BEIRUT: Lebanese President Joseph Aoun visits France on Friday, his first trip to a European country since his January election and as Paris pushes Beirut for long-demanded political and economic reforms.
He is due to meet President Emmanuel Macron, who on a visit to Beirut days after Aoun’s appointment said France would hold an international aid conference to support Lebanon’s reconstruction after a devastating war between Israel and Hezbollah.
No date for the conference has been announced.
Aoun was elected president after the position had been vacant for more than two years, under international pressure, including from former colonial power France.
His election, along with the formation of a new government in February led by reformist premier Nawaf Salam, ended a prolonged political impasse.
The breakthroughs came after the Iran-backed Hezbollah group, long a powerful player in Lebanese politics, was left heavily weakened in the war.
Lebanon’s new leaders now face the arduous task of reconstructing swathes of the country, and overseeing the disarmament of Hezbollah, beginning in south Lebanon.
They must also carry out reforms demanded by the international community to unlock bailout funds amid a five-year economic collapse widely blamed on official mismanagement and corruption.
“This visit to France is symbolically important” because Paris stood alongside Washington and Riyadh in pushing hardest for Aoun’s election, said Karim Bitar, lecturer in Middle East studies at Sciences-Po university in Paris.
The trip also aims to restore France’s “traditional role” in mobilizing “countries friendly to Lebanon” for their support at donor conferences, he added.
On Wednesday, Aoun told visiting French envoy Jean-Yves Le Drian that he and the new government were “determined to overcome the difficulties that the reform process may face in the economic, banking, finance and judicial areas.”
Bitar said that despite recent optimism, “there are still reasons to fear the new leaders’ task will not be so simple.”
He accused “private interests” intrinsically linked to political, economic and media powers of seeking to “defend the system that has endured” since Lebanon’s 1975-1990 civil war.
Such interests also seek to “prevent any economic or social reform, any state-building,” or agreement with the International Monetary Fund, he charged.
Bitar also warned that Hezbollah was “not yet ready to hand over its weapons to the Lebanese state.”
Under the November 27 ceasefire, Hezbollah was to withdraw its forces north of the Litani River, about 30 kilometers (18 miles) from the Israeli border.
The Lebanese army was to deploy in the area, and any remaining Hezbollah military infrastructure there was to be dismantled.
The ceasefire, which France helps monitor, is based on United Nations Security Council resolutions calling for the disarmament of all non-state armed groups.
Israel still regularly strikes what it says are Hezbollah targets and occupies five border points it considers strategic.
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Lebanese president heading to France on first Europe visit since election
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Lebanese president heading to France on first Europe visit since election
- “This visit to France is symbolically important” because Paris stood alongside Washington and Riyadh in pushing hardest for Aoun’s election, said Karim Bitar
- The trip also aims to restore France’s “traditional role” in mobilizing “countries friendly to Lebanon” for their support at donor conferences, he added
Syrian army extends hold over north Syria, Kurds report clashes
DEIR HAFER: Syria’s army has seized swathes of the country’s north, dislodging Kurdish forces from territory over which they held effective autonomy for more than a decade.
The government appeared to be extending its grip on Kurdish-run areas after President Ahmed Al-Sharaa issued a decree declaring Kurdish a “national language” and granting the minority group official recognition.
The Kurds have said Friday’s announcement fell short of their aspirations, while the implementation of a March deal — intended to see Kurdish forces integrated into the state — has stalled.
Government troops drove Kurdish forces from two Aleppo neighborhoods last week and on Saturday took control of an area east of the city.
On Sunday, the government announced the capture of Tabqa, about 55 kilometers (34 miles) west of Raqqa.
“The Syrian army controls the strategic city of Tabqa in the Raqqa countryside, including the Euphrates Dam, which is the largest dam in Syria,” said Information Minister Hamza Almustafa, according to the official SANA news agency.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), however, said they had “taken the necessary measures to restore security and stability” in Tabqa.
In Deir Hafer, some 50 kilometers east of Aleppo city, an AFP correspondent saw several SDF fighters leaving the town and residents returning under heavy army presence.
Syria’s army said four soldiers had been killed, while Kurdish forces reported several fighters dead. Both sides traded blame for violating a withdrawal deal.
Kurdish authorities ordered a curfew in the Raqqa region after the army designated a swathe of territory southwest of the Euphrates River a “closed military zone,” warning it would target what it said were several military sites.
The SANA news agency reported Sunday that the SDF destroyed two bridges over the Euphrates in Raqqa city, which lies on the eastern bank of the river.
Raqqa’s media directorate separately accused the SDF of cutting off Raqqa city’s water supply by blowing up the main water pipes.
Deir Ezzor governor Ghassan Alsayed Ahmed said on social media that the SDF fired “rocket projectiles” at neighborhoods in government-controlled territories in the city center of Deir Ezzor, Al-Mayadin, and other areas.
The SDF said “factions affiliated with the Damascus government attacked our forces’ positions” and caused clashes in several towns on the east bank of the Euphrates, opposite Al-Mayadin and which lie between Deir Ezzor and the Iraqi border.
- ‘Betrayed’ -
On Friday, Syrian Kurdish leader and SDF chief Mazloum Abdi had committed to redeploying his forces from outside Aleppo to east of the Euphrates.
But the SDF said Saturday that Damascus had “violated the recent agreements and betrayed our forces,” with clashes erupting with troops south of Tabqa.
The army urged the SDF to “immediately fulfil its announced commitments and fully withdraw” east of the river.
