How Israel’s UNRWA ban will impact Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank

UNRWA provides health care services to half a million Palestinian refugees, covering 70-80 percent of needs in Gaza before the latest war erupted. (AFP)
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Updated 21 November 2024
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How Israel’s UNRWA ban will impact Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank

  • Knesset has passed two bills banning the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency from operating within Israeli territory and cooperating with authorities
  • Aid organizations warn that the legislation, slated to take effect in January, will have “catastrophic” consequences for Gaza amid “apocalyptic” situation

LONDON: In just a matter of weeks, the main UN agency providing vital services to millions of Palestinian refugees will no longer be able to do so. Israel is expected to enforce new laws banning UNRWA, a move the agency says will halt its vast operations providing aid, health care and schooling in Gaza and the West Bank.

Not only will lifesaving services be taken away, but Palestinians fear that if UNRWA comes to an end, so too will a fundamental pillar of their refugee status — the right of return to their homes.

Israel claims UNRWA has been infiltrated by militants, but the agency’s chiefs deny this and they, along with humanitarian groups and many governments, warn of catastrophic consequences if UNRWA stops operating.

For Gaza, which is on the verge of famine after a 13-month onslaught from Israel that has killed nearly 44,000 people, the outcomes are unthinkable.

On Oct. 28, the Israeli parliament passed two laws by overwhelming majority that will make it impossible for UNRWA to continue its work in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories.

The first law barred UNRWA from operating in Israeli territory while the second prohibited Israeli authorities from engaging with the agency in any form. 

The bills, set to take effect within 90 days of their adoption, did not provide an alternative organization to UNRWA for delivering aid or essential services.

Over a series of press conferences, briefings and statements, Philippe Lazzarini, the UNRWA commissioner-general, has become increasingly exasperated as he pleads with other nations to put pressure on Israel to halt the action.




UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini. (Supplied)

He says not only will the collapse of his agency have devastating humanitarian consequences for Palestinians, but also removing services like education will fuel radicalization and have a destabilizing effect on the Middle East.

Lazzarini argues that such a step by a UN member state against a UN agency would also significantly undermine the international rules-based order that those members signed up to.

Shortly after the Israeli parliament, or Knesset, passed the bills, he warned that the vote “sets a dangerous precedent.”

DID YOUKNOW?

2.1 million Palestinians in Gaza depend on aid from UNRWA.

600,000 Children in Gaza receive education through UNRWA.

17,000 UNRWA staff in the occupied Palestinian territories.

(Source: UNRWA)

“It opposes the UN Charter and violates the State of Israel’s obligations under international law,” he said.

Agnes Callamard, Amnesty International’s secretary-general, slammed the vote as an “unconscionable law” and “an outright attack on the rights of Palestinian refugees.”

UNRWA was established by a UN General Assembly resolution in response to the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their land in 1948, which led to the formation of the Israeli state. In what became known as the Nakba, meaning catastrophe, 700,000 people were driven from their homes.




Palestinian refugees queue for food distributed by the UNRWA at a camp in Gaza on November 9, 1956. (AFP)

The agency was tasked with helping refugees scattered across Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria until they could return home. With no “right of return” solution ever reached with Israel, UNRWA’s work has continued, providing many services in lieu of a functioning government.

Yet despite the agency’s work, it has always faced criticism from Israel. One of the main charges against UNRWA is that it perpetuates the Palestinian refugee issue by keeping alive the notion of a “right of return” passed down through generations — something Israel views as unrealistic and unimaginable.

Palestinians believe that without the agency, their status as refugees would be undermined and they fear they would be pressured into settling wherever they have ended up.

Lazzarini said on Monday that Israel’s aim in attacking UNRWA was to strip Palestinians of their refugee status. But he insisted that whether his agency existed or not, their refugee status would be protected by UN General Assembly resolutions.




