DAMASCUS: Israel’s air force struck near the Syrian Arab Republic’s presidential palace early Friday after warning Syrian authorities not to march toward villages inhabited by members of a minority sect in southern Syria.
The strike came after days of clashes between pro-Syrian government gunmen and fighters who belong to the Druze minority sect near the capital, Damascus. The clashes left dozens of people dead or wounded.
Syria’s presidency condemned the Israeli airstrike, calling it a “dangerous escalation against state institutions and the soveignty of the state.” It called on the international community to stand by Syria, saying that such attacks “target Syria national security and the unity of the Syrian people.”
Friday’s strike was Israel’s second on Syria this week, and attacking an area close to the presidential palace appears to send a strong warning to Syria’s new leadership that is mostly made up of Islamist groups led by Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham.
On Thursday, Syria’s Druze spiritual leader Sheikh Hikmat Al-Hijri harshly criticized Syria’s government for what he called an “unjustified genocidal attack” on the minority community.
Early Friday, the Druze religious leadership said that the community is part of Syria and refuses to break away from the country, adding that the role of the state should be activated in the southern province of Sweida and authorities should be in control of the Sweida-Damascus highway.
“We confirm our commitment to a country that includes all Syrians, a nation that is free of strife,” the statement said.
In the Damascus suburb of Jaramana, where fighting occurred earlier this week, security forces deployed inside the area along with local Druze gunmen, and at a later stage heavy weapons will be handed over to authorities. As part of the deal, forces from the defense ministry will deploy around Jaramana without going inside.
Israeli fighter jets strike near the palace
The Israeli army said that fighter jets struck adjacent to the area of the Palace of President Ahmad Al-Sharaa in Damascus. Its statement gave no further details.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz said that the strike was “a clear message” to Syrian leaders.
“We will not allow the deployment of forces south of Damascus or any threat to the Druze community,” the joint statement said.
Pro-government Syrian media outlets said that the strike hit close to the People’s Palace on a hill overlooking the city.
Over the past two days, the Israeli military said that it had evacuated Syrian Druze who were wounded in the fighting.
The Israeli army said in a statement Friday that a soldier was killed and three were slightly injured in an accident in the Golan Heights. An army statement added that the soldiers were evacuated to receive medical treatment at a hospital and that the circumstances of the incident were being investigated.
Clashes set off by disputed audio clip
The clashes broke out around midnight Monday after an audio clip circulated on social media of a man criticizing Islam’s Prophet Muhammad. The audio was attributed to a Druze cleric. But cleric Marwan Kiwan said in a video posted on social media that he was not responsible for the audio, which angered many Sunni Muslims.
Syria’s Information Ministry said that 11 members of the country’s security forces were killed in two separate attacks, while Britain-based war monitor The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that 99 people — over the past four days of which 51 were killed in Sahnaya and the Druze-majority Damascus suburb of Jaramana — were killed in clashes, among them local gunmen and security forces.
The Druze religious sect is a minority group that began as a 10th-century offshoot of Ismailism, a branch of Shiite Islam. More than half of the roughly 1 million Druze worldwide live in Syria, largely in the southern Sweida province and some suburbs of Damascus.
Most of the other Druze live in Lebanon and Israel, including in the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Mideast War and annexed in 1981.
Israeli military strikes near Syria’s presidential palace after warning over sectarian attacks
https://arab.news/43xhm
Israeli military strikes near Syria’s presidential palace after warning over sectarian attacks
- Friday’s strike was Israel’s second on Syria this week
- The Israeli army said that fighter jets struck adjacent to the area of the Palace of President Ahmad Al-Sharaa in Damascus
Trump warns US to end support for Iraq if Al-Maliki returns
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump on Tuesday threatened to end all US support for Iraq if Nouri Al-Maliki, a former prime minister with ties to Iran, returns to the post.
Trump, in his latest blatant intervention in another country’s politics, said that Iraq would make a “very bad choice” with Maliki, who has been nominated as prime minister by the largest Shiite bloc.
“Last time Al-Maliki was in power, the Country descended into poverty and total chaos. That should not be allowed to happen again,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
“Because of his insane policies and ideologies, if elected, the United States of America will no longer help Iraq,” he said.
“If we are not there to help, Iraq has ZERO chance of Success, Prosperity, or Freedom. MAKE IRAQ GREAT AGAIN!” he wrote, adopting his slogan at home.
Maliki left power in 2014 following pressure from the United States, which blamed his nakedly sectarian Shiite agenda for giving rise to the Daesh group of ultra-violent Sunni extremists.
The United States wields key leverage over Iraq as its oil export revenue is largely held at the Federal Reserve Bank in New York, in an arrangement reached after the 2003 US invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.
Oil sales account for around 90 percent of Iraqi government revenues.
Trump’s statement came days after Secretary of State Marco Rubio voiced similar concerns in a telephone call with the incumbent prime minister, Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani. The United States had also sent a letter to Iraqi politicians saying that Washington views Al-Maliki negatively, political sources said.
Delay in parliament
By convention, a Shiite Muslim has been prime minister since the fall of Saddam, who ruthlessly repressed the Shiite majority in Iraq.
On Saturday, the Coordination Framework, an alliance of Shiite parties with varying ties to Iran that holds a parliamentary majority, endorsed Maliki.
Normally he would then be nominated by the president, who holds a largely ceremonial role.
Iraq’s parliament was set to elect a president on Tuesday but the vote was abruptly delayed.
The presidency traditionally goes to a Kurd, and the official INA press agency said that the two main Kurdish parties had requested more time to come to a consensus on a candidate.
Before Trump’s open call to dump Maliki, an Iraqi political source said that the Coordination Framework was set on moving forward with the nomination, believing that Al-Maliki could eventually allay Washington’s concerns.
A pro-Iranian government in Iraq would be a rare boon for Tehran’s Shiite clerical state after it suffered major setbacks at home and in the region.
The Islamic republic has killed thousands of Iranians since mass protests erupted in late December in one of the largest threats to the clerics’ rule since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
Since suffering the October 7, 2023 attacks, Israel has hit Iran both with strikes inside the country and heavy blows against Tehran’s Lebanese ally Hezbollah, while Iran lost its main Arab ally with the fall of Bashar Assad in Syria.
The United States has enjoyed smooth relations with Sudani, who has worked quietly to prevent violence by Iraqi Shiite armed groups tied to Iran.
Sudani has also cooperated with the United States to bring into Iraq a caravan of Islamic State prisoners from Syria, where the army recently moved on Kurdish fighters who had run the detention camps.
Even during Sudani’s term, Al-Maliki annoyed the then US administration of Joe Biden by helping push through a harsh anti-LGBTQ law.
The United States has long intervened in other countries, but Trump has broken precedent by meddling openly.
Trump has backed fellow right-wing candidates in elections in Poland, Romania and Honduras, where the Trump-backed winner was inaugurated Tuesday.
Trump earlier this month ordered a deadly military operation into Venezuela that removed leftist president Nicolas Maduro, a longtime US nemesis.
