DAMASCUS: Syria’s interim government signed a deal Monday with the Kurdish-led authority that controls the country’s northeast, including a ceasefire and the merging of the main US-backed force there into the Syrian army.
The deal is a major breakthrough that would bring most of Syria under the control of the government, which is led by the Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham group that led the ouster of President Bashar Assad in December.
The deal was signed by interim President Ahmad Al-Sharaa and Mazloum Abdi, the commander of the US-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces.
The deal to be implemented by the end of the year would bring all border crossings with Iraq and Turkiye, airports and oil fields in the northeast under the central government’s control. Prisons where about 9,000 suspected members of the Daesh group are also expected to come under government control.
Syria’s Kurds will gain their “constitutional rights” including using and teaching their language, which were banned for decades under Assad. Hundreds of thousands of Kurds who were displaced during Syria’s nearly 14-year civil war will return to their homes.
The deal also says all Syrians will be part of the political process, no matter their religion or ethnicity.
Syria’s new rulers are struggling to exert their authority across the country and reach political settlements with other minority communities, notably the Druze in southern Syria.
Earlier Monday, Syria’s government announced the end of the military operation against insurgents loyal to Assad and his family in the worst fighting since the end of the civil war.
The Defense Ministry’s announcement came after a surprise attack by gunmen from the Alawite community on a police patrol near the port city of Latakia on Thursday spiraled into widespread clashes across Syria’s coastal region. The Assad family are Alawites.
“To the remaining remnants of the defeated regime and its fleeing officers, our message is clear and explicit,” said Defense Ministry spokesperson Col. Hassan Abdel-Ghani. “If you return, we will also return, and you will find before you men who do not know how to retreat and who will not have mercy on those whose hands are stained with the blood of the innocent.”
Abdel-Ghani said security forces will continue searching for sleeper cells and remnants of the insurgency of former government loyalists.
Though the government’s counter-offensive was able to largely contain the insurgency, footage surfaced of what appeared to be retaliatory attacks targeting the broader minority Alawite community, an offshoot of Shia Islam whose adherents live mainly in the western coastal region.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, said 1,130 people were killed in the clashes, including 830 civilians. The Associated Press could not independently verify these numbers.
Al-Sharaa said the retaliatory attacks against Alawite civilians and mistreatment of prisoners were isolated incidents, and vowed to crack down on the perpetrators as he formed a committee to investigate.
Still, the events alarmed Western governments, who have been urged to lift economic sanctions on Syria.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in a statement Sunday urged Syrian authorities to “hold the perpetrators of these massacres” accountable. Rubio said the US “stands with Syria’s religious and ethnic minorities, including its Christian, Druze, Alawite, and Kurdish communities.”
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Syria’s government signs breakthrough deal with Kurdish-led authorities in northeast
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Syria’s government signs breakthrough deal with Kurdish-led authorities in northeast
- Deal is a major breakthrough that would bring most of Syria under the control of the government
- The deal will bring all border crossings with Iraq and Turkiye, airports and oil fields in the northeast under the central government’s control
Koshary, a spicy Egyptian staple, wins UNESCO recognition
CAIRO: Koshary – a spicy dish of lentils, rice and pasta available at countless Egyptian food stalls – won recognition as a cultural treasure from the UN’s cultural agency on Wednesday, as Cairo makes a broad push to promote its cultural and historical identity abroad.
Egypt’s nomination of koshary for UNESCO’s “Intangible Cultural Heritage” list comes a little over a month after its opening of a sprawling new antiquities museum – another move officials hope will highlight the country’s rich history and lure more tourists.
One popular legend claims koshary originated in northern India and was brought to Egypt by soldiers during the British occupation. But the dish’s origins can in fact be traced through a farther-flung, millennia-old lineage of migration, trade and conquest, food researcher and archaeobotanist Hala Barakat said.
EGYPTIAN DISH, WITH GLOBAL INFLUENCES
Lentils arrived from the Fertile Crescent more than 5,800 years ago, and rice was introduced from East Asia. Tomatoes and chilli peppers were brought from the Americas centuries later, while pasta noodles were a more modern addition.
“These components came together over thousands of years,” Barakat said. “Its name may be Indian, but the Egyptian dish has its own form – and even that varies from Alexandria to Aswan.”