A right-wing Israeli protesters demonstrate in front of the UNRWA office in Jerusalem on March 20, 2024. (AFP)

In recent years, Israel has increasingly accused the agency of employing Hamas members and other militants among its 13,000-strong Gaza workforce.

Hamas has been in power since seizing the territory from Palestinian rivals Fatah in 2007 and UNRWA has had to tread a fine line between the militant group and Israel.

It comes under pressure from both sides about the curriculum taught in its schools or whether it is showing bias toward one side or the other.

In late January, Israeli authorities accused several UNRWA employees of involvement in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel, which killed 1,200 people and resulted in the capture of 250 hostages.

The UN secretary-general ordered an investigation which reported in August that nine staff members may have been involved in the attacks. UNRWA fired the employees but said it had supplied full lists of the people it employs since 2011.




Israeli protesters demonstrate in front of the UNRWA office in Jerusalem on March 20, 2024. (AFP)

Many Western countries suspended their funding for UNRWA while the investigation was carried out, a major blow given the agency’s budget is almost entirely funded by donations from UN member states. All except the US have since reinstated the money.

An independent review of the agency published in April said UNRWA had a “robust” framework to deal with neutrality but that issues such as staff publicly expressing political views and textbooks with problematic content being used in some UNRWA schools persisted.

Nevertheless, the level to which UNRWA is entwined with the fabric of Palestinian society means that removing its services would leave a huge gap in how the territories function.

Of most immediate concern, the Israeli legislation would remove desperately needed aid and health care from Gaza.




Palestinian children queue for food in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, on Nov. 18, 2024. (AP)

In a statement on X after the vote, Lazzarini described the laws as “nothing less than collective punishment” that will “only deepen the suffering of Palestinians, especially in Gaza where people have been going through more than a year of sheer hell.”

More than 2 million people in Gaza have endured relentless Israeli bombing and a deepening humanitarian crisis since the war started. The population is fully dependent on the aid allowed into the territory by Israel. Families suffer severe shortages of food, clean water, medical supplies and shelter. 

The bombing and military operations destroyed essential infrastructure, razed entire districts and displaced almost the entire population. Along with the tens of thousands killed, mostly women and children, more than 100,000 have been injured, according to Gaza’s health authority.




Over two-thirds of UNRWA’s premises in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed by Israeli strikes. (AFP)

An UNRWA spokesperson told Arab News that without the agency “the delivery of food, shelter, and health care to most of Gaza’s population would grind to a halt.”

A joint statement by 15 UN and humanitarian organizations on Nov. 1 warned that the legislation against UNRWA would be a “catastrophe” for the aid response in Gaza where “there is no alternative to UNRWA.”

Indeed, relief groups have repeatedly accused Israeli authorities of aid obstruction. While Israel has denied this, data analysis by aid organizations operating in Gaza found that 83 percent of food aid does not make it into the enclave.

Jens Laerke, spokesperson for UN humanitarian agency OCHA, told a UN briefing in Geneva in mid-November that aid access across Gaza has been “at a low point.” 

“Chaos suffering, despair, death, destruction, displacement is at a high point,” he said, adding that delivering assistance in northern Gaza was “near impossible.” 




A Palestinian woman holds the shrouded body of child killed in Israeli bombardment, at a health clinic in the area of Tel al-Sultan in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip on May 26, 2024. (AFP)

The ramifications of the new laws will extend beyond Gaza, across the entire occupied Palestinian territories. 

“In the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, without UNRWA, health, education and social services to Palestine refugees would fall apart,” the UNRWA spokesperson said. 

Addressing a UN General Assembly committee last week, Lazzarini warned the risk of UNRWA’s collapse “threatens the lives and futures of individuals and communities.”  

UNRWA delivers education to more than 660,000 children across Gaza and at least 50,000 in the West Bank. If the agency's work stops, “an entire generation will be denied the right to education,” Lazzarini added: “Their future will be sacrificed, sowing the seeds for marginalization and extremism.” 




