Region

TRIPOLI — Libya’s parliament has reached consensus on holding early elections, yielding to popular pressure after it had extended its mandate that ended on February 7, deputies said Sunday.

The agreement comes as the North African country on Monday prepares to mark three years since the start of the revolution that overthrew long-time dictator Muammar Qadhafi.

“The political blocs are unanimous on the holding of early elections” for new transitional authorities, MP Abdullah Al Gmati told AFP.

He belongs to a 15-strong bloc of independent lawmakers in the General National Congress (GNC), Libya’s highest political authority.

Discussions are still under way on institutions that might replace the GNC: A new congress, or a parliament and a president.

The second strongest bloc in the GNC, the Party of Justice and Construction (PJC) which is the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in Libya, had on Thursday called for early elections.

The GNC’s 200 members were elected in July 2012 for a term of 18 months and tasked with leading the country’s transition after the 2011 uprising.

But earlier this month, it decided to extend its mandate until December despite opposition from Libyans critical of its inability to halt the country’s slide into chaos.

Thousands of Libyans took to the streets for the second consecutive week on Friday to protest against the decision.

The demonstration came ahead of Monday’s third anniversary of the start of the February 17 Revolution, when angry residents of the eastern city of Benghazi took to the streets to protest against Qadhafi’s four-decade rule.

The GNC last week adopted a new roadmap that would see a general election held by the end of the year if a constitutional body due to be chosen on February 20 adopts a new charter within four months of its election.

The commission would decide on key issues in a new constitution, including the system of government, the status of minorities and the role of Islamic Sharia law.

But if, within 60 days, it decides it cannot complete the job, it would call for immediate presidential and legislative polls for a fresh period of 18 months.

After first accepting this roadmap, the PJC has now called for going “straight to elections”.

Their rivals, the liberal Alliance of National Forces (NFA), opposed extending the GNC mandate from the outset.

MP Suad Soltan of the NFA said on Sunday her bloc has been demanding the assembly’s dissolution for months.

Confirming that agreement in principle had been reached on holding early elections, Soltan said a vote on the move could be held later on Sunday.

GAZA CITY — As hoards of excited fans scramble to reach Arab Idol winner Mohammed Assaf, they are pushed back by a group of tough-looking men in shades — the face of Gaza’s first private security firm.

Guarding the young singer on a rare trip back to his hometown is the very first assignment for “Secure Land”, a newly formed team of bodyguards whose mandate covers everything from minding VIPs, securing hotels and businesses to ensuring the safe delivery of cash in transit.

“This is our first day on the job and we are securing Arab Idol star Mohammed Assaf,” Secure Land’s executive director Bilal Al Arabid told AFP.

“We have a team of 18 people protecting him, not including the drivers. This is our first mission protecting such a personality.”

As Assaf drove up to Palestine University in a UN car, his Secure Land minders followed in their own vehicle, a white-and-red company logo plastered to the door: “Secure Land. We make it happen,” it reads, all in English.

It’s a family business and Arabid’s father, Abdel Kader, serves as its chief executive.

“We thought seriously about this service after we talked to institutions, companies and people, and found they accepted the idea because this sort of service is just not available in Gaza,” the father said.

But getting a permit to operate such a business from the Hamas-run government was not easy — largely because none of the employees belong to any of Gaza’s many armed factions.

“The permits for the business were late coming because of the ‘sensitivity’ of the issue,” he said, explaining it was the first time that Hamas had allowed such a company to operate.

In Gaza, Hamas does not allow private individuals except in special rare cases to carry arms — unless they are a card-carrying member of one of the factions.

By taking over the protection of many civilian institutions, Secure Land can even help to “ease the burden” on the Hamas police and security forces, because such operations “demand a lot of manpower”, Arabid said.

Martial arts

Inside one of Gaza City’s handful of sports centres, dozens of sweaty men — young and not so young — are put through their paces in various martial arts and other exercises to stay in shape for the job.

“I used to serve in the Qatari army and I do Taekwondo so this job is good for me,” said 40-year-old Hassan Al Shourbaji from the northern Gaza town of Jabaliya, who serves as a group leader.

“We have received high-quality training and we are experienced in martial arts, and I also have my personal experience with weapons due to my military training,” he told AFP.

“This is the first company in the Gaza Strip that is not affected by security complications. It’s a private company and has no affiliation to any Palestinian faction,” he said.

