Orientul Mijlociu

Qatar wants the Palestinian Authority (PA) government to collect the garbage, rebuild destroyed houses, and pay salaries to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, while Hamas is busy rearming, regrouping and getting ready for the next attack on Israel.

[T]he PA government in Ramallah, the de facto capital of the Palestinians in the West Bank, decided to suspend the broadcasts of the Qatar-owned Al-Jazeera television for supporting and promoting Hamas and other Palestinian terror groups. Israel and some Arab states had also shut down the broadcasts for the same reason.

Assad regime collected intel on SIRAJ journalists after its reporting on Syria’s use of Western-made trucks triggered more sanctions.

Syria’s feared intelligence services launched an investigation into ICIJ’s Syrian media partner, Syrian Investigative Reporting for Accountability Journalism, after it reported on Damascus’ business links with Europe, internal documents reveal.

President Donald Trump’s suggestion that Egypt and Jordan take in Palestinians from the war-ravaged Gaza Strip was met with a hard “no” Sunday from the two U.S. allies along with the Palestinians themselves, who fear Israel would never allow them to return.

Trump floated the idea on Saturday, saying he would urge the leaders of the two Arab countries to take in Gaza’s now largely homeless population, so that “we just clean out that whole thing.” He added that resettling most of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million could be temporary or long term.

Highlights:
Established In: 15 June 2014;

Established By: Unknown;

Also Known As: People’s Mobilization Committee (PMC), Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), PMF;

While Syria celebrates the fall of the Assad regime, the mood in the north of the country is very different: taking advantage of the chaos, Turkey and its proxy, the Syrian National Army, have launched an offensive against the Kurds. In a matter of days, the autonomous region lost two major cities: Til Rifaat and Manbij. For the past decade, the Kurds have effectively existed in Syria as a quasi-independent state. The new Syrian authorities from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham have been actively discussing the need to disarm the Kurdish forces at meetings with Turkish officials. Turkey has long been trying to put an end to the Kurdish separatist movement. The Kurds are being helped by the United States, which needs them as effective allies in the fight against ISIS, but so far it does not seem that the Americans are ready to stand up for the Kurds in the confrontation with Turkey. The Insider correspondent, who lives in Syria, spoke with the Kurds about why they believe that their old enemies have now come to power in the country.

For the first time in 50 years, Syrians celebrated the New Year without the Assads. A month after the overthrow of one of the most authoritarian regimes in the Middle East, the country has largely returned to normal life. Immigrants have already begun to return to Syria, but it is difficult to call the situation calm yet. In the north, pro-Turkish groups are fighting with the Kurds, and the new government from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham continues to fight Assad supporters who have not laid down their arms. Religious and national minorities – Christians, Armenians and Alawites – are feeling anxious, fearing discrimination under the new government. The Insider spoke with residents of Syria about their moods and expectations.

The fall of the Assad regime in Syria presents the international community with a range of complex challenges. First and foremost, there’s a significant risk of an ISIS resurgence. Over the past year, there’s been an uptick of ISIS attacks every single month—not only in Iraq but in Syria as well. While the new ISIS caliph stays silent, learning from his predecessors that speaking publicly is likely to lead to his demise, thousands of ISIS fighters remain in camps and prisons run by Syrian Kurds. Therefore, should internal strife break out between the various anti-Assad forces and continue to spill over into Kurdish-controlled areas, the risks of incidents like the Hasaka prison break in 2022 will rise. Reports of fighting between the Turkish-controlled Syrian National Army (SNA) and Kurdish forces under the umbrella of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in Manbij, as well as between Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) forces and the SDF in Deir al Zour, are therefore highly concerning. Continued clashes between the various groups is all the more likely since a significant part of Syria’s remaining oil and gas resources are located in areas under Kurdish control, something no power broker in Damascus will likely accept.

After Damascus, Beirut now celebrates a new era with the election of a president, a position that Hezbollah had obstructed, leaving the post vacant since October 2022. This new phase in Lebanon concludes 50 years of regional exploitation of this small country, the second-smallest Arab state in terms of area.

The unexpected fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime on December 8 has put Syria in the spotlight once again. Following over a decade of conflict, the killing of hundreds of thousands of Syrians, the displacement of around half of the country’s population internally or externally, there is a new reality in Syria. While the aftermath of Assad’s fall has gone generally better than expected, the transitional period ahead is one that requires an alert and proactive US approach, rather than a disengaged and passive one.