Region

WASHINGTON — US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday proposed international security forces and temporary UN leadership to stabilize post-war Gaza but said Israel in turn must agree on a pathway to a Palestinian state.

With talks in Qatar nearing a ceasefire in the devastating 15-month war, Blinken laid out his long-awaited roadmap for post-war Gaza after a defeat of Hamas -- with days left before he leaves office.

Key mediator Qatar said negotiations for a Gaza truce and hostage release deal were in their "final stages" on Tuesday, adding that it was hopeful an agreement could be reached "very soon".

Qatar, Egypt and the United States have stepped up efforts to broker a ceasefire to enable the release of hostages held in Gaza since Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.

On Monday, US President Joe Biden said a deal was "on the brink" of being finalised, just days before the inauguration of his successor, Donald Trump.

On Tuesday, Qatar foreign ministry spokesman Majed Al Ansari said negotiations were in their "final stages".

"We do believe that we are at the final stages... certainly we are hopeful that this would lead very soon to an agreement," Ansari said, adding "until there is an announcement... we shouldn't be over-excited about what's happening right now".

"We have reached a point where the major issues that were preventing a deal from happening were addressed," he told a news conference.

Blinken acknowledged the misgivings of Israel -- where prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu leads a far-right government and expects even stronger US support under President-elect Donald Trump -- but pleaded for a new approach.

"We've long made the point to the Israeli government that Hamas cannot be defeated by a military campaign alone," Blinken said at the Atlantic Council think tank in Washington.

"Without a clear alternative, a post-conflict plan and a credible political horizon for the Palestinians, Hamas -- or something just as abhorrent and dangerous -- will grow back," he said.

In line with his calls since the start of the war, Blinken said that Gaza should be under the control of the Palestinian Authority -- which now holds shaky, partial control of the West Bank and has been repeatedly undermined by Israel.

Acknowledging the limitations of the Palestinian Authority, Blinken said an unstated number of countries have offered to send troops and police to post-war Gaza.

He said that the "interim security mission" would include both foreign forces and "vetted Palestinian personnel."

"We believe that the Palestinian Authority should invite international partners to help establish and run an interim administration with responsibility for key civil sectors in Gaza, like banking, water, energy, health," Blinken said.

A source briefed on the Doha negotiations said earlier the heads of Israel's intelligence agencies, the Middle East envoys for the incoming and outgoing US administrations and Qatar's prime minister had been due at the talks.

"Mediators will hold separate talks with Hamas," the source said.

Qatar said later the talks were being held at the "highest level".

Sources close to the talks and Israeli media said the first phase of a deal would see 33 Israeli hostages released, while two Palestinian sources close to Hamas told AFP that Israel would release about 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange.

An Israeli government official said that "several hundred terrorists will be released" as part of the first phase of the deal.

Israeli media also reported on Tuesday that under the proposed deal, Israel would be allowed to maintain a buffer zone inside Gaza during the implementation of the first phase.

Successive rounds of negotiations had failed to end the deadliest war in Gaza's history.

The Palestinian Authority would coordinate with Israel and the rest of the international community, which would be asked to provide funding.

A senior UN official would oversee the effort, which would be enshrined by a UN Security Council resolution, Blinken said.

"The interim administration would include Palestinians from Gaza and representatives from the PA selected following meaningful consultation with communities in Gaza," Blinken said.

The interim authority "would hand over a complete responsibility to a fully reformed PA administration as soon as it's feasible," he said.

Longer-term 

The post-war deal would take shape in negotiations after an initial ceasefire, which both Blinken and President Joe Biden said was on the "brink" of acceptance.

Trump has backed efforts to end the war but is also expected to ally himself firmly with Israel, to which Biden authorized billions in weapons but occasionally criticized over civilian deaths.

Netanyahu has long fought the idea of a Palestinian state, and his allies have described the renewed push for statehood as a reward for the October 7, 2023 attack, the deadliest in Israel's history.

Blinken rejected the argument, saying: "Far from rewarding Hamas, accepting a political horizon would be the ultimate rebuke to its nihilistic agenda of death and destruction."

Blinken, who was repeatedly interrupted by pro-Palestinian protesters, also criticized Israel over actions during the conflict.

"Israel's government has systematically undermined the capacity and legitimacy of the only viable alternative to Hamas, the Palestinian Authority."

Israel's campaign in Gaza has killed 46,645 people, a majority of them civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, figures that the UN considers reliable.

PORT SUDAN, Sudan — Sudanese volunteer rescuers said shelling in the greater Khartoum area has killed at least 120 people, as fighting between the army and paramilitaries has escalated nationwide.

