GENEVA: The United Nations rights chief warned on Tuesday that Israel’s airstrike targeting Hamas leaders in Qatar last week threatened regional peace and stability and urged “accountability for unlawful killings.”
“Israel’s strike on negotiators in Doha on September 9 was a shocking breach of international law,” Volker Turk told the UN Human Rights Council.
Israel targeted Hamas leaders last week in strikes on the Qatari capital, killing five Hamas members and a Qatari security officer.
The attack drew widespread international condemnation, including from Gulf monarchies allied with the United States, Israel’s main backer.
Opening an urgent debate on the strike before the council, Turk described it as “an assault on regional peace and stability, and a blow against the integrity of mediation and negotiating processes around the world.”
“As such, I condemn it and call on this Council and all governments to do the same.”
The council announced on Monday that it would convene the 10th urgent debate since its creation in 2006 following two official requests from member states of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf.
Israel, which disengaged from the rights council earlier this year, reacted angrily to the news of the urgent debate.
“This marks yet another shameful chapter in the Human Rights Council’s ongoing abuse,” Israel’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Daniel Meron, told journalists.
He accused the council of “serving as a platform for anti-Israel propaganda, while ignoring the brutal realities on the ground and the atrocities committed by Hamas.”
Turk said Israel’s September 9 attack “violated the right to life under international human rights law and the principles of international humanitarian law.”
“Targeting parties engaged in internationally supported mediation on its territory undermines Qatar’s key role as a facilitator and peace broker.
“It is an attack on global efforts to resolve conflicts peacefully,” he said.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights called on the council “to reaffirm the central importance of mediation processes and to call for accountability for unlawful killings.”
UN warns Israel’s Qatar attack as assault on ‘regional peace and stability’
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UN warns Israel’s Qatar attack as assault on ‘regional peace and stability’
- Volker Turk: ‘Israel’s strike on negotiators in Doha on September 9 was a shocking breach of international law’
Syria’s growth accelerates as sanctions ease, refugees return
- Economy grows much faster than World Bank’s 1% estimate, fueling plans for currency’s relaunch
NEW YORK: Syria’s economy is growing much faster than the World Bank’s 1 percent estimate for 2025 as refugees flow back after the end of a 14-year civil war, fueling plans for the relaunch of the country’s currency and efforts to build a new Middle East financial hub, central