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France Tells Syria Anti-ISIS Fight is Its 'Absolute Priority'

People sit in a truck after being evacuated out of the last territory held by ISIS militants, outside Baghouz, Syria, Monday, March 4, 2019. (AP Photo/Andrea Rosa)
People sit in a truck after being evacuated out of the last territory held by ISIS militants, outside Baghouz, Syria, Monday, March 4, 2019. (AP Photo/Andrea Rosa)
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France Tells Syria Anti-ISIS Fight is Its 'Absolute Priority'

People sit in a truck after being evacuated out of the last territory held by ISIS militants, outside Baghouz, Syria, Monday, March 4, 2019. (AP Photo/Andrea Rosa)
People sit in a truck after being evacuated out of the last territory held by ISIS militants, outside Baghouz, Syria, Monday, March 4, 2019. (AP Photo/Andrea Rosa)

France's foreign minister said Thursday that sustaining the fight against the ISIS group is an "absolute priority" for Paris, after meeting his Syrian counterpart in Damascus.

Jean-Noel Barrot is on the first stop of a regional tour as France reassesses how to tackle militants after Kurdish allies in Syria, who were guarding detained ISIS militants, were forced to disband under pressure from Damascus, AFP reported.

Barrot will move on to Iraq on Thursday afternoon before heading to Lebanon on Friday, according to the French foreign ministry.

In the Syrian capital, he met his counterpart Asaad al-Shaibani, with the pair discussing how to prevent a resurgence of ISIS militants after the Kurdish forces' withdrawal from swathes of northern Syria.

"For 10 years, France has fought relentlessly and mercilessly against the terrorists of ISIS in Iraq as well as in Syria," said Barrot.

"I have come to reaffirm this absolute priority of France here in Syria."

Until now, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces had been the main partner on the ground of a western anti-militant coalition, but under military pressure from Damascus they are to integrate into the Syrian army.

"This tour stems from the convergence of two crises," a French diplomatic source told AFP, referring to Barrot's trip.

"One that erupted very recently in northeastern Syria, with clashes between the Syrian authorities in Damascus and the Kurdish-dominated SDF, and the ever-present threat of a military escalation between the United States and Iran."

Other issues on Barrot's agenda will be the question of integrating Syria's myriad minorities into its new political landscape.

France has positioned itself as an advocate of Kurdish rights and will be pushing Damascus to comply with an agreement announced last week aimed at integrating Kurdish institutions and forces into the Syrian state.

The agreement dashed the Kurds' hopes of retaining an autonomous zone they had established in northern and northeastern Syria during a civil war that ravaged Syria between 2011 and 2024.

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Arab World

UK Sanctions Sudanese Army and RSF Leaders

Sacks of crops are stacked at the El Obeid crops market, in El Obeid, North Kordofan State, Sudan, January 14, 2026. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig
Sacks of crops are stacked at the El Obeid crops market, in El Obeid, North Kordofan State, Sudan, January 14, 2026. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig
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UK Sanctions Sudanese Army and RSF Leaders

Sacks of crops are stacked at the El Obeid crops market, in El Obeid, North Kordofan State, Sudan, January 14, 2026. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig
Sacks of crops are stacked at the El Obeid crops market, in El Obeid, North Kordofan State, Sudan, January 14, 2026. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig

Britain sanctioned six individuals suspected of committing atrocities in Sudan's war or of fueling the conflict through the supply of mercenaries and military equipment, the government said on Thursday.

The measures targeted senior commanders in both the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese Armed Forces, the government said.

The conflict between ⁠the two forces has displaced millions, drawn in regional powers and caused a vast humanitarian crisis since it broke out in April 2023.

"We urgently need a ceasefire, and safe access for humanitarian relief agencies ⁠to reach all those in need," British foreign minister Yvette Cooper, who visited the Sudan-Chad border this week, said in the statement.

"Through these sanctions, we will seek to dismantle the war machine of those who perpetrate or profit from the brutal violence in Sudan," Cooper added.

The British government also sanctioned three individuals - Alvaro ⁠Andres Quijano, Mateo Andres Duque Botero, and Claudia Viviana Oliveros Forero - suspected of recruiting foreign fighters for the conflict or facilitating the purchase of military equipment.

Others sanctioned include Abu Aqla Mohamed Kaikal, a former RSF Commander and current head of the Sudan Shied Forces, RSF Field Commander Hussein Barsham, and RSF Financial Advisor Mustafa Ibrahim Abdel Nabi Mohamed.

Arab World

Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor: Israel’s Chemical Spraying of Farmland in Lebanon, Syria Amounts to War Crime

Fire and smoke rises after Israeli airstrikes on Kfar Hatta in southern Lebanon, Lebanon, January 11, 2026. REUTERS/Ali Hankir
Fire and smoke rises after Israeli airstrikes on Kfar Hatta in southern Lebanon, Lebanon, January 11, 2026. REUTERS/Ali Hankir
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Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor: Israel’s Chemical Spraying of Farmland in Lebanon, Syria Amounts to War Crime

Fire and smoke rises after Israeli airstrikes on Kfar Hatta in southern Lebanon, Lebanon, January 11, 2026. REUTERS/Ali Hankir
Fire and smoke rises after Israeli airstrikes on Kfar Hatta in southern Lebanon, Lebanon, January 11, 2026. REUTERS/Ali Hankir

The Israeli army’s spraying of chemical substances over vast agricultural areas in southern Lebanon and Syria amounts to a “war crime,” the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor said Thursday.

