezbollah and its supporters from southern Lebanon, maintain Israeli security control throughout the Litani area, and dismantle Hezbollah's military capabilities across Lebanon."

Lebanon was drawn into the Middle East war in early March when Tehran-backed Hezbollah launched rockets towards Israel to avenge the attack that killed Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei.

Israel has responded with massive strikes across Lebanon and a ground offensive.