Palestinian children play at UNRWA-run school in the Qalandia refugee camp in the occupied West Bank on Nov. 14, 2024. (AFP)

The agency provides health care services to half a million Palestinian refugees, covering 70-80 percent of needs in Gaza before the war. 

Banning UNRWA would also put at risk the jobs of 17,000 employees in Gaza and the West Bank.

More than 240 UNRWA personnel have already been killed in the Gaza war and others have been detained and tortured. 

UNRWA is a “casualty” of the Gaza war and “not a party” to the Israel-Palestine conflict, Lazzarini said.

“Palestinian armed groups, including Hamas, and Israeli forces have allegedly used our premises for military purposes,” he added. 

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Away from Gaza, concern is growing that the demise of UNRWA would erode the refugee status of Palestinians, further weakening their cause. 

The non-governmental organization Medical Aid for Palestinians warned that discrediting UNRWA “undermined the international legal framework protecting their (Palestinian refugees) rights, including the right of return.” 

Rafe Jabari, a researcher on the political sociology of Arab states, told Arab News that UNRWA plays a critical role in “keeping the refugee question on track” while providing the international community with essential data and insights on the situation in Gaza.




A Palestinian girl walks past a World Health Organization (WHO) storage center destroyed in a recent Israeli bombardment in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on Nov. 19, 2024. (AFP)

Israeli officials have “banned the entry of international journalists” into Gaza and “are now attacking the most important, neutral, and impartial organization (UNRWA),” he said.

“By eliminating this important source of information, the Israelis aim to obscure their practices and policies on the ground, undermining the credibility of other sources and, in turn, denying the outcomes of their actions.”

Despite the widespread concern over UNRWA’s future, there is no sign that Israel may be willing to halt the ban and little detail on how its work could be replaced.

“UNRWA may be defined by a single word — failure,” Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon told a meeting of the General Assembly on UNRWA earlier this month. “This idea that UNRWA could not be supplemented is absurd.”




Displaced Palestinians walk amid blood-stained rubble following an Israeli strike that hit a UN-run school where people had taken refuge, in the Nusseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on Nov, 20, 2024. (AFP)

Yet, as the clock ticks toward the ban being enforced, the warnings from the UN grow even louder, with officials saying Israel will have to step in when UNRWA is no longer operating.

Speaking in Geneva on Monday, Lazzarini said while there was no functioning state or institutions for Palestinians, then the role of UNRWA was “irreplaceable.”

“There is no Plan B,” he said.
 

 


Israel’s Netanyahu aide faces indictment over Gaza leak

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Israel’s Netanyahu aide faces indictment over Gaza leak

  • Netanyahu’s close adviser, Jonatan Urich, has denied any wrongdoing in the case which legal authorities began investigating in late 2024
  • The prime minister has described probes against Urich and other aides as a witch-hunt.

JERUSALEM: An aide to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces indictment on security charges pending a hearing, Israel’s attorney general said on Sunday, for allegedly leaking top secret military information during Israel’s war in Gaza. Netanyahu’s close adviser, Jonatan Urich, has denied any wrongdoing in the case which legal authorities began investigating in late 2024. The prime minister has described probes against Urich and other aides as a witch-hunt.
Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara said in a statement that Urich and another aide had extracted secret information from the Israeli military and leaked it to German newspaper Bild. Their intent, she said, was to shape public opinion of Netanyahu and influence the discourse about the slaying of six Israeli hostages by their Palestinian captors in Gaza in late August 2024. The hostages’ deaths had sparked mass protests in Israel and outraged hostage families, who accused Netanyahu of torpedoing ceasefire talks that had faltered in the preceding weeks for political reasons.
Netanyahu vehemently denies this. He has repeatedly said that Hamas was to blame for the talks collapsing, while the militant group has said it was Israel’s fault no deal had been reached. Four of the six slain hostages had been on the list of more than 30 captives that Hamas was set to free were a ceasefire to be reached, according to a defense official at the time. The Bild article in question was published days after the hostages were found executed in a Hamas tunnel in southern Gaza.
It outlined Hamas’ negotiation strategy in the indirect ceasefire talks and largely corresponded with Netanyahu’s allegations against the militant group over the deadlock.
Bild said after the investigation was announced that it does not comment on its sources and that its article relied on authentic documents.
A two-month ceasefire was reached in January this year and included the release of 38 hostages before Israel resumed attacks in Gaza. The sides are presently engaged in indirect negotiations in Doha, aimed at reaching another truce.