Beirut accused Israel on Wednesday of spraying the herbicide glyphosate on the Lebanese side of their shared border, with President Joseph Aoun decrying a "crime against the environment.”

More than a year after a ceasefire was struck to end a war between Israel and Hezbollah, border areas in Lebanon remain largely deserted and Israel continues to carry out regular airstrikes in the south.

After collecting samples following the recent spraying, the Lebanese agriculture and environment ministries said some of them showed concentrations of glyphosate "20 to 30 times higher than the average" in the area.

In a joint statement, they expressed worries about "damage to agricultural production" and soil fertility.

Aoun denounced the spraying as a "flagrant violation of Lebanese sovereignty and a crime against the environment and health.”

The UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, UNIFIL, said Monday that it had been notified by Israel of its plans to spray a "non-toxic chemical substance" near the border and warned to take shelter.

“The deliberate targeting of civilian farmland violates international humanitarian law, particularly the prohibition on attacking or destroying objects indispensable to civilian survival,” said the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor Thursday.

“Large-scale destruction of private property without specific military necessity amounts to a war crime and undermines food security and basic livelihoods in the affected areas,” it added.

Euro-Med Monitor also said that it documented Israeli aircraft spraying pesticides of unknown composition over farmland in the countryside of Quneitra in southern Syria last month.

“The direct targeting of civilian objects caused widespread crop destruction, posing a serious threat to economic and food security and violating farmers’ rights to work and to an adequate standard of living by destroying their primary sources of income without military justification,” it added.

The Monitor called on the international community “to act immediately by establishing an independent fact-finding mission to collect samples from affected soil and crops in southern Lebanon and the countryside of Quneitra, subject them to thorough laboratory analysis, determine the chemical composition of the substances used, assess their toxicity, and evaluate any potential violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention or relevant international environmental protocols.”

Arab World

Organizers Say New Civilian-led Aid Flotilla with over 100 Boats will Sail to Gaza in March

South African member of parliament and Nelson Mandela's grandson Mandla Mandela joins a press conference held by the Global Sumud Flotilla about its upcoming Spring 2026 mission Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026, at the Nelson Mandela Foundation in Johannesburg, South Africa. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
South African member of parliament and Nelson Mandela's grandson Mandla Mandela joins a press conference held by the Global Sumud Flotilla about its upcoming Spring 2026 mission Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026, at the Nelson Mandela Foundation in Johannesburg, South Africa. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
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Organizers Say New Civilian-led Aid Flotilla with over 100 Boats will Sail to Gaza in March

South African member of parliament and Nelson Mandela's grandson Mandla Mandela joins a press conference held by the Global Sumud Flotilla about its upcoming Spring 2026 mission Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026, at the Nelson Mandela Foundation in Johannesburg, South Africa. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
South African member of parliament and Nelson Mandela's grandson Mandla Mandela joins a press conference held by the Global Sumud Flotilla about its upcoming Spring 2026 mission Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026, at the Nelson Mandela Foundation in Johannesburg, South Africa. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)

Organizers of an international flotilla of boats carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza on Thursday announced plans for another mission with more than 100 boats in March.

Campaigners, who organized a similar aid flotilla last year, described the upcoming mission as the biggest civilian-led mobilization against Israel's actions in Gaza. They called on the international community to prevent Israeli forces from intercepting the operation.

The announcement was made at the Nelson Mandela Foundation in South Africa and speakers included Mandla Mandela, grandson of the late former South African president, The AP news reported.

The United Nations said that hundreds of thousands of pallets of humanitarian supplies have been offloaded and collected at various crossings into Gaza since a fragile ceasefire was announced in October.

But Israel has suspended more than two dozen humanitarian organizations from operating in the Gaza Strip for failing to comply with new registration rules, and the territory's population of over 2 million Palestinians still face a humanitarian crisis.

Mandela was part of the flotilla that embarked on a mission to Gaza last year and was detained along with other activists when their boat was intercepted by Israeli forces before they could reach Gaza shores.

According to organizers, more than 1,000 activists including medical doctors, war crimes investigators and engineers will form part of the new flotilla. It will be supported by a land convoy that is expected to attract thousands more activists across countries including Tunisia and Egypt.

The boats are expected to sail from Spain, Tunisia and Italy toward Gaza.

“This time around we expect hundreds and thousands to sign up and to mobilize entry through Egypt, through Lebanon, through Jordan and every other border that is feasible for us to get into occupied Palestine and to Gaza," Mandela said. “We want to mobilize the entire global community to join forces with us."

Activists said they were aware that they might be confronted by Israeli forces but that they were protected by international law.

“The International Court of Justice in the provisional ruling in the case opened by South Africa against the genocide state of Israel, states very clearly that Israel or any other nation are prohibited to hinder any type of humanitarian mission on the way to Gaza," said Thiago Avila, a Brazilian activist who is part of the steering committee.

Mandela said they had chosen to host the briefing at the Nelson Mandela Foundation to highlight Nelson Mandela's support for the Palestinian cause. They also welcomed the country's decision to expel Israel's deputy ambassador to South Africa.

Last year's mission mobilized about 50 vessels and 500 activists. Organizers said Israeli vessels approached the boats while they sailed in international waters, spraying some with water canons.

An estimated 443 participants were detained, including Mandela, activist Greta Thunberg and European Parliament member Rima Hassan.