“Koshary in its current form is the koshary Egyptians made their own,” she added.
Egypt’s nomination makes note of this diversity, highlighting the fact that yellow lentils are used on the coast, compared with black lentils in Cairo and Upper Egypt. Some households add boiled eggs, while in Sinai a similar dish called ma’dous is common.
Each of these variations is united by “the special flavour provided by condiments such as vinegar, garlic, and hot sauce, which are added according to preference,” the nomination says.
COUSCOUS, CEVICHE ALSO ON LIST
Making the intangible heritage list is mostly symbolic, and does not bring any direct financial benefit. Other dishes such as couscous – common across the Maghreb region – and the South American dish ceviche are on the list. Italian cuisine was also set to be inscribed this year.
Koshary’s popularity surged in the 20th century as restaurants and brightly decorated street carts proliferated near schools and stations. The absence of animal products has also made it a staple among fasting Coptic Christians and younger Egyptians who are going vegetarian.
Today, the dish is one of Egypt’s most recognizable features, according to Ahmed Shaker, the public relations officer at Abou Tarek Koshary, a popular Cairo restaurant that dates back to 1963.
“Any foreigner or visitor who comes to Egypt visits the Pyramids, visits the museum, and comes to Abou Tarek to eat koshary,” Shaker said.
The dish joins Egypt’s 10 previous “inscriptions,” which include tahteeb, an ancient martial art using sticks, and the Sirat Bani Hilal, an epic oral poem.
UNESCO’s new director-general, Khaled El-Enany, previously served as Egypt’s minister of tourism and antiquities, and has vowed to use his tenure to safeguard cultural traditions.
Egypt’s nomination of koshary for UNESCO’s “Intangible Cultural Heritage” list comes a little over a month after its opening of a sprawling new antiquities museum – another move officials hope will highlight the country’s rich history and lure more tourists.
One popular legend claims koshary originated in northern India and was brought to Egypt by soldiers during the British occupation. But the dish’s origins can in fact be traced through a farther-flung, millennia-old lineage of migration, trade and conquest, food researcher and archaeobotanist Hala Barakat said.
EGYPTIAN DISH, WITH GLOBAL INFLUENCES
Lentils arrived from the Fertile Crescent more than 5,800 years ago, and rice was introduced from East Asia. Tomatoes and chilli peppers were brought from the Americas centuries later, while pasta noodles were a more modern addition.
“These components came together over thousands of years,” Barakat said. “Its name may be Indian, but the Egyptian dish has its own form – and even that varies from Alexandria to Aswan.”
“Koshary in its current form is the koshary Egyptians made their own,” she added.
Egypt’s nomination makes note of this diversity, highlighting the fact that yellow lentils are used on the coast, compared with black lentils in Cairo and Upper Egypt. Some households add boiled eggs, while in Sinai a similar dish called ma’dous is common.
Each of these variations is united by “the special flavour provided by condiments such as vinegar, garlic, and hot sauce, which are added according to preference,” the nomination says.
COUSCOUS, CEVICHE ALSO ON LIST
Making the intangible heritage list is mostly symbolic, and does not bring any direct financial benefit. Other dishes such as couscous – common across the Maghreb region – and the South American dish ceviche are on the list. Italian cuisine was also set to be inscribed this year.
Koshary’s popularity surged in the 20th century as restaurants and brightly decorated street carts proliferated near schools and stations. The absence of animal products has also made it a staple among fasting Coptic Christians and younger Egyptians who are going vegetarian.
Today, the dish is one of Egypt’s most recognizable features, according to Ahmed Shaker, the public relations officer at Abou Tarek Koshary, a popular Cairo restaurant that dates back to 1963.
“Any foreigner or visitor who comes to Egypt visits the Pyramids, visits the museum, and comes to Abou Tarek to eat koshary,” Shaker said.
The dish joins Egypt’s 10 previous “inscriptions,” which include tahteeb, an ancient martial art using sticks, and the Sirat Bani Hilal, an epic oral poem.
UNESCO’s new director-general, Khaled El-Enany, previously served as Egypt’s minister of tourism and antiquities, and has vowed to use his tenure to safeguard cultural traditions.
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