How unequal shelter access puts Israel’s Arab and Bedouin communities at greater risk

Updated 9 min 44 sec ago
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How unequal shelter access puts Israel’s Arab and Bedouin communities at greater risk

  • Decades of infrastructure neglect have left Arab and Bedouin areas without basic protections enjoyed by Jewish communities
  • Residents are calling for equal emergency planning, arguing that safety during conflict should be a right, not a privilege

LONDON: As Iranian rockets shook East Jerusalem in mid-June, Rawan Shalaldeh sat in the dark while her seven-year-old son slept. She had put him to bed early and hid her phone to prevent the constant alerts from waking him, hoping sleep would shield her child from the terror above.

“The bombing was very intense; the house would shake,” Shalaldeh, an architect and urban planner with the Israeli human rights and planning organization Bimkom, told Arab News.

While residents in nearby Jewish districts rushed into reinforced shelters, Shalaldeh and her family in the Palestinian neighborhood of Jabal Al-Zaytoun had nowhere to go.

Israelis gather in a underground shelter in Tel Aviv on June 24, 2025, after sirens sounded in several areas across the country after missiles were fired from Iran. (AFP/File)

“East Jerusalem has only about 60 shelters, most of them inside schools,” she said. “They’re designed for students, not for neighborhood residents. They’re not available in every area, and they’re not enough for the population.”

Her home is a 15-minute walk from the nearest shelter. “By the time we’d get there, the bombing would already be over,” she said.

Instead, her family stayed inside, bracing for the next strike. “We could hear the sound but couldn’t tell if it was from the bombs or the interception systems,” she recalled. “We couldn’t sleep. It was terrifying. I fear it will happen again.”

That fear is compounded by infrastructure gaps that make East Jerusalem’s residents more vulnerable. “Old homes in East Jerusalem don’t have shelters at all,” she said. “New homes with shelters are rare because it’s extremely hard to get a building permit here.”

Arab and Bedouin communities were left without basic protections enjoyed bytheir Jewish neighbors. (AFP)

Israeli law requires new apartments to be built with protected rooms. However, homes built without permits are unlikely to follow the guidelines, leaving most without safe space.

The contrast with West Jerusalem is stark. “There’s a big difference between East and West Jerusalem,” Shalaldeh said. “In the west, there are many shelters, and things are much easier for them.”

Indeed, a June 17 report by Bimkom underscored these disparities. While West Jerusalem, home to a mostly Jewish population, has about 200 public shelters, East Jerusalem, which is home to nearly 400,000 Palestinians, has just one.

Even where shelters do exist they are often inaccessible. The municipality’s website fails to clearly mark their locations, and many residents are unaware they exist. Some shelters even remain locked during emergencies — especially at night.

The report concluded that the current infrastructure is grossly inadequate, leaving most East Jerusalem residents without access to basic protection during attacks.

Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem hold temporary residency IDs that lack any listed nationality and must be renewed every five years. Unlike Arab citizens of Israel — often referred to as “48 Arabs” — or residents of southern Israel, they do not have Israeli citizenship.

For many Palestinian and Arab citizens of Israel, the 12-day Israel-Iran war in June laid bare a deeper inequity — one that extends beyond conflict and into the fabric of everyday life.