The "random shelling" on Monday in western Omdurman, the capital's twin city just across the Nile River, resulted in the deaths of 120 civilians, said the Ombada Emergency Response Room, part of a network of volunteer rescuers across the war-torn country.

It said the figure was an "initial toll", and did not specify who was behind the attack.

The rescuers said medical supplies were in critically short supply as health workers struggled to treat "a large number of wounded people suffering from varying degrees of injuries" as a result of the shelling.

Since April 2023, Sudan has been at war between the forces of rival generals vying for control.

Most of Omdurman is under army control, while the rival paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) hold Khartoum North and some other areas of the capital.

Greater Khartoum residents on both sides of the Nile regularly report shelling across the river, with bombs and shrapnel often hitting homes and civilians.

Both the army and the RSF have been accused of targeting civilians, including health workers, and indiscriminately shelling residential areas.

On Sunday, rescuers in Omdurman's Ombada locality reported a dire healthcare crisis, with over 70 deaths between August and December attributed to severe malnutrition, malaria and diarrhoea.

 Humanitarian crisis 

The shelling on Monday came as fighting between the army and the RSF has intensified in recent weeks, more than 20 months into their war.

Port Sudan, the seat of Sudan's army-aligned government was without power on Monday after a drone attack blamed on paramilitaries hit a major hydroelectric dam in the country's north.

The drone attack followed the army's capture of Wad Madani, the capital of the central state of Al Jazira, after more than a year of paramilitary control.

In addition to decimating Sudan's already fragile infrastructure, the war has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of people, uprooted more than 12 million and pushed many Sudanese to the brink of famine.

On Friday, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said that an estimated 3.2 million children under the age of five are expected to face acute malnutrition this year in Sudan.

"Of this number, around 772,000 children are expected to suffer from severe acute malnutrition," Eva Hinds, head of advocacy and communications for UNICEF Sudan, told AFP.

Famine has already gripped five areas across Sudan, according to a report last month by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a UN-backed assessment.

Across the country, more than 24.6 million people, around half the population, face "high levels of acute food insecurity", according to IPC.

It said that "only a ceasefire can reduce the risk of famine spreading further".

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — The Israeli military said it intercepted a projectile fired from Yemen on Monday before it crossed into Israeli territory, in the latest in a series of ongoing attacks.

Earlier on Monday the military said it had also intercepted a drone in southern Israel that was launched from Yemen.

Since the war in Gaza broke out in October 2023, the Iran-backed Huthi rebels who control swathes of Yemen have repeatedly fired missiles and drones at Israel in what they say is a show of solidarity with the Palestinians.

In retaliation, Israel has struck Huthi targets several times inside Yemen, including in the rebel-controlled capital Sanaa.

PORT SUDAN, SUDAN — Thousands have fled a town in southern Sudan since clashes erupted last week between the Sudanese army and rival paramilitaries, the United Nations' migration agency said Sunday.

The conflict in Sudan, which erupted in mid-April 2023, has pitted the forces of army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan against his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who leads the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces [RSF].

"Between 1,000 and 3,000 households were displaced from Um Rawaba town" in North Kordofan state in the country's south in just five days, the UN's International Organization for Migration said.

Clashes broke out in the area last week between the army and the RSF, at the same time that the military led an advance on the central Sudan state of Al-Jazira, some 300 kilometres northeast.

Families fled "due to increased security concerns following continued clashes across the locality", the IOM said.

In North Kordofan, over 205,000 people are currently displaced, according to the latest UN figures released on Wednesday.

Across the country, 11.5 million people are internally displaced, including 2.7 displaced in prior conflicts, in what the UN has called the world's largest displacement crisis.

The war has also claimed the lives of tens of thousands and pushed the country to the brink of famine.

Last month, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification [IPC] review said that famine has gripped five areas in western and southern Sudan, and is expected to spread to five more.

Around 350,000 people in North Kordofan are currently experiencing emergency levels of hunger, the report found, the final stage before famine is declared.

The IPC said that "only a ceasefire can reduce the risk of famine spreading further", with 24.6 million people, nearly half the population, already facing "high levels of acute food insecurity".

Damascus — Syria's new ruler and Lebanon's prime minister pledged on Saturday to build lasting ties during the first visit by a Lebanese head of government to Damascus since the start of the civil war in 2011.

Prime Minister Najib Mikati's trip came after Islamist-led rebels seized Damascus last month, bringing an end to the rule of Bashar al-Assad.

Previous Lebanese governments refrained from visits to Syria amid tensions at home over the militant group Hezbollah's support for Assad during the conflict.

