UN and US have failed to deliver promised support for Syrian refugees, says expert

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Updated 23 September 2022
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UN and US have failed to deliver promised support for Syrian refugees, says expert

  • Zaher Sahloul, president of humanitarian organization MedGlobal, said Ukrainian refugees have received more help in 7 months than Syrians have received in 11 years

Promises by the UN and US to take action to help ease the worsening global refugee crisis have not be fulfilled, according to an expert playing a leading role in efforts to provide healthcare services to displaced people.

Zaher Sahloul, president of humanitarian organization MedGlobal and founder of the American Relief Coalition for Syria, told Arab News there are more than 26 million refugees in the world who were forced to leave their home nations, and about a quarter of them are Syrians who fled the 11-year civil war in their country.

He said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has personally visited Ukrainian refugees since the conflict in their country began seven months ago but has never visited Syrian refugees during a conflict that has lasted more than a decade.

Meanwhile, he added, despite promises by President Joe Biden that his administration would help Syrian refugees, only a small number have actually made it to the US.

 

 

“We’ve seen the secretary-general of the UN recently in Kiev,” Sahloul said on Wednesday during an appearance on The Ray Hanania Radio Show. “He was pictured greeting the president of Ukraine.

“He never went to the Syrian border. He never met with (Syrian) refugees and made this big deal of this issue. It is his responsibility to respond to crises and he is not doing his job when it comes to Syria.

“Unfortunately, the global refugee crisis is getting worse by the day. Every day you have thousands of refugees fleeing oppression, fleeing the brutalities of war, fleeing climate change, floods and natural disasters and, of course, economic and governance deterioration in countries in Africa, the Middle East and Southeast Asia — and now in Europe, with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, where you suddenly, within a few months, have 6 million Ukrainian refugees.

“Right now there are about 26 (to) 29 million refugees in the world. Many of them came from countries that are going through wars, whether it is wars with other countries or civil wars, including in Syria. There are still 6.5 million Syrian refugees. One out of four refugees in the world are from Syria, still, after 11 years of crisis.”

Sahloul said US authorities have consistently promised to help Syrian refugees and yet have not. Former President Barack Obama pledged assistance but it was delayed for more than five years. When Donald Trump because president, all efforts to help Syrian refugees were derailed by his “Muslim ban” policies.

When Biden took over in 2021 he promised to address the problem but this has not yet happened. Approval to enter the US has been granted to as many as 25,000 refugees, Sahloul said, but in many cases their arrival has been delayed by politics.

 

 

“Let’s just put things into perspective,” he said. “President Biden, after one week of war in Ukraine, he said we would be welcoming 100,000 Ukrainian refugees to the United States. It took five years for the Obama administration to welcome the first Syrian refugees.”

Sahloul said that Obama had “humanized” the perception of refugees and added: “The Trump administration had their refugee ban, or ‘Muslim ban’ or whatever you want to call it, where they prevented any resettlement of Syrian refugees and other refugees from the Middle East.

“And then the Biden administration, in spite of their pledges to rectify the policies of the Trump administration, they were slow, still are very slow, in resettling Syrian refugees. So far (the US has) settled 3,500 (refugees).”

During 11 years of war in Syria, 1 million refugees have been killed and 100,000 have “disappeared,” Sahloul said.

“When it comes to the Middle East, we treat them a different way than any other country in the world,” he added.

 

 

“It took 70 years of war with Israel to have 6.5 million Palestinian refugees. It took six years to have 6.5 million Syrian refugees. That will give you the scale of brutality between Arab regimes and Israel, which is considered the eternal enemy of everyone in the Middle East,” Sahloul said, by way of highlighting the sheer intensity of the Syrian conflict and its refugee crisis.

In total about 89 million people in the world are “displaced” after being forced to leave their homes, he added. Some are able to remain in their own countries while others become refugees in other nations.

 

 

“In this UN General Assembly week, there are some strong voices in support of the Syrian refugees in general, including the president of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, although there are question marks about his politics and policies and things like that,” said Sahloul.

“One of the best speeches about refugees came from the emir of Qatar; he talked about the moral responsibility of the UN and the fact that we forgot about Syria and we forgot about the Syrian Refugees. It was a very inspiring speech.

“Unfortunately, the United Nations and other countries are not treating the root cause of the problems, they are treating the symptoms with Band-Aids.”

Hosted on the US Arab Radio Network and sponsored by Arab News, The Ray Hanania Radio Show is broadcast live every Wednesday at 5 p.m. EST in Detroit on WNZK AM 690 and Washington D.C. on WDMV AM 700, and rebroadcast in Chicago on Thursday at 12 noon CST on WNWI AM 1080.

 

You can listen to the radio show’s podcast by visiting ArabNews.com/rayradioshow.


Elon Musk confirms Twitter has become X.com

Updated 17 May 2024
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Elon Musk confirms Twitter has become X.com

  • Billionaire head of Tesla bought Twitter for $44 billion in late 2022 and announced rebrand to X last July
  • Although the logo and branding were changed to “X,” the domain name remained Twitter.com until Friday

PARIS: The social network formerly known as Twitter has fully migrated over to X.com, owner Elon Musk said on Friday.

