Syria

UN rights council: investigate Assad regime atrocities

The United Nations Human Rights Council passed a resolution demanding accountability for violations and abuses by Syria’s ousted Bashar Assad regime through “transitional justice,” and declaring support for “the commitments of the interim authorities” to an “orderly and inclusive transition” and establishment of a timeline for free elections. Assad al-Shaibani, foreign minister of the newly re-founded Syrian Arab Republic, welcomed the resolution, viewing it as an acknowledgement of the government’s “local and international efforts to protect human rights.” (Image: Mapping MENA)

Planet Watch

Trump tariffs ‘inexplicably cruel’ for Africa

Some of the world’s poorest countries, including nations grappling with protracted humanitarian crises, are among those most affected by President Donald Trump’s new trade tariffs regime, which has compounded pre-existing economic strains and debt woes. Among the worst effects will likely be felt in Africa, where Trump’s decision has created an “inexplicably cruel situation,” according to the Center for Global Development (CGD). “It is hard to fathom that the administration set out to destabilize poor African countries and unclear what they hope to gain,” wrote CGD researchers. The tariffs have effectively tanked the African Growth & Opportunity Act (AGOA), which allowed duty-free imports to the US for 32 countries and was credited with helping economic growth. Amid existential financial worries in the international aid sector—triggered by Trump’s closure of USAID—economists have also raised the possibility of a global trade war, with far-reaching ramifications for inflation and the cost of living worldwide. (Photo: Down To Earth)

Syria

Israel, Turkey turn Syria into chessboard

The Israeli military carried out air-strikes on several sites in Syria—including Tiyas airbase, also known as T4, and Palmyra airbase, both in Homs province. The interim government in Damascus called the strikes “a blatant violation of international law and Syrian sovereignty.” Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz responded in a statement addressed to President Ahmed al-Sharaa: “If you allow forces hostile to Israel to enter Syria and endanger Israeli security interests—you will pay a very heavy price.” This was a barely veiled reference to Turkey. Local media reports indicate that Turkish forces are preparing to deploy to the T4 and Palmyra bases. Ankara reportedly plans to install Hisar-O and Hisar-U air defense systems and potentially the long-range SIPER system at these locations. The deployment of a Russian-made S-400 system is also under consideration, pending Moscow’s approval. (Image: Pixabay)

Syria

Syria: interim government, SDF sign integration pact

Syria’s interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa and Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) chief Mazloum Abdi signed an agreement to integrate the Kurdish-led SDF into Syria’s state institutions. A statement by the Syrian Presidency said a pact was reached to “integrate all civil and military institutions in northeast Syria [Rojava] under the administration of the Syrian state, including border crossings, the [Qamishli] Airport, and oil and gas fields.” The statement emphasized that “the Kurdish community is indigenous to the Syrian state, which ensures this community’s right to citizenship and all of its constitutional rights.” (Image: Rudaw)

Syria

Podcast: Free Syria and the Kurdish question II

In Episode 268 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg examines the continued fighting in Syria since the fall of the Bashar Assad dictatorship in December. The recent outburst of violence in the Alawite heartland on the Mediterranean coast made headlines, but this week also saw anti-regime protests by Druze in Syria’s south. And fighting has never stopped between forces aligned with the new transition government and those of the Kurdish autonomous zone in the northeast. The situation is complicated by continuing military adventures on Syrian territory by foreign powers—Israel, Turkey, Russia and the US. Will Syrians be able to overcome these challenges and forge a democratic and multicultural order, in repudiation of sectarianism, ethno-nationalism and Great Power intrigues? (Photo: SOHR)

Syria

External, internal challenges for Syrian Revolution

Apparent Assad loyalists have taken up arms against Syria’s transitional government in the Alawite heartland of Latakia on the Mediterranean coast. Fighting meanwhile continues between the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the northeast, while Israel grabs a “security zone” in the south and continues intermittent air-strikes. Elsewhere in the south, the Druze of Suweida protest their perceived exclusion from the transition process. All this as Russia opens talks with the new authorities in a bid to keep its military bases in Syrian territory. (Map: PCL)

Syria

US aid freeze escalates Syria crisis

Just weeks after US President Donald Trump’s order to freeze foreign aid, Syrians are already seeing medical clinics providing urgent assistance close, water distributions slow down, and bread distribution in many displacement camps grind to a halt. After nearly 14 years of war, the UN estimates that 16.5 million people across Syria are in need of aid. While the December overthrow of Bashar al-Assad has lifted the siege conditions in the country’s north, the need for relief among those facing severe privation, food insecurity, and mass internal displacement remains unrelenting. (Photo: UNHCR)

Syria

Renaissance for Syrian Jews?