Syria's new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa said he hoped to turn over a new leaf in relations, days after crisis-hit Lebanon finally elected a president this week following two years of deadlock.

"There will be long-term strategic relations between us and Lebanon. We and Lebanon have great shared interests," said Sharaa.

It was time to "give the Syrian and Lebanese people a chance to build a positive relationship", he said, adding that he hoped Joseph Aoun's presidency would usher in an era of stability in Lebanon.

Sharaa said the new Syria would "stay at equal distance from all" in Lebanon, and "try to solve problems through negotiations and dialogue".

Mikati said new ties should be based on "mutual respect, equality and national sovereignty". 

Syrian refugees 

Syria was the dominant power in Lebanon for three decades under the Assad family, with president Hafez al-Assad intervening in its 1975-1990 civil war and his son Bashar al-Assad only withdrawing Syria's troops in 2005 following mass protests triggered by the assassination of Lebanese ex-prime minister Rafic Hariri.

After mending ties with Damascus, his son Saad Hariri was the last Lebanese premier to visit the Syrian capital in 2010 before the civil war.

Taking office on Thursday, Aoun swore he would seize the "historic opportunity to start serious... dialogue with the Syrian state".

With Hezbollah weakened after two months of full-scale war with Israel late last year and Assad now gone, Syrian and Lebanese leaders seem eager to work to solve long-pending issues.

Among them is the presence of some two million Syrian refugees that Lebanon says have sought shelter on its territory since the Syrian war started.

Their return to Syria had become "an urgent matter in the interest of both countries", Mikati said.

Lebanese authorities have for years complained that hosting so many Syrians has become a burden for the tiny Mediterranean country which has been wracked by the worst economic crisis in its history since 2019.

Mikati also said it was a priority "to draw up the land and sea borders between Lebanon and Syria", calling for a joint committee to be set up to discuss the matter.

Under Assad, Syria repeatedly refused to delimit its borders with its neighbour. 

Lebanon has been hoping to draw the maritime border so that it can begin offshore gas extraction after reaching a similar agreement with Israel in 2022.

 'Smuggling' 

The Lebanese premier said both sides had stressed the need for "complete control of [land] borders, especially over illicit border points, to stem smuggling".

Syria shares a 330-kilometre border with no official demarcation at several points, making it porous and prone to smuggling.

Syria imposed new restrictions on the entry of Lebanese citizens last week, following what the Lebanese army said was a border skirmish with unnamed armed Syrians.

Lebanese nationals had previously been allowed into Syria without a visa, using just their passport or ID card.

A string of foreign dignitaries have headed to Damascus in recent weeks to meet the new leaders, with a delegation from Oman also in town earlier on Saturday.

Unlike other Arab Gulf states, Oman never severed diplomatic ties with Assad during the war.

Italy's Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani visited Damascus on Friday, while France's Jean-Noel Barrot and his German counterpart Annalena Baerbock did last week.

Shaibani has visited Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Jordan since the start of the month, and said Friday he would head to Europe soon.

Syria's war has killed more than half a million people and ravaged the country's economy since starting in 2011 with the brutal crackdown of anti-Assad protests.

Beirut, Lebanon — Lebanon's lawmakers on Thursday elected army chief Joseph Aoun as president after a two-year vacancy in the position, in a step towards lifting the war-battered country out of financial crisis.

Aoun, who turns 61 on Friday, arrived inside parliament to swear his oath to general applause, wearing a dark suit and blue tie instead of his usual military uniform.

"Today, a new phase in Lebanon's history begins," he told the chamber.

Aoun faces the daunting tasks of overseeing a ceasefire in south Lebanon and naming a prime minister able to lead reforms demanded by international creditors to save the country from its worst economic crisis in history.

He said he would call for parliamentary consultations as soon as possible on naming a new prime minister.

He vowed that the state would have "a monopoly" on arms after a devastating war this autumn between Israel and Shiite militant group Hizbollah.

"I pledge to call for discussing a comprehensive defence strategy... on the diplomatic, economic and military levels that will enable the Lebanese state -- I repeat, the Lebanese state -- to remove the Israeli occupation and deter its aggression," he added.

Supporters erupted in celebration in Aoun's home village of Aishiyeh in south Lebanon, where residents had gathered from the morning in front of a church adorned with Lebanese flags and his portrait, an AFP reporter said.

"The president is Joseph Aoun," parliament speaker Nabih Berri said after 99 lawmakers out of 128 backed his candidacy.

 'Unite the country' 

Aoun is Lebanon's fifth army commander to become president, and the fourth in a row.

Under multi-confessional Lebanon's power-sharing system, the president must be a Maronite Christian, as do military chiefs.