“I haven’t spoken with any of my friends in the north yet, but I saw videos on Instagram,” Shalaldeh said. “Arab families tried to enter shelters and were prevented — because they’re Arab.”

The war, she said, exposed an uncomfortable truth for many Arab citizens of Israel. “After the war, many realized they’re not treated like Israelis — even though they have citizenship, work in Israel and speak Hebrew.”

“There’s an Israeli policy that tries to blur their identity. But the war opened a lot of people’s eyes. It became clear they’re not equal, and the issue of shelters was shocking for many.”

One town where this inequity became alarmingly visible was Tira, a predominantly Arab community in central Israel with roughly 27,000 residents. Though well within the range of missile attacks, Tira lacks adequate public shelters.

“Most of the few shelters that exist are outdated, insufficient, or located far from residential areas,” Fakhri Masri, a political and social activist from Tira, told Arab News. “In emergencies, schools are often opened as temporary shelters, but they only serve nearby neighborhoods and can’t accommodate everyone.

“Many homes do not have protected rooms, and this leaves families, especially those with children or elderly members, extremely vulnerable.”

When sirens sounded during the attacks, panic set in. “It was the middle of the night,” Masri said. “Many of us had to wake our children, some still half asleep, and scramble for any kind of cover.”

With official shelters scarce, families resorted to improvised solutions. “People ran into stairwells, lay on the ground away from windows, or tried to reach school shelters — if they were even open or nearby,” he said.

Others simply fled to their cars or huddled outdoors, hoping distance from buildings would offer some safety.

“It was chaotic, frightening, and it felt like we were left completely on our own,” Masri said. “The fear wasn’t just of rockets — it was also the fear of having no place to run to.”

Underlying this crisis, he argued, is a deeper pattern of state neglect. “Arab towns like Tira were never provided with proper infrastructure or emergency planning like Jewish towns often are,” he said. “That in itself feels like a form of discrimination.

“It makes you feel invisible — like our safety doesn’t matter. It’s a constant reminder that we’re not being protected equally under the same state policies.

“We are not asking for anything more than what every citizen deserves — equal rights, equal protection, and the right to live in safety and dignity. It is a basic human right to feel secure at our own home, to know that our children have somewhere safe to go during an emergency.”

Masri, who has long campaigned for equal emergency protections, called on the Israeli government to end discrimination in shelter planning.

“Treat Arab towns with the same seriousness and care as any other town,” he said. “We are people who want to live in peace. We want our children to grow up in a country where safety is not a privilege but a right — for everyone, Jewish and Arab alike.

“Until that happens, we will keep raising our voices and demanding fairness, because no one should be left behind.”

The picture is similar for the roughly 100,000 Bedouin who live across 35 unrecognized villages in the Negev and Galilee regions, often in makeshift homes that provide little protection. Many of these villages are near sensitive sites targeted by Iran.

One such village is Wadi Al-Na’am, the largest unrecognized village in Israel, home to about 15,000 Bedouin residents in the southern Negev desert.

“When we say unrecognized, it means we have nothing,” said Najib Abu Bnaeh, head of the village’s emergency team and a member of its local council. “No roads, no electricity, no running water — and certainly no shelters.

“During wars, people flee the villages. They hide in caves, under bridges — any place they can find.”

IN NUMBERS

250 Shelters built across Negev since Oct. 7, 2023 — half of them by the state.

60 School-based shelters in East Jerusalem, concentrated in select locations.

1 Public shelter in East Jerusalem.

200 Public shelters in West Jerusalem.

(Source: Bimkom)

After the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on southern Israel, the army began installing a small number of shelters in unrecognized villages. But Abu Bnaeh said that these efforts have fallen short.

“In our village, they built two structures,” he said. “But they have no ceilings, so they don’t protect from anything.”

He estimates that more than 45,000 protective buildings are needed across all unrecognized villages.

