Region

HEZREH — At a rubbish dump in northwest Syria, Mohammed Behlal rummages for plastic to be sold to recyclers and transformed into floor rugs and other items in the impoverished rebel enclave.

In rebel-held Syria, recycling is rarely an environmental impulse but rather a grim lifeline for needy residents looking for work or items they otherwise could not afford.

Braving the stench, insects and risk of disease, 39-year-old Behlal hacks through the rubbish pile with a scythe and his bare hands.

He and two of his six children earn a living sifting through the refuse in Idlib province’s village of Hezreh, earning $7 to $10 a week each.

“It’s tiring... but what can we do, we have to put up with this hard labour,” said Behlal, who was displaced from neighbouring Aleppo province during Syria’s civil war.

“Thank God, at least we have work with the trash,” he added.

Behlal was shot in the leg during fighting and has had trouble finding employment.

Hunched over to collect pieces of plastic or metal, he throws everything into a bag to sell to a nearby scrap facility.

Syria’s conflict has killed more than 500,000 people, and around half of the country’s pre-war population has been forced from their homes since fighting broke out in 2011.

More than four million people, most of them dependent on aid, live in areas controlled by extremists and Turkish-backed groups in Syria’s north and northwest.

In a large scrapyard next to agricultural fields, workers sort plastic junk loosely into piles according to colour.

They then cut it up and crush it into small pieces that are washed and melted into plastic pellets.

Plastic thread 

Farhan Sleiman, 29, is among those who handle the material brought in from the landfill.

“We buy plastic from roaming trash-picker trucks and children,” said Sleiman, originally from Homs province.

He expressed fear of the risk of contracting “cholera or chronic illnesses” from working with the rubbish.

Elsewhere in northern Idlib province, workers at a factory making mats and rugs churn out brightly coloured plastic thread while large weaving machines click and clack.

Factory owner Khaled Rashu, 34, says rug-making is a family tradition.

“We have more than 30 employees” at the factory, he boasted as a significant feat in a region where many are jobless.

Large mats featuring geometric designs, some made with striking red or purple plastic thread, emerge from the weaving machines and are stacked into piles.

Shop owner Mohammed Al Qassem, 30, is among those selling the mats, which he says are a hit in an area where many people are displaced and live in basic tents or makeshift dwellings.

The mats made from recycled plastic cost between $5 and $15, while traditional Persian-style rugs are around $100.

“In summer, demand for plastic mats increases” because they retain less heat, Qassem said from his shop in Maaret Masrin, a town in Idlib province.

But “they can also be used in winter and are less costly”, he added.

KHARTOUM — Khartoum residents reported a welcome lull in fighting in Sudan's capital on Saturday after a 24-hour ceasefire between two warring generals took effect, but few believed it would hold.

"Since the war started, this is the first time hours go by and we don't hear the sound of guns," said Hamed Ibrahim, adding that "today was completely different" in his east Khartoum neighbourhood.

Fighting has raged in the country since mid-April, when army chief Abdel Fattah Al Burhan and his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who commands the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), turned on each other.

Multiple truces have been agreed and broken since the conflict flared, and Washington slapped sanctions on both rival generals after the last attempt collapsed at the end of May.

The air strikes and artillery bombardments that have rocked greater Khartoum almost daily subsided at least temporarily, allowing trapped civilians to venture outdoors to buy desperately needed supplies.

"Today we have witnessed a total calm," said Othman Hamed, a resident of the capital's sister city Omdurman, just across the Nile.

In one Khartoum market, people were seen scrambling to stock up on fruit and other basic goods.

"The truce is a chance for us to get some food supplies after we lived on rationed quantities in recent days," said one of the shoppers, Mohamad Radwan.

Hajar Youssef said she had gone out in search of an open pharmacy to buy insulin for her mother, who has diabetes. "Unfortunately, I did not find one."

Many people expressed disappointment that the promised ceasefire was so limited in scope.

"A one-day truce is much less than we aspire for," said Khartoum North resident Mahmud Bashir. "We look forward to an end to this damned war."