The SDF controls swathes of Syria’s oil?rich north and northeast, areas captured during the civil war and the fight against the Daesh group over the past decade.
US envoy Tom Barrack met Abdi in Irbil on Saturday, the presidency of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region said.
While Washington has long supported Kurdish forces, it has also backed Syria’s new authorities.
US Central Command on Saturday urged Syrian government forces “to cease any offensive actions in the areas between Aleppo and al?Tabqa.”
France’s President Emmanuel Macron and the president of Iraqi Kurdistan, Nechirvan Barzani, also called for de-escalation and a ceasefire.
- Presidential decree -
Sharaa’s announcement on Friday marked the first formal recognition of Kurdish rights since Syria’s independence in 1946.
The decree stated that Kurds are “an essential and integral part” of Syria, where they have suffered decades of marginalization.
It made Kurdish a “national language” and granted nationality to all Kurds — around 20 percent of whom were stripped of it under a controversial 1962 census.
The Kurdish administration in Syria’s northeast said the decree was “a first step” but “does not satisfy the aspirations and hopes of the Syrian people.
In Qamishli, the main Kurdish city in the country’s northeast, Shebal Ali, 35, told AFP that “we want constitutional recognition of the Kurdish people’s rights.”
Nanar Hawach, senior Syria analyst at the International Crisis Group, said the decree “offers cultural concessions while consolidating military control.”
“It does not address the northeast’s calls for self-governance,” he said.
Also Saturday, the US military said a strike in northwest Syria had killed a militant linked to a deadly attack on three Americans last month.
The government appeared to be extending its grip on Kurdish-run areas after President Ahmed Al-Sharaa issued a decree declaring Kurdish a “national language” and granting the minority group official recognition.
The Kurds have said Friday’s announcement fell short of their aspirations, while the implementation of a March deal — intended to see Kurdish forces integrated into the state — has stalled.
Government troops drove Kurdish forces from two Aleppo neighborhoods last week and on Saturday took control of an area east of the city.
On Sunday, the government announced the capture of Tabqa, about 55 kilometers (34 miles) west of Raqqa.
“The Syrian army controls the strategic city of Tabqa in the Raqqa countryside, including the Euphrates Dam, which is the largest dam in Syria,” said Information Minister Hamza Almustafa, according to the official SANA news agency.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), however, said they had “taken the necessary measures to restore security and stability” in Tabqa.
In Deir Hafer, some 50 kilometers east of Aleppo city, an AFP correspondent saw several SDF fighters leaving the town and residents returning under heavy army presence.
Syria’s army said four soldiers had been killed, while Kurdish forces reported several fighters dead. Both sides traded blame for violating a withdrawal deal.
Kurdish authorities ordered a curfew in the Raqqa region after the army designated a swathe of territory southwest of the Euphrates River a “closed military zone,” warning it would target what it said were several military sites.
The SANA news agency reported Sunday that the SDF destroyed two bridges over the Euphrates in Raqqa city, which lies on the eastern bank of the river.
Raqqa’s media directorate separately accused the SDF of cutting off Raqqa city’s water supply by blowing up the main water pipes.
Deir Ezzor governor Ghassan Alsayed Ahmed said on social media that the SDF fired “rocket projectiles” at neighborhoods in government-controlled territories in the city center of Deir Ezzor, Al-Mayadin, and other areas.
The SDF said “factions affiliated with the Damascus government attacked our forces’ positions” and caused clashes in several towns on the east bank of the Euphrates, opposite Al-Mayadin and which lie between Deir Ezzor and the Iraqi border.
- ‘Betrayed’ -
On Friday, Syrian Kurdish leader and SDF chief Mazloum Abdi had committed to redeploying his forces from outside Aleppo to east of the Euphrates.
But the SDF said Saturday that Damascus had “violated the recent agreements and betrayed our forces,” with clashes erupting with troops south of Tabqa.
The army urged the SDF to “immediately fulfil its announced commitments and fully withdraw” east of the river.
The SDF controls swathes of Syria’s oil?rich north and northeast, areas captured during the civil war and the fight against the Daesh group over the past decade.
US envoy Tom Barrack met Abdi in Irbil on Saturday, the presidency of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region said.
While Washington has long supported Kurdish forces, it has also backed Syria’s new authorities.
US Central Command on Saturday urged Syrian government forces “to cease any offensive actions in the areas between Aleppo and al?Tabqa.”
France’s President Emmanuel Macron and the president of Iraqi Kurdistan, Nechirvan Barzani, also called for de-escalation and a ceasefire.
- Presidential decree -
Sharaa’s announcement on Friday marked the first formal recognition of Kurdish rights since Syria’s independence in 1946.
The decree stated that Kurds are “an essential and integral part” of Syria, where they have suffered decades of marginalization.
It made Kurdish a “national language” and granted nationality to all Kurds — around 20 percent of whom were stripped of it under a controversial 1962 census.
The Kurdish administration in Syria’s northeast said the decree was “a first step” but “does not satisfy the aspirations and hopes of the Syrian people.
In Qamishli, the main Kurdish city in the country’s northeast, Shebal Ali, 35, told AFP that “we want constitutional recognition of the Kurdish people’s rights.”
Nanar Hawach, senior Syria analyst at the International Crisis Group, said the decree “offers cultural concessions while consolidating military control.”
“It does not address the northeast’s calls for self-governance,” he said.
Also Saturday, the US military said a strike in northwest Syria had killed a militant linked to a deadly attack on three Americans last month.
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