As the head of Wadi Al-Na’am’s emergency response team, Abu Bnaeh leads a group of 20 volunteers. Together, they assist residents during missile alerts, evacuating families to shelters in nearby townships such as Segev Shalom and Rahat, and delivering food and medicine.

“We train people how to take cover and survive,” he said. “We also help train teams in other villages how to respond to injuries, missiles and emergencies.

“The best way to protect people is simple. Recognize the villages. Allow us to build shelters.”

Even recognized villages face issues. In Um Bateen, officially recognized in 2004, basic infrastructure is still missing.

“Although our village is recognized, we still don’t have electricity,” Samera Abo Kaf, a resident of the 8,000-strong community, told Arab News.

“There are 48 Bedouin villages in northern Israel. And even those recognized look nothing like Jewish towns nearby.”

Building legally is nearly impossible. “The state refuses to recognize the land we’ve lived on for generations,” she said. “So, we build anyway — out of necessity. But that means living in fear; of winter collapsing our roofs, or bulldozers tearing our homes down.”

Abo Kaf said that the contrast is obvious during her commute. “I pass Beer Sheva and Omer — trees, paved roads, tall buildings. It’s painful. Just 15 minutes away, life is so different.

“And I come from a village that is, in many ways, better off than others,” she added.

With each new conflict, the fear returns. “Israel is a country with many enemies — it’s no secret,” Abo Kaf said. “Every few years, we go through another war. And we Bedouins have no shelters. None.

“So not only are our homes at risk of demolition, but we also live with the threat of rockets. It’s absurd. It’s infuriating. If something doesn’t change, there’s no future.”

Michal Braier, Bimkom’s head of research, said that no government body had responded to its report, though many civil society organizations have supported its findings based on specific cases.

“There are stark protection gaps between high- and low-income communities,” she told Arab News. “And most Arab and Palestinian communities rank low on socio-economic indicators.

“This is a very neo-liberal planning and development policy that, by definition, leaves the weak behind.”
 

 


Turkiye’s Kurdish region finds it difficult to accept peace is at hand

Updated 56 min 30 sec ago
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Turkiye’s Kurdish region finds it difficult to accept peace is at hand

  • Conflict has caused 50,000 deaths among civilians and 2,000 among soldiers

HAKKARI, Turkiye: Southeast Turkiye, where the army has battled Kurdish militants for decades, is not yet convinced that lasting peace is at hand.

In a slickly managed ceremony recently held across the border in Iraq, members of the Kurdish rebel group PKK destroyed their weapons as part of a peace process underway with the Turkish state.

But on the streets and in the tea houses of Hakkari, a Kurdish-majority town some 50 kilometers from the Iraqi border, few people express much hope that the deadly conflict is over.

One tea drinker who was willing to speak asked not to be filmed. “We don’t talk about it,” he said.

The conflict has caused 50,000 deaths among civilians and 2,000 among soldiers, according to Turkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Mehmet Duman, a local, said: “The state must take a step” to match the symbolic operation to destroy PKK weapons in Iraq.

“Turkiye has won,” Erdogan said Saturday, a day after the PKK’s symbolic destruction of weapons signaling the start of the disarmament process. “Eighty-six million citizens have won,” he added.

While he has opened a peace process with the PKK, or Kurdistan Workers’ Party, he has also continued his crackdown on opposition parties.

The government has arrested hundreds of members of the CHP, a social-democratic, secular party. The main opposition force to Erdogan, it is rising in the polls.

Those arrested include the mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem Imamoglu, the party’s likely candidate in the next presidential elections, and the mayors of other major cities who took power when CHP made major gains in March 2024 local elections.

Accused of “corruption,” they deny the charges against them. The crackdown has also hit opposition media outlets, such as the Sozcu channel. 

On Saturday morning, before the plenary session of his AKP party, Erdogan sought to be reassuring.