Fleeing Khartoum 

Bus station employee Ali Issa said many people were using the truce to flee the capital for the relative safety of the provinces.

"Today, numbers... have risen significantly, maybe even doubled," he said.

In the conflict’s other main battleground, the western region of Darfur, there was no immediate word on observance of the ceasefire.

Upwards of 1,800 people have been killed in the fighting, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project.

Nearly two million people have been displaced, including 476,000 who have sought refuge in neighbouring countries, the United Nations says.

Announcing the latest truce on Friday, US and Saudi mediators warned the warring parties they would break off their diplomatic efforts unless they honoured their commitments this time.

“Should the parties fail to observe the 24-hour ceasefire, facilitators will be compelled to consider adjourning” talks in the Saudi city of Jeddah which have been suspended since late last month, they said.

Sudan specialist Aly Verjee said he saw little reason why this truce should be any better than its predecessors.

“Unfortunately, the incentives have not changed for either party, so it’s hard to see that a truce with the same underlying assumptions, especially one of such short duration, will see a substantially different result,” said Verjee, a researcher at Sweden’s University of Gothenburg.

‘Confidence building’ 

The Saudi and US mediators said they “share the frustration of the Sudanese people about the uneven implementation of previous ceasefires”.

Both the army and the paramilitary RSF have declared their commitment to the latest truce, which they said could support humanitarian efforts, while cautioning against violations by their opponents.

“If observed, the 24-hour ceasefire will provide an important opportunity... for the parties to undertake confidence-building measures which could permit resumption of the Jeddah talks,” the US-Saudi statement said.

Friday’s ceasefire announcement came a day after Sudanese authorities loyal to Burhan declared UN envoy Volker Perthes “persona non grata”, accusing him of taking sides.

UN chief Antonio Guterres later expressed support for Perthes, who is currently in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa for talks.

Speaking through his spokesman, Guterres said “the doctrine of persona non grata is not applicable to or in respect of United Nations personnel.”

The fighting has sidelined Perthes’s efforts to revive Sudan’s transition to civilian rule, which was derailed by a 2021 coup by the two generals before they fell out.

It has also complicated the coordination of international efforts to deliver emergency relief to the 25 million civilians that the United Nations estimates are in need.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — In the walled Old City of Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem, Nora and Mustafa Sub Laban are counting down the last days before a court decision that has hovered over them since 1978 is carried out.

After decades of legal wrangling, they are set to be evicted from their home in the Muslim Quarter to make way for Jewish settlers.

“These days, I’m like a prisoner waiting to be put to death. I don’t sleep like other people,” Nora Sub Laban told AFP.

The East Jerusalem residents have been embroiled in a 45-year legal battle with authorities and Israeli settlers.

The settlers are part of an organisation called Atara Leyoshna and are represented by Eli Attal, according to both the Sub Laban family and Ir Amim, an anti-settlement watchdog.

Attal declined to comment about the case when approached by AFP.

The Israeli plaintiffs claim that Jews lived in the building before the division of the holy city into Israeli and Jordanian sectors following the proclamation of Israel  in 1948.

They invoke an Israeli law from the 1970s that allows Jews to reclaim property owned by Jews before 1948, even if they are not related.

The Sub Labans say they were designated “protected tenants” by Jordan in the 1950s, before Israel captured East Jerusalem in 1967 and proceeded to annex it in a move regarded as illegal by the United Nations.

The family showed AFP a Jordanian rental contract dating back to 1953, as well as Israeli court rulings recognising their status as “protected tenants”.

Yet, the courts said that the couple do not currently live permanently in the building, so their “protected tenants” status no longer applies and the eviction can go ahead.

Nora said the judgment refers to a period when she was not living in the apartment daily because of a hospitalisation.

“Legally speaking, within the Israeli system, nothing more can be done,” said Rafat Sub Laban, the couple’s son and an employee of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Israeli ‘hegemony’ 

According to Ir Amim, some 150 Palestinian families in Jerusalem’s Old City and nearby neighbourhoods are currently threatened with eviction because of “discriminatory laws and state collusion with settler organisations”.