So far, the firm has 40 employees who have trained for two months to prepare for the job.

As well as physical training they have also been instructed in the use of light weapons by a specialised trainer at a local shooting range.

Arabid said most of the men are fairly fit from doing sport, but they also receive more fitness and security training from the company.

“We focus on individual capacity and give our utmost attention to fitness, and things like the ability to run, to jump, to evacuate VIPs and secure them,” explained trainer Ahmed Yusef, saying they also instruct the men in decision making.

For some international groups, the appeal of a private firm is that it allows them to side-step the politically tricky need to interact directly with the Hamas administration, which has been boycotted by most Western governments since it forcibly took over the Gaza Strip in summer 2007.

“Some international organisations and private companies in Gaza which have international ties are sensitive and do not like dealing with the Hamas police because of the international boycott,” Yusef explained.

“And some independent international figures prefer bodyguards from a private firm to avoid [political] embarrassment.”

But their role doesn’t clash with that of the Hamas forces, it’s more of a complementary arrangement, he said.

“It’s internationally recognised that governments have to protect public institutions, while private institutions — like banks and tourist facilities and hotels — get private companies.

“We will work together with the government.”

BAALBEK — The Lebanese army intercepted a car packed with explosives near the border with Syria on Sunday, four days after two car bombs were defused elsewhere in the country.

State news agency NNA said the car had entered Lebanon from the embattled Qalamun region across the border and was stopped at an army checkpoint when soldiers became suspicious.

A security source told AFP soldiers opened fire towards the vehicle, prompting the passengers to flee.

The car was rigged with 200 kilogrammes of explosives which were to be triggered by mobile phones, the source said.

“The car came from the Qalamun region and was heading towards Beirut,” the NNA reported.

It identified the vehicle as a four-wheel drive and said it was seized along the Shoaybe-Ham highway in eastern Lebanon.

The army confirmed the reports in a brief statement, and said soldiers had opened fire towards the vehicle. It gave no further details.

On Wednesday, the army said it defused two car bombs, one in Beirut and a second in eastern Lebanon which it said had come from Yabrud, a bastion of Syrian rebels in the Qalamun mountains.

Lebanon has seen a string of deadly attacks, including car bombs, linked to Syria’s war, claimed by Al Qaeda-linked groups.

Although officially neutral in Syria’s conflict, Lebanon is deeply divided over the Sunni-led rebellion against President Bashar Assad, whose troops are backed by fighters from the Shiite movement Hizbollah.

CAIRO — Egypt’s deposed president Mohamed Morsi charged he was being muzzled in a soundproof dock at the start of his trial on espionage charges Sunday, as his defence lawyers staged a protest walkout.

The court adjourned the trial, the third for the Islamist since his July 3 ouster, to February 23 to allow the lawyers’ syndicate to appoint new lawyers.

Morsi, who has shouted that he was Egypt’s legitimate and elected president in hearings of other trials against him, said the court was trying to silence him.

“We are in a farce, all this because you are afraid of me. You are afraid that the president speaks,” Morsi cried out.

“If this farce continues, don’t come to the court,” Morsi told his defence.

Mohamed Selim Al Awa, a member of the defence team, told AFP: “We have withdrawn until the court removes the glass cage, we will not get in the room today.”

The soundproof dock is designed to stop Morsi and the other defendants from interrupting the proceedings with outbursts. On Sunday, 20 defendants were brought to court, including Morsi, who was placed in a separate dock with a former aide, and the Brotherhood’s supreme guide Mohamed Badie and his deputy Khairat Al Shater.

The accused include former presidential aides and renowned political scientist Emad Shahin, who is being tried in absentia.

The latest court case is part of a relentless government crackdown targeting Morsi and his Islamist supporters since he was ousted by the military after a single year in power.

Morsi and 35 others, including leaders of his Muslim Brotherhood, are accused of espionage “for the international organisation of the Muslim Brotherhood, its military wing and [Palestinian] Hamas movement”.

If found guilty, the defendants could face the death penalty.

Morsi, who was Egypt’s first democratically elected and civilian president, is already on trial for alleged involvement in the killing of opposition protesters in December 2012.

Along with 130 others, including dozens of members of Hamas and Lebanon’s Shiite group Hizbollah, he is separately being tried on charges linked to a jailbreak during the 2011 uprising that toppled strongman Hosni Mubarak.