In a video published on social media, a representative of the new transitional government in Syria spoke with Bakhour Chamntoub, head of Damascus’ small remnant Jewish community, promising “peace and security” and even calling on Syrian Jews abroad to return to the country. Said the representative, Mohammad Badarieh: “Good evening everyone… from the home of the head of the Jewish community in Damascus, Bakhour. Reassure us that you’re alright.” Replied Chamntoub: “Thank God, all is well.” Referring to Syrian Jews outside the country, Chamntoub acknowledged: “They don’t believe there will be peace, and that they can return home.” But, addressing the diaspora, he echoed the pledge of the transition government: “You will be safe, there will be peace and quiet, and God willing, you’ll return, everyone to his house, to his neighborhood, and to his people….” Chamntoub added that he hopes for the restoration of the city’s ancient Jobar synagogue, which was badly damaged in shelling by the Assad regime. (Photo: Chrystie Sherman)

Greater Middle East

Rojava and the Rohingya: fearful symmetry

Three weeks after the fall of the Bashar Assad dictatorship, the only fighting in Syria remains between Arab and Kurdish militias—holding grim potential for destabilization of the democratic revolution. Kurds had been persecuted and even denied citizenship under the Assad regime, but the invasion of their autonomous territory of Rojava by the Turkish-backed rebels of the Syrian National Army (SNA) drove them into a paradoxical tactical alliance with the dictatorship. The tragic situation in Burma’s Rakhine state mirrors this disturbing reality. The Muslim Rohingya people had been persecuted, denied citizenship and finally targeted in a campaign of genocide by the military, but are now facing attacks by the Buddhist-supremacist rebels of the Arakan Army—driving some Rohingya into a paradoxical tactical alliance with the military junta. In Episode 258 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg offers this analogy in the hope that the peoples of Burma can unite across religious lines to defeat the junta, and that Syrians can find a way toward co-existence in the new revolutionary order and avoid ethnic war. Listen on SoundCloud or via Patreon. (Photo of Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army-ARSA rebels: Burma News International)

Syria

Syria: UN calls for protection of mass graves

The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria (CoI) has called on the new authorities in Damascus to protect mass grave sites and relevant documentation. The statement comes after the CoI visited former prisons and detention centers in the country, including the notorious Sednaya prison and Military Intelligence Branch 235 facility. This was the first such visit since the conflict began in 2011. The team was dismayed to find that much evidence and documentation which could have helped families trace disappeared loved ones had been damaged, taken, or destroyed. The CoI urged establishment of a specialized unit to coordinate the protection and preservation of such evidence. (Image: UNHCR)

Syria

Israeli troops fire on Syrian protesters

One was wounded as Israeli troops opened fire on Syrian protesters near the village of Maariyah, in southern Daraa province. Local residents gathered at a position the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) had established in the area, chanting “Free, free Syria; Israel get out!” One protester was shot in the leg. The IDF said its soldiers had fired in response to “a threat.” The incident came after villagers said that the troops, stationed in an abandoned Syrian army outpost, were preventing local farmers from accessing their fields. Maariya is near the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, but outside the demilitarized “buffer zone” established by a 1974 ceasefire agreement between Israel and Syria. The news appears to confirm reports that IDF troops have advanced beyond the “buffer zone.” (Image via Twitter)

Syria

Podcast: Free Syria and the Kurdish question

Amid jubilation following the overthrow of long-ruling dictator Bashar Assad, the only fightingin Syria is now between Arabs and Kurds—as the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) expels the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) from the town of Manbij. Ankara’s design is clearly to expunge the Kurdish autonomous zone in the northeast region of Rojava. Yet there are also positive signs of an accommodation between the Rojava Kurds and the new revolutionary administration in Damascus. In Episode 256 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg examines the new political landscape in Syria and tries to identify a way forward—past the threat of ethnic war and toward a multicultural democracy. Listen on SoundCloud or via Patreon. (Image: Rudaw)