The group says such evictions are part of “a strategy to cement Israeli hegemony of the Old City basin, the most religiously and politically sensitive part of Jerusalem and a core issue of the conflict”.

Over the years, settlers have opened several yeshivas — Jewish seminaries — on the street where the Sub Laban family lives.

Their nearest Israeli neighbour lives just a few steps from their home — they share a landing.

But it is not a peaceful cohabitation.

“We do not live in freedom and security,” said Nora.

Inside the apartment, photos have been taken down and objects of sentimental value removed. The Sub Labans know that when the police come, they will have only a few moments to clear out their things.

“When unfortunately that happens, we will bring our parents to my sister and me” in another neighbourhood of East Jerusalem, their son Rafat said.

“It’s the only option.”

Messages scribbled on the wall in black marker by their grandchildren are one of the few things left in the almost empty apartment.

“Palestine will be free”, “We will return” and “This is our home”, they read.

“I lived my childhood in this house, I grew up here, I lost my father and my mother here”, said Nora Sub Laban.

“People think that a house is just walls, but it’s also memories, it’s my whole life,” the 68-year-old added.

“But [the settlers] don’t care about that.”

KHARTOUM — Sudanese army soldiers and paramilitaries fought for control of a military facility on Thursday in Khartoum where a fire raged at an oil and gas facility, witnesses said.

The battles came a day after the powerful paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) announced in a statement they had wrestled "full control" of the Yarmouk weapons manufacturing and arms depot complex.

Witnesses speaking to AFP from southern Khartoum said they heard the "sound of gunfire and clashes" around the complex, the most important military industrial facility in the country. 

The RSF claimed that soldiers had fled the site, leaving behind large quantities of military equipment and vehicles. 

The paramilitaries also posted videos online purportedly showing their fighters inside the facility, celebrating. Weapons, including machine guns, and large quantities of ammunition could be seen in the background. 

Sudan has been embroiled in a deadly conflict since mid-April, when fighting erupted between army chief Abdel Fattah Al Burhan against his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo — commonly known as Hemeti — who commands the RSF.

Violence has spread across the country, most notably in the western region of Darfur, which is home to around a quarter of Sudan's population and has never recovered from a devastating two-decade war that left hundreds of thousands dead and more than 2 million displaced.

The fire at the Al Shajara oil and gas facility near Yarmouk broke out overnight Wednesday to Thursday, witnesses said.

It was not immediately clear what started the fire but residents said they heard a loud explosion at the facility, around which fierce fighting has been under way for the past couple of days. 

Plumes of smoke still rose from the site on Thursday morning and could be seen from as far as 10 kilometres away.

Since fighting broke out in Sudan on April 15, more than 1,800 people have been killed, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project.

Nearly two million people have been displaced by the conflict, according to the latest UN figures, including 476,000 who have sought refuge in neighbouring countries. 

Talks mediated by Saudi Arabia and the United States broke down, and multiple ceasefires have failed to take hold.

Last week, Washington slapped sanctions on the warring generals accusing both sides for the “appalling bloodshed” after the latest truce collapsed and the army pulled out of ceasefire talks altogether.

In October 2012, Sudan accused Israel of being behind a blast at the Yarmouk facility, leading to speculation that Iranian weapons were stored or manufactured there.

Israel at that time refused to comment on Sudan’s accusation.

RIYADH — The United States pledged $148 million on Thursday for stabilisation efforts in Iraq and Syria as it joined Saudi Arabia in urging Western states to repatriate foreign Daesh group fighters and their relatives.

The announcement was made at a ministerial meeting of the international coalition against Daesh in Riyadh, which was co-hosted by Saudi Arabia and the United States with the aim of raising $601 million for a stabilisation fund. 

“I’m announcing that the United States is committing $148.7 million to that fund,” said US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who kicked-off a three-day visit to Saudi Arabia on Tuesday. 

“This support will meet critical needs that Syrians and Iraqis themselves have identified.”