The president's powers have been reduced since the end of the 1975-1990 civil war.

But filling the position is key to overseeing consultations towards naming a new prime minister.

The Mediterranean country has been without a president since the term of Michel Aoun -- unrelated to his successor -- ended in October 2022.

Critics have accused Hizbollah and allies of scuppering previous votes.

The war between Israel and Hizbollah that ended in late November dealt heavy blows to the group, including the loss of its longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah in an Israeli air strike.

In neighbouring Syria, Hizbollah has lost a major ally after rebels toppled president Bashar Al Assad last month.

Israel's Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said he hoped his election would "contribute towards stability".

Iran's embassy in Beirut congratulated Aoun on his win, saying it looked forward to working together to serve "common interests".

The US embassy in Beirut said Washington was "committed to working closely with President Aoun as he begins his efforts to unite the country, implement reforms and secure a prosperous future for Lebanon".

Aoun was widely seen as the preferred pick of army backer the United States, as well as regional heavyweight Saudi Arabia.

UN special coordinator for Lebanon, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, welcomed the election "as a long-awaited first step towards overcoming Lebanon's political and institutional vacuum".

"A prime minister must be designated and a government formed without delay," she said.

 'Sovereignty and the constitution' 

International pressure had mounted ahead of the vote, with just 17 days remaining in a ceasefire to deploy Lebanese troops alongside UN peacekeepers in south Lebanon after Israeli troops withdraw.

But lawmakers from the pro-Hizbollah bloc voted blank in the first round of the vote on Thursday morning, a source close to them said, leaving army chief Aoun short of the required two-thirds majority to win outright.

The source said representatives from the bloc met Aoun before lawmakers returned for a second vote.

US, Saudi and French envoys have visited Beirut to increase pressure in the run-up to the vote.

France's envoy to Lebanon Jean-Yves Le Drian attended the vote.

Several lawmakers in the second round still objected to what they saw as foreign interference in the vote.

In protest, some rendered their ballot void by voting for "sovereignty and the constitution", a reference to the fact that Aoun's election would have technically required a constitutional amendment.

Under Lebanon's constitution, any presidential candidate must have not held high office for at least two years.

During the second round, one lawmaker chose former US presidential candidate Bernie Sanders.

GENEVA - The UN migration agency on Thursday expanded an aid appeal for Syria to over $73 million, as the country transitions after years of civil war and decades of dictatorship.

The United Nations' International Organisation for Migration said it was more than doubling an appeal launched last month for Syria, from $30 million to $73.2 million, with the aim of assisting 1.1 million people across Syria over the next six months.

"IOM is committed to helping the people of Syria at this historical moment as the nation recovers from nearly 14 years of conflict," IOM chief Amy Pope said in a statement.

"IOM will bring our deep experience in humanitarian assistance and recovery to help vulnerable communities across the country as we work with all partners to help build a better future for Syria."

The Geneva-based agency said it was working to reestablish its presence inside Syria, after exiting Damascus in 2020, building on its experience working there in the preceding two decades, as well as on its cross-border activities in the past decade to bring aid to northwest Syria.

It said it aimed "to provide immediate assistance to the most at-risk and vulnerable communities, including displaced and returning groups, across Syria".

The requested funds, it added, would be used to provide essential relief items and cash, shelter, protection assistance, water, sanitation, hygiene and health services.

They would also go to providing recovery support to people on the move, including those displaced, or preparing to relocate.

The dramatic political upheaval in Syria after the sudden ousting last month of strongman Bashar al-Assad after decades of dictatorship has spurred large movements of people.

Half of Syria's population were forced from their homes during nearly 14 years of civil war, with millions fleeing the country and millions more displaced internally.

The UN refugee agency has said it expects around one million people to return to the country in the first half of this year.

And by the end of 2024, the UN humanitarian agency had already recorded the returns of nearly 500,000 people who had been internally displaced inside Syria, IOM pointed out.

US-backed Kurdish forces who control an autonomous region in northeastern Syria said Wednesday they had told the new Damascus authorities they did not want to break away from the rest of the country.

"We agree that we are for the unity and integrity of Syrian territory and reject any division projects that threaten the country's unity," the commander of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), Mazloum Abdi, said in a written statement to AFP.

He spoke following a meeting he described as "positive" between Kurdish leaders and the Damascus authorities late last month, and after weeks of deadly clashes between the SDF and Turkish-backed groups in northern Syria.

"We support the efforts of the new administration for there to be stability in Syria to pave the way towards building constructive dialogue between Syrians," he said.

"Thus it is the responsibility of the new administration to intervene in order for there to be a ceasefire throughout Syria," he said.