“We know what we are doing. No one should worry, be afraid, or question anything. Everything we are doing is for Turkiye, for our future and our independence,” he insisted.

The PKK announced in May that it would disband and renounce armed conflict. The move came after PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, who has been imprisoned on an island near Istanbul since 1999, urged his group in February to convene a congress, and formally disband and disarm.

Ocalan renewed his call in a video message broadcast on Wednesday, saying, “I believe in the power of politics and social peace, not weapons.”

The PKK issued a statement from the fighters who were laying down their weapons, saying that they had disarmed “as a gesture of goodwill and a commitment to the practical success” of the peace process.

“We will henceforth continue our struggle for freedom, democracy, and socialism through democratic politics and legal means,” the statement said.

Turkish parliamentary Speaker Numan Kurtulmus said that the initial disarmament step had proceeded “as planned,” but cautioned that the process was far from complete.

“There’s still a long way to go in collecting many more weapons,” Kurtulmus said. “What matters is ending the armed era in a way that ensures weapons are never taken up again.”

The official noted that the Turkish parliament was close to setting up a commission to oversee the peace process.

Devlet Bahceli, Erdogan’s nationalist ally who initiated the peace process, welcomed the ceremony, saying it marks “historic developments that signal the end of a dark era.”


UAE, Turkish presidents reaffirm support for regional stability

Updated 13 July 2025
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UAE, Turkish presidents reaffirm support for regional stability

  • Al-Nahyan, Erdogan discuss regional, international issues in phone call
  • Talks reflect strong ties between Ankara, Abu Dhabi

LONDON: UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan discussed recent developments in the Middle East with his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, on Sunday.

During a telephone call the leaders emphasized their countries’ commitment to supporting all efforts that promote peace and stability in the region, the Emirates News Agency reported.

They emphasized the need for improved coordination to tackle regional crises through dialogue and diplomacy, which they said was essential for achieving lasting peace and stability.

The call reflects the close ties and economic partnership between Ankara and Abu Dhabi and strong cooperation in various sectors.


Syrian Kurdish authorities reiterate call for autonomy after Damascus meeting

Updated 13 July 2025
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Syrian Kurdish authorities reiterate call for autonomy after Damascus meeting

  • The Kurdish administration said Syrians ‘have suffered for decades from a centralized’ regime and called for a decentralized and democratic system
  • The Kurds control vast swathes of territory in Syria’s north, including oil and gas fields

DAMASCUS: Syria’s Kurdish authorities called again on Sunday for a system of government that preserves a measure of their de facto autonomy, days after Damascus rejected “any form” of decentralization.
Mazloum Abdi of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) — the Kurdish administration’s de facto army — and interim President Ahmed Al-Sharaa first struck an accord in March to integrate Kurdish institutions into the state, but its implementation has been held up by differences between the two parties.
The pair met again on Wednesday in the presence of a US envoy to discuss the stalled efforts, but Damascus afterwards reiterated its opposition to “any form of division or federalization,” and called for SDF fighters to be absorbed into the army.
In a statement Sunday, the Kurdish administration called “for a pluralistic democratic system, social justice, gender equality, and a constitution that guarantees the rights of all components” of society.
“Syrians have suffered for decades from a centralized system that monopolized power and wealth, suppressed local will, and dragged the country into successive crises,” it said.
“Today, we aspire to be effective partners in building a new Syria, a decentralized Syria that embraces all its people and guarantees their rights equally.”
The Kurds control vast swathes of territory in Syria’s north, including oil and gas fields.
Kurdish forces, with the support of a Washington-led coalition, played a vital role in the fight against the Daesh group in Syria, which ultimately led to the jihadist group’s territorial defeat.
In an interview with the channel Kurdistan 24 on Wednesday, US ambassador to Turkiye and special envoy to Syria Tom Barrack said that while he recognized the SDF’s role in the fight against the IS group, it had to accept the “reality” that “the only future path for them is Damascus.”