The ousted leader also faces trial for “insulting the judiciary”. A date for that has yet to be set.

In the espionage trial, the prosecution aims to implicate Morsi in a vast conspiracy involving foreign powers, militant groups and Iran to destabilise Egypt.

The defendants are accused of “espionage for foreign organisations abroad to commit terrorist attacks in the country”, a prosecution statement said.

Some defendants, including Essam Haddad, Morsi’s second in command when president, also stand accused of betraying state secrets to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.

During Morsi’s short-lived presidency, ties flourished between Cairo and Hamas, a Palestinian affiliate of the Muslim Brotherhood which rules neighbouring Gaza.

But since July, Egypt’s military-installed government has accused Hamas of backing Morsi and his Brotherhood and carrying out terrorist attacks inside Egypt.

BEIRUT — Lebanon on Saturday announced the formation of a compromise government after a 10-month political vacuum during which the war in neighbouring Syria exacerbated longstanding divisions.

The 24-member government brings together the powerful Shiite movement Hizbollah and its allies with the Sunni-led bloc of former prime minister Saad Hariri for the first time in three years.

“After 10 months of efforts, of patience, a government protecting the national interest is born,” said Tammam Salam, Lebanon’s new prime minister.

“It is a unifying government and the best formula to allow Lebanon to confront challenges,” said Salam, who was tasked with forming the government back in April 2013, after the resignation of his predecessor Najib Miqati.

The announcement ends a political stalemate that left Lebanon without a government even as the conflict next door spilled over, with car and suicide bomb attacks striking Beirut and elsewhere.

Multiple attempts to resolve the government crisis stumbled over disagreements between the Hizbollah and Hariri blocs, which back opposing sides in the Syrian conflict.

Hizbollah is allied with Syria’s President Bashar Assad and has dispatched fighters to bolster his regime in its fight against an uprising.

Hariri is a fierce opponent of the government in Damascus and backs the Sunni-led uprising against Assad.

Compromise agreement

Saturday’s compromise, which has been months in the making, is intended to ensure neither the Hizbollah nor the Hariri bloc has veto power over the other.

It divides the 24 portfolios into three groups, with Hizbollah and Hariri’s blocs each taking eight ministries, and the final eight going to candidates considered to be neutral.

To preserve the delicate balance between the country’s 18 sects, the government is also equally divided between Christian and Muslim representatives.

Hizbollah’s political wing will have two ministries — industry and minister of state for parliamentary affairs — with its allies taking portfolios including the foreign ministry and energy ministry.

A single portfolio was awarded to a woman, with neutral figure Alice Shabtini taking the displaced persons ministry that handles the cases of people displaced during Lebanon’s 1975-1990 civil war.

Hariri paved the way for the breakthrough when he announced in a U-turn last month that he was willing to allow his so-called March 14 bloc to join a government with Hizbollah.

The decision was a bitter pill for the former prime minister, who is fiercely opposed to Hizbollah.

Five Hizbollah members are currently on trial in absentia at a special court in the Hague for their alleged involvement in the 2005 assassination of Hariri’s father and ex-premier Rafiq Hariri.

Hariri’s decision has not been welcomed by all those in his bloc, with the Christian Party Lebanese Forces refusing to join any government that includes Hizbollah.

‘Concessions’

Sources within March 14 said Hariri had made a number of “concessions” to Hizbollah, which won several key portfolios for its Christian ally Michel Aoun.

His son-in-law Gebran Bassil becomes foreign minister, and fellow bloc member Arthur Nazarian will be charged with the powerful energy ministry.

Hariri also reportedly compromised on two initial candidates for interior minister, both of which were rejected by Hizbollah’s bloc, party sources said.

Hariri has said his decision was justified by the country’s desperate need for leadership as it struggles with the spillover from the war in Syria.

Hariri, who is based in Paris, offered Salam his congratulations after the government was announced.

He said he hoped the government would be “able to deal with the constitutional and national challenges, with the responsibility required at this crucial period of the country’s history”.

The new government will have no shortage of challenges ahead of it, first among them likely to be the security situation.

In recent months, a string of bomb attacks have rocked the capital Beirut and other parts of the country, largely targeting Hizbollah strongholds but killing civilians.

Jihadist groups, some linked to those fighting in Syria, have claimed responsibility and said the attacks are a response to Hizbollah’s role in the Syrian conflict.