The billionaire head of Tesla, SpaceX and other companies bought Twitter for $44 billion in late 2022 and announced the rebrand to X last July.

Although the logo and branding were changed to “X,” the domain name remained Twitter.com until Friday.

“All core systems are now on X.com,” Musk wrote on X, posting an image of a logo of a white X on a blue circle.

Queries to Twitter.com redirected users to X.com on Friday morning, though the original domain name still appeared on some browsers.

Musk has repeatedly used the letter X in the branding of his companies, starting in 1999 with his attempt to set up an online financial superstore called X.com.

When he bought Twitter, he set up a company called X Corp. to close the deal.

Musk has said he wants “X” to become a super-app along the lines of China’s WeChat.

The Chinese app is much bigger than X and weaves together messaging, voice and video calling, social media, mobile payment, games, news, online booking and other services.

He has also bolted onto X an AI chatbot called “Grok,” which was launched in Europe this week.

Musk’s leadership of X has proved controversial.

He has fired thousands of staff, overseen major technical problems and reinstated accounts of right-wing conspiracy theorists, as well as former US president Donald Trump.

European regulators have also begun probes into X and other social media platforms over fears of misinformation.

The EU demanded earlier this month that X explain its decision to cut content moderation staff, giving the firm a deadline of Friday.

AFP has contacted X for their response.


Taliban supreme leader makes rare visit to Afghan capital

Updated 17 May 2024
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Taliban supreme leader makes rare visit to Afghan capital

  • Hibatullah Akhundzada gave a speech in front of the 34 provincial governors
  • The appointment of officials on the basis of “favoritism or personal relationships” was also to be avoided

KABUL: The shadowy supreme leader of the Taliban authorities made a rare visit to Afghanistan’s capital, a government website said Friday, leaving his reclusive compound in Kandahar to meet with the country’s senior officials.
It comes after a string of small-scale clashes between farmers and Taliban anti-narcotic units tasked with destroying poppy fields, and flash floods that have killed hundreds.
Hibatullah Akhundzada gave a speech in front of the 34 provincial governors on Thursday at the Interior Ministry, the Taliban website Al Emarah said.
The leader emphasized “unity and harmony,” according to a summary of the speech posted to the website on Friday.
“Obedience was highlighted as a divine obligation,” it said, adding that the implementation of Islamic Sharia law and principles “should take precedence over personal interests.”
The appointment of officials on the basis of “favoritism or personal relationships” was also to be avoided.
Akhundzada, of whom only one photo has been publicly circulated, rarely appears in public, ruling by decree from a secretive compound in the southern city of Kandahar.
His cabinet, however, sits in the capital Kabul, from where they implement his decisions.
The purpose of the visit was likely about “enforcing internal discipline and unity,” a Western diplomat told AFP, adding that it could be motivated by the unrest in Badakhshan in eastern Afghanistan.
Witnesses reported that Taliban forces opened fire to disperse villagers protesting against poppy clearing — a lucrative crop banned by Akhundzada in April 2022.
Several people died in one of the clashes, a Taliban official said at the time.
The Afghan authorities have also had to repress demonstrations by settled nomads in the province of Nangarhar and are faced with regular deadly attacks from the Daesh group, particularly in Kabul.
“Whenever you see cracks or disagreements, then you have Kandahar stepping in reminding everyone and enforcing that (unity) as well,” the diplomat added.


After criticism, Spain museum alters name of Palestinian program

Updated 17 May 2024
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After criticism, Spain museum alters name of Palestinian program

  • The museum had controversially called the program “From The River To the Sea”
  • Spain’s FCJE, an umbrella body representing the Jewish community, had denounced the original title of the program

MADRID: Madrid’s Reina Sofia museum said Thursday it had changed the name of a pro-Palestinian program that the Israeli embassy and the Jewish community said furthered a narrative calling for Israel’s extermination.
The museum, one of Spain’s most visited which is home to Pablo Picasso’s historic Guernica painting about the horrors of war, had controversially called the program “From The River To the Sea” — a rallying cry among Palestinians.
The term refers to the borders of the British Palestine mandate between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea before Israel’s establishment in 1948. Some Jewish groups see it as calling for the destruction of Israel.
In a statement, the museum said it had renamed the program “Critical Thinking Gatherings, International Solidarity With Palestine” since the original name was considered “offensive to certain communities.”
The program includes lectures, conversations and meetings with Palestinian artists as well as two art installations, all aimed at demanding “an end of the war and genocide,” according to the museum’s website.
Spain’s FCJE, an umbrella body representing the Jewish community, had denounced the original title of the program.
“This slogan, considered anti-Semitic by the US House of Representatives, implies the elimination of Israel and its inhabitants... it also appears on maps at various rallies where Israel is erased,” it said in a statement.
Spain has been one of Europe’s most critical voices about Israel’s Gaza offensive and is working to rally other European capitals behind the idea of recognizing a Palestinian state.
The Gaza war began on October 7 when Hamas militants stormed across the border into southern Israel.
The unprecedented attack resulted in the deaths of more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.
Militants also seized about 250 hostages, 128 of whom Israel estimates remain in Gaza, including 36 the military says are dead.
Vowing to destroy Hamas, Israel launched a blistering retaliatory offensive that has killed more than 35,000 people, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.