Syria's Kurds control much of the oil-rich northeast of the country, where they have enjoyed de facto autonomy during much of the civil war since 2011.

The US-backed SDF spearheaded the military campaign that ousted the Daesh terror group extremists from their last territory in Syria in 2019.

But Turkey accuses the main component of the SDF, the People's Protection Units (YPG), of being affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has waged a four-decade insurgency against the Turkish state.

Turkey has mounted multiple operations against the SDF since 2016.

Turkish-backed factions in northern Syria resumed their fight with the SDF around the same time as Islamist-led rebels moved out of their northern bastion in a flash offensive to seize Damascus in early December.

Turkey has long had ties with the rebels who overthrew Syrian president Bashar al-Assad -- the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir Al Sham led by Ahmed Al Sharaa.

An official in Damascus told AFP last month that Sharaa has held talks with SDF delegates in the Syrian capital on December 30, describing them as "positive".

A day earlier, Sharaa had told Al Arabiya TV that the Kurdish-led forces should be integrated into the new national army.

He said weapons "must be in the hands of the state alone", calling on those "armed and qualified to join the defence ministry".

He spoke of "dialogue with the SDF... to perhaps find an appropriate solution."

The Kurdish authorities said that Turkish shelling killed five civilians Wednesday as they were on their way to the Tishreen Dam on the Euphrates river in an SDF-held part of Aleppo province to protest against it being repeatedly targeted.

More than 100 combatants were killed in two days in fighting between Turkish-backed groups and the SDF last week, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said.

BEIRUT — Lebanese army Chief Joseph Aoun, the frontrunner in Thursday's vote for president, is a political neophyte but is expected to benefit from his position as head of one of the country's most respected institutions.

Widely seen as the preferred pick of army backer the United States, as well as regional heavyweight Saudi Arabia, he is perceived as being best placed to maintain a fragile ceasefire and pull the country out of financial collapse.

Analysts say Aoun, who turns 61 on Friday and is considered a man of "personal integrity", could be the right candidate to finally replace Michel Aoun, no relation, whose term as president ended in October 2022.

A dozen previous attempts to choose a president have failed amid tensions between Hizbollah and its opponents, who have accused the Shiite group of seeking to impose its preferred candidate.

Aoun has since 2017 headed the army, an institution that serves as a rare source of unity in a country riven by sectarian and political divides.

He has navigated it through a blistering financial crisis that has drastically slashed the salaries of its 80,000 soldiers, forcing him to accept international aid to stay afloat.

Since late November, he has been overseeing the gradual deployment of the armed forces in south Lebanon after a ceasefire ended more than a year of hostilities between Israel and Hizbollah.

Under the truce, the Lebanese army has been deploying progressively alongside UN peacekeepers in the south as Israeli forces withdraw, a process they have to finish by January 26.

 'Dedicated' 

The general with broad shoulders and a shaved head has stepped up talks with visiting foreign dignitaries since becoming army chief.

The man of few words should be able to count on his good relations across the divided Lebanese political class, as well as apparent backing from the United States and Saudi Arabia, to see him elected.

Aoun "has a reputation of personal integrity", said Karim Bitar, an international relations expert at Beirut's Saint-Joseph University.

He came to prominence after leading the army in a battle to drive out the Islamic State group from a mountainous area along the Syrian border. 

"Within the Lebanese army, he is perceived as someone who is dedicated... who has the national interest at heart, and who has been trying to consolidate this institution, which is the last non-sectarian institution still on its feet in the country," Bitar told AFP.

Aoun was set to retire last January, but has had his mandate extended twice,  most recently in November.

'Relations with everyone' 

Mohanad Hage Ali, from the Carnegie Middle East Center, noted that "being the head of US-backed Lebanese Armed Forces, Joseph Aoun has ties to the United States".

"While he maintained relations with everyone, Hizbollah-affiliated media often criticised him" for those US ties, he told AFP.

Washington is the main financial backer of Lebanon's army, which also receives support from other countries including Qatar.

An international conference in Paris last month raised $200 million to support the armed forces.

The military has been hit hard by Lebanon's economic crisis, and at one point in 2020 it said it had cut out meat from the meals offered to on-duty soldiers due to rising food prices.

Aoun, who speaks Arabic, French and English, hails from Lebanon's Christian community and has two children.

By convention, the presidency goes to a Maronite Christian, the premiership is reserved for a Sunni Muslim and the post of parliament speaker goes to a Shiite Muslim.

If elected, Aoun would be Lebanon's fifth army commander to become president, and the fourth in a row.

Military chiefs, by convention, are also Maronites.