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal Bin Farhan said it was “disheartening and absolutely unacceptable” that some wealthy countries had not repatriated citizens who had travelled to Iraq and Syria to join Daesh. 

“To those countries, you must step up, you must take your responsibility,” said the top diplomat who held separate talks with French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna on the sidelines of the coalition meeting.

Colonna is expected in Doha later Thursday for a strategic dialogue session. 

The “caliphate”, which Daesh proclaimed across swathes of Iraq and Syria in 2014, was declared defeated in 2019 following counteroffensives in both Iraq and Syria.

Thousands of terrorists and their family members continue to be held in detention centres and informal camps where US commanders have warned they could fuel a Daesh revival.

‘Take up arms’ 

Despite repeated calls for their repatriation, foreign governments have allowed only a trickle to return home, fearing security threats and domestic political backlash.

Blinken applauded countries that have brought home their nationals from Syria, urging other nations to follow suit. 

“Repatriation is critical” to reduce populations of large informal camps such as Syria’s Al Hol, which houses 10,000 foreigners, including Daesh relatives, he said.

“Failure to repatriate foreign terrorist fighters risks the possibility that they could again take up arms and attempt to restore” the Daesh proto-state, he added. 

The anti-Daesh coalition was formed in 2014 following the extremists’ lightning advance that saw reports of atrocities multiply as they overran non-Muslim as well as Muslim areas.

Despite its territorial defeat, Daesh militants continue to conduct attacks against civilians and security forces in both Iraq and Syria. 

The United Nations estimates that Daesh still has 5,000 to 7,000 loyalists across the two countries, roughly half of whom are fighters.

Fellow coalition member Britain will pledge more than $109 million over the next five years to support stabilisation efforts in Iraq and Kurdish-controlled northeastern Syria, its foreign ministry said.

This comes on top of $19.9 million in aid over the next two years to specifically address acute humanitarian needs in north-eastern Syria, it added. 

US partnership 

Thursday’s coalition meeting came a day after Blinken told diplomats from Gulf Cooperation Council countries that the US remains “deeply invested” in Gulf partnerships.

The US secretary of state flew into Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, kickstarting a visit aimed at boosting ties with its longtime ally, which has begun forging closer relations with Washington’s rivals.

Relations with Riyadh have been strained in recent times, mainly over human rights and oil, after US pleas for help in bringing down skyrocketing prices last year were dismissed.

The three-day visit is Blinken’s first since the kingdom restored diplomatic ties with Iran, which the West considers a pariah over its contested nuclear activities and involvement in regional conflicts.

On Tuesday, the day Blinken arrived, Iran reopened its embassy in Riyadh after a seven-year closure, with Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Alireza Bigdeli hailing a “new era” in ties.

On the same day, the kingdom’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, hosted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, the head of a fellow oil power which has long sparred with Washington.

On Wednesday, a day after meeting Blinken, Prince Mohammed received a phone call from Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“Particular attention was paid to measures aimed at strengthening trade and economic ties,” according to a statement released by Russian state media.

“Preserving the stability of the global energy market was discussed extensively.”

RIYADH — The United States remains committed to its Gulf Arab partners, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Gulf diplomats in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, at a time of rapidly shifting regional alliances.

Blinken spoke during a Gulf Cooperation Council(GCC) ministerial meeting in the capital Riyadh following talks with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal Bin Farhan and the kingdom's de-facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman.

"The United States is in this region to say we remain deeply invested in partnering with all of you," Blinken said at the opening of the US-GCC ministerial meeting on strategic partnership.

"The GCC is the core of our vision for a Middle East that is more stable, more secure, more prosperous," he added.

The meetings came a day after Blinken flew into Jeddah, kickstarting a visit aimed at boosting ties with ally Saudi Arabia, which has begun forging closer relations with Washington's rivals.

Relations between the decades-old allies have been strained in recent times, mainly over human rights and oil, after US pleas for help in bringing down skyrocketing prices last year were dismissed.

The three-day visit is Blinken's first since the kingdom restored diplomatic ties with Iran, which the West considers a pariah over its contested nuclear activities and involvement in regional conflicts.

On Tuesday, the day Blinken arrived, Iran reopened its embassy in Riyadh after a seven-year closure, with Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Alireza Bigdeli hailing a "new era" in ties.

On the same day, Prince Mohammed hosted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, the head of a fellow oil power who has long sparred with Washington.

Last month, in a major shift, Syrian leader Bashar Assad attended an Arab League summit in Jeddah, his first since Syria's membership was suspended at the start of its 12-year civil war. Washington criticised the decision to invite Assad.

Wednesday’s meeting at the GCC headquarters in Riyadh was attended by Qatar’s prime minister among other leading Gulf officials.

On the agenda were key regional issues, including conflicts in Yemen, Sudan, Syria and the Palestinian territories.

“Together, we are working to achieve a... resolution to the conflict in Yemen,” and to “continue to counter Iran’s de-stabilising behaviour”, including recent seizures of tankers in international waters, Blinken told the GCC ministers.

“We are determined to find a political solution in Syria that maintains its unity and sovereignty and meets the aspirations of its people,” he added.

“We are also collaborating with countries in the region to widen and deepen the normalisation of relations with Israel.”

Shortly before the meeting, Blinked held talks with Saudi Arabia’s top diplomat.

The two “resolved to continue to work together to counterterrorism, to support efforts to bring about a lasting peace in Yemen, and to promote stability, security, de-escalation, and integration in the region”, the US State Department said.

“The two sides pledged to continue their strong cooperation to end the fighting in Sudan,” it added in a statement.

Since announcing resumed relations with Iran in March, Saudi Arabia has restored ties with Tehran ally Syria and ramped up a push for peace in Yemen, where it has for years led a military coalition against the Iran-backed Houthi rebels.

Regional heavyweights Saudi Arabia and Iran have been at loggerheads for years, backing opposing sides in a number of conflicts around the volatile region.

On Tuesday, Blinken had “an open, candid discussion” with the 37-year-old Prince Mohammed in Jeddah, a US official said on condition of anonymity.

“The secretary raised human rights both generally and with regards to specific issues,” the official said.

The meeting, which lasted about 100 minutes, touched on topics including Saudi Arabia’s support for US evacuations from Sudan, the need for political dialogue in Yemen and the potential for the normalisation of relations with Israel.

The two men discussed “our shared priorities, including countering terrorism through the D-ISIS Coalition, achieving peace in Yemen, and deepening economic and scientific cooperation”, Blinken said on social media.

BOUZNIKA — Envoys of rival Libyan factions have agreed on the legal steps to hold much delayed presidential and legislative elections in the conflict-scarred nation, both sides said early Wednesday.

Election were due to be held in December 2021 but were never organised as differences persisted on key issues including who should run in the polls.

Libya has been torn by more than a decade of stop-start conflict since a 2011 revolt toppled strongman Muammar Qadhafi, with a myriad of militias forming opposing alliances backed by foreign powers.

The country remains split between a nominally interim government in Tripoli in the west, and another in the east backed by military strongman Khalifa Haftar.

After more than two weeks of talks in Morocco, representatives from both sides struck a deal but stopped short of inking any agreement so far in a sign some differences may still need to be resolved.

No date has yet been named for when the vote may take place.

"The members... have agreed the laws for presidential and legislative elections," Jalal Chouehdi, who represents the east-based parliament, told reporters in the southern Moroccan city of Bouznika.

"All that is left is for parliament to ratify" the texts of the accord, added Omar Boulifa, representative for the High State Council (HSC) aligned with the Tripoli-based administration.

Morocco's Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita said the agreements would be signed "in the coming days" by Aguila Saleh, speaker of Libya's east-based parliament, and Khaled Al Mechri who heads the HSC.

Presidential and legislative elections have been repeatedly delayed over issues including their legal basis and the participation of controversial candidates including Haftar.

The talks in Bouznika, the latest attempt by both sides to reach a deal, had been underway since May 22.

In mid-March, UN envoy Abdoulaye Bathily had called on rival administrations to agree terms for elections "by mid-June".