Moroccan asylum-seeker gets life sentence for killing UK retiree in attack motivated by war in Gaza

Updated 17 May 2024
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Moroccan asylum-seeker gets life sentence for killing UK retiree in attack motivated by war in Gaza

  • Judge Bobbie Cheema-Grubb sentenced Alid to life with no chance of parole for 45 years
  • “The murder of Terence Carney was a terrorist act in which you hoped to influence the British government,” she said

LONDON: A Moroccan asylum-seeker who stabbed a British retiree to death in revenge for Israel’s war against Hamas was sentenced Friday to at least 45 years in prison for what the judge termed a terrorist act.
Ahmed Alid told police after his arrest that he’d killed 70-year-old Terence Carney in the northeast England town of Hartlepool because “Israel had killed innocent children.”
“They killed children and I killed an old man,” he said during questioning.
Prosecutors said that on Oct. 15 — eight days after the Hamas attack on Israel that triggered the war in Gaza — Alid attacked his housemate, Iranian asylum-seeker Javed Nouri, with a knife as he slept. Nouri survived. Alid then ran outside, encountered Carney having a morning walk and stabbed him six times.
Prosecution lawyer Jonathan Sandiford said Alid had told police that “if he had had a machine gun and more weapons, he would have killed more victims.”
Alid, 45, had denied the charges against him. Although he acknowledged stabbing the men, he said he had no intent to kill or cause serious harm.
A jury at Teesside Crown Court last month found Alid guilty of one count of murder, one count of attempted murder and two counts of assaulting police officers during his post-arrest interview.
Judge Bobbie Cheema-Grubb sentenced Alid to life with no chance of parole for 45 years, saying he had shown “no genuine remorse or pity” for his victims.
“The murder of Terence Carney was a terrorist act in which you hoped to influence the British government,” she said. “You hoped to frighten the British people and undermine the freedoms they enjoy.”
In a victim impact statement, the victim’s wife Patricia Carney said she could no longer go into town because it was “too painful” to be near the spot where her husband was murdered.
Nouri, a convert to Christianity, said the attack had destroyed his sense of safety.
“I would expect to be arrested and killed in my home country for converting to Christianity but I did not expect to be attacked in my sleep here,” his statement said. “How is it possible for someone to destroy someone’s life because of his religion?”


Slovak PM has new surgery, condition ‘still very serious’

Updated 17 May 2024
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Slovak PM has new surgery, condition ‘still very serious’

  • The Banska Bystrica hospital director said Fico remained “conscious” despite being in a “serious” condition
  • “This is a lone wolf whose actions were accelerated after the presidential election since he was dissatisfied with its outcome,” Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok said

BRATISLAVA: Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico’s condition was on Friday “still very serious” two days after an attempted assassination, his deputy and close ally said, as police raided the suspect’s home.
Fico was hospitalized after the shooting on Wednesday, which happened as the 59-year-old leader was speaking to members of the public after a meeting in the central town of Handlova.
“He was operated on again, he had an almost two-hour-long operation,” deputy prime minister Robert Kalinak told reporters outside the hospital in Banska Bystrica.
Fico had previously undergone a five-hour-long surgery, shortly after being airlifted from the scene of the attack on Wednesday.
“His state is still very serious. I think it would take a couple of days to see the course of the development of his state,” Kalinak added on Friday.
The Banska Bystrica hospital director said Fico remained “conscious” despite being in a “serious” condition.
Earlier on Friday, local media reported that Slovak police had searched the home of the man charged with the shooting.
Officers brought along the alleged gunman, who was wearing a bulletproof vest and helmet, to the apartment he shared with his wife in the western town of Levice, Markiza TV footage showed.
“Police stayed in the apartment for several hours... They took the computer and documents out of the apartment,” the private broadcaster said.
Police, who told AFP they would not comment on an ongoing investigation, have not named the suspect but media have identified him as 71-year-old writer Juraj Cintula.
He was charged on Thursday with attempted murder with premeditation in what the authorities have called a politically motivated attack.
“This is a lone wolf whose actions were accelerated after the presidential election since he was dissatisfied with its outcome,” Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok said.
The attack has stoked fears of further violence and instability in the politically polarized nation, just weeks before European Parliament elections.
Officials drew a link to the political situation in the country, with its political scene marred by disinformation and attacks on social media during recent election campaigns.
Slovak president-elect Peter Pellegrini, who won an election in April, on Wednesday urged the political parties to suspend or reduce campaigning before the EU vote.
The biggest opposition party, centrist Progressive Slovakia, and others announced that they had done so.
Fico, a four-time premier and political veteran, returned to office in October.
Since then, he has made a string of remarks that have soured ties between Slovakia and neighboring Ukraine after he questioned the country’s sovereignty.
After he was elected, Slovakia stopped sending weapons to Ukraine, invaded by Russia in 2022.