Lebanon is also struggling under the weight of nearly one million Syrian refugees, who are testing the country’s already-limited resources.

GENEVA — International mediator Lakhdar Brahimi apologised to the Syrian people on Saturday for the lack of progress at peace talks in Geneva after their second round ended with little more than an agreement to meet again.

The Algerian-born diplomat said the agreement to evacuate people from the besieged city of Homs had raised hopes that had not been satisfied at the Geneva talks, involving opposition groups and representatives of President Bashar Assad.

The head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) also stressed how meagre the results had been, saying an evacuation from Homs did not herald any wider improvement in humanitarian access to Syria’s civil war zones, where the United Nations says up to three million people in need are beyond its reach.

“I am very, very sorry and I apologise to the Syrian people that their hopes, which were very, very high here, that something will happen here,” Brahimi told journalists after the talks.

“I think that the little that has been achieved in Homs gave them even more hope that maybe this is the beginning of coming out of this horrible crisis they are in.”

Saturday’s last session of the second round of the talks was “as laborious as all the meetings we have had, but we agreed on an agenda for the next round when it does take place”, Brahimi added.

He said both sides would need to reflect on their responsibilities before round three, and that the government in particular had to accept that the main objective of talks was transition.

Fears of ground assault

The three-year-old Syrian conflict has killed more than 140,000 people — more than 7,000 of them children — according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, and is destabilising the country’s neighbours.

The pro-opposition observatory, a British-based monitoring group, said around 6,000 Syrians have been killed since the latest talks started last month, the fastest death rate recorded since the country slid into conflict in 2011.

The rebels come mainly from Syria’s majority Sunni Muslims and have been joined by radical Sunni groups such as Al Qaeda and other foreign militants.

Shiite Muslim Iran and the powerful Lebanese Shiite movement Hizbollah have thrown their weight behind Assad, who is from Syria’s minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam, and whose family has dominated Syria for 44 years.

Thousands of people fled a rebel-held western Syrian town, Yabrud, on Friday after it was bombed and shelled in an operation that has stirred fears of a major assault by ground troops, the United Nations said.

Al Manar television, run by Lebanon’s Hizbollah, said the Syrian army had advanced in the Yabrud area, seizing control of the town’s main road and a nearby border crossing that it said was used for smuggling

Brahimi said the points to be discussed at the next Geneva round included violence and terrorism, a transitional governing body, national institutions and national reconciliation.

However, he added, the Syrian government first wanted to deal with the issue of combating “terrorism” — the word it uses to describe armed opposition to Assad’s rule — and had refused to deal with any other points until that was resolved.

Obama sees no early solution

Brahimi said he hoped both sides would consider their responsibilities and “the government side in particular [will] reassure us that when they speak of implementing the Geneva Communique they do mean [that] a transitional governing body, exercising full executive power, will be the main objective”.

Opposition National Coalition spokesman Louay Safi said there was “nothing positive” to take from round two, which lasted a week. The final session lasted around half an hour.

Syrian government delegate Bashar Al Jaafari, said the opposition wanted the issue of “terrorism” to stay open-ended. “Whoever refuses to fight terrorism is part of terrorism,” he told reporters after the final session.

ICRC President Peter Maurer said in a statement that the Syrian government and opposition still did not honour basic tenets of international humanitarian law despite the evacuation of besieged Syrians from Homs.

There were many other besieged areas besides Homs, he said, with more than a million people living in very difficult conditions.

“Negotiations with the Syrian authorities and opposition groups have not resulted in meaningful access or a firm commitment to respect the basic principles of international humanitarian law,” he said. “This pattern has again played out in Homs over the last week.”

BAGHDAD — Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki promised training for allied tribal militia and over $83 million in construction funds during a visit Saturday to Ramadi, where militants hold territory seized weeks ago.

The measures are the latest in a bid to placate people in Anbar province, whose capital is Ramadi, and Iraq’s broader Sunni Arab minority, which complains of marginalisation by the government and of being unfairly targeted by heavy-handed security measures.

Maliki’s visit came as militants killed more than two dozen soldiers and police in other parts of the country over two days and held part of the northern town of Sulaiman Bek, another front in the persistent rebellion against his Shiite-led government in Sunni areas.

It was the first time Maliki is known to have travelled to Anbar since jihadists and anti-government tribesmen seized parts of Ramadi and all of nearby Fallujah at the start of the year, in a major setback for his government.

The premier’s spokesman, Ali Mussawi, told AFP he met with provincial officials and leaders of powerful local tribes.

“We came to confirm our support to our people and our tribes in Anbar,” Mussawi quoted Maliki as saying.

He also announced 100 billion dinars (about $83.3 million/60.8 million euros) in construction funds for the province, and that security forces would provide training to pro-government tribesmen, Mussawi said.

But with corruption a major and persistent problem in Iraq, it is unclear how much of the construction money will provide tangible benefits to Anbar residents.

Earlier this week, Maliki said tribesmen who fight on the side of the government would be incorporated into the Anbar police, but it was not immediately clear how the new promise fits into that plan.

The takeovers in Anbar are the first time anti-government forces have exercised such open control in major cities since the bloody insurgency that followed the US-led invasion of 2003.

More than 370,000 people may have been displaced by Anbar violence, according to the UN.

The prospects of a quick resolution to the crisis seem slim, with Deputy Prime Minister Hussein Al Shahristani saying the strategy for retaking Fallujah is to surround it and wait for Sunni Arab gunmen to run short of weapons and equipment.

Part of northern town held

Authorities also face a small-scale version of the Anbar crisis in northern Iraq, where militants took control of part of the town of Sulaiman Bek and nearby areas in Salaheddin province on Thursday.

Local official Talib al-Bayati told AFP security forces had succeeded in retaking militant-held areas on Friday, but then withdrew for unknown reasons.

On Saturday, gunmen were in control of the town’s Al Askari neighbourhood, he said.

Sulaiman Bek has been hit by numerous attacks over the past year, and was briefly seized by militants in late April.

In July, 150 militants struck with mortar rounds, rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons, and executed 14 Shiite truck drivers on a nearby highway.

Meanwhile, 26 soldiers and police have been killed in targeted attacks and clashes over the past two days, mainly in Salaheddin, officials and doctors said.

The often poorly trained and disciplined security forces are the target of near-daily attacks by militants.

Violence in Iraq has reached a level not seen since 2008, when the country was just emerging from a period of brutal sectarian killings.

Foreign leaders have urged the Shiite-led government to do more to reach out to the disaffected Sunni Arab minority to undercut support for militants.

But Maliki has taken a hard line ahead of a general election scheduled for April.

GAZA CITY — Israeli troops fired tear gas and live bullets at Palestinians throwing stones Friday near the border fence in northern Gaza, the army said, with Palestinian medics saying 17 men were wounded.

Clashes are common on Fridays, with regular protests near the border in support of Gaza farmers who say troops uprooted their trees to create a buffer zone.

Emergency services chief Ashraf Al Qudra told AFP 13 protesters were wounded by gunfire and four hit by tear gas.

Earlier he said one of the men shot was in critical condition.

An army spokeswoman confirmed the shooting but did not say if anyone was hurt.

Later the army said that two “projectiles” fired from the Gaza Strip hit an open area in the southern Israel without causing casualties or damage.

It was not immediately clear if they were rockets or mortar rounds.

MANAMA — Tens of thousands of Bahrainis joined a peaceful demonstration on Saturday to mark the third anniversary of an abortive pro-democracy uprising led by majority Shiite Muslims.

The rally organised by the kingdom’s main opposition Al Wefaq movement was one of the biggest staged since 2011.

Vast crowds of men, women and children took to the streets of the small Gulf Arab nation calling for democracy, political reform and the release of political prisoners, witnesses said.

“We will not stop until we achieve our demands,” protesters shouted. “Shiites and Sunnis, we all love this country.”

Police could not be seen at the rally on Budaiya Highway, which links the capital Manama to the northwestern town of Budaiya, witnesses said. No clashes were reported.

The interior ministry said a policeman had died after being wounded by a “terrorist” blast on Friday. Three other policemen were wounded the same day, while 26 people had been arrested.

“Some villages saw rioting, vandalism and the targeting of policemen,” the ministry said, referring to Friday’s unrest.

Bahrain, with Saudi help, crushed the demonstrations that began on February 14, 2011 inspired by Arab uprisings elsewhere, but has yet to resolve the conflict between majority Shiites and the Sunni-led monarchy they accuse of oppressing them.

The ruling family has launched a third round of dialogue with its opponents, but no political agreement is in sight.

The Bahraini authorities, along with their Saudi backers, view Shiite demands for political reform as Iranian-inspired subversion. Their handling of the unrest has embarrassed the United States, which has had to balance its support for an ally that hosts its Fifth Fleet against human rights concerns.

“Three years since the start of the protests, we have seen no peace,” said a 34-year-old clerk in Saar village who gave his name only as Abu Ali. “Every day...youngsters go out and burn tyres on the roads and the police attack them with tear gas.”

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said he was concerned about reports of clashes between demonstrators and security forces on Friday, and urged the authorities to act in strict accordance with their international human rights obligations.

‘Unprovoked attacks’

In response, the interior ministry said the constitution guaranteed the right to peaceful protest and assembly and that numerous peaceful rallies and protests had taken place in the past week without police interference, but added: “Over the past two days there have been a series of unprovoked attacks on police by groups who use urban guerrilla warfare tactics. This includes the use of deadly homemade weapons and the detonation of two bombs... When they use force it is done in a proportionate and necessary manner.”

Crown Prince Sheikh Salman Bin Hamad Al Khalifa, a relative moderate in the Sunni Al Khalifa family that has ruled Bahrain for more than 200 years, stepped in last month to try to revive a dialogue that the opposition had boycotted for four months.

Royal Court Minister Sheikh Khaled Bin Ahmed Al Khalifa has since met opposition leaders and other figures, but formal talks have yet to resume and the two sides still seem far apart.

The opposition had boycotted the talks after the government investigated at least two of its leaders on incitement charges.

Concern is rising that young Shiites will resort more and more to violent militancy if mainstream opposition leaders fail to advance a political settlement that would give Shiites a bigger say in government and improve living conditions.

A tiny Gulf archipelago of 1.7 million people, Bahrain has been in turmoil since the original revolt. The government says it has implemented some reforms recommended by international investigators and that it is willing to discuss further demands.

Shiites want wider-ranging democratisation, entailing Cabinets chosen by an elected parliament rather than appointed exclusively by the king. They also call for an end to alleged discrimination in jobs, housing and other benefits. The government denies any policy of marginalising Shiites.

GENEVA — Red Cross chief Peter Maurer voiced alarm Saturday over the chaos surrounding the evacuation from the besieged Syrian city of Homs, urging the warring sides to respect basic humanitarian law.

“I am concerned about the conditions in which the evacuations took place and about the number of people who remain trapped and unaided between front lines throughout Syria,” Maurer, the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, said in a statement.

“Humanitarians working in Homs over the last week were operating in an extremely challenging security environment,” he said, lamenting that neither side in the conflict had provided “firm commitment to respect the basic principles of international humanitarian law”.

The UN-led humanitarian operation to help thousands trapped in rebel-held areas of Homs besieged by the Syrian government for 600 days has been hailed as a success for getting some aid in and managing to evacuate some 1,400 people.

But the humanitarian exit operation — the result of months of painstaking UN-brokered negotiations — has been marred by the fragile ceasefire underpinning it.

Aid convoys into the areas, where people had been facing daily bombardment and dwindling supplies, came under attack and 14 people were killed by shelling.

Maurer stressed Saturday that aid workers can provide desperately needed assistance only if all parties agree to respect and protect them, “as required by international humanitarian law”.

“The situation in Homs and other besieged areas is highly complex, but the basic tenets of the law are simple,” he said, stressing the responsibility of the parties to provide for the basic needs of civilians under their control or ensure that aid workers can do so.

Pointing out that more than a million people in Syria are living in “extremely difficult conditions”, he said groups like the ICRC and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent must be able to go in and “have direct contact with people affected by the fighting in order to assess their needs”.

More than 136,000 people have been killed in nearly three years of civil war in Syria and millions have been forced to flee their homes.

Maurer said the organisations were ready to participate in further evacuations of Syrian civilians, but only if the warring parties “agree to guarantee safe passage to ICRC and SARC teams at all times”.

The ICRC is the guardian of the Geneva Conventions on warfare, and observers said it had been reluctant to get involved in the Homs evacuation because “it is not by any stretch of the imagination the way this should be done”.

Maurer also referred to the hundreds of male evacuees who were detained in a bid by the regime to weed out “terrorists”.

“Anyone detained after an evacuation must be treated humanely at all times and be allowed to contact their families,” Maurer said, echoing calls from the United Nations.

Respecting humanitarian law is “non-negotiable”, he said, stressing that “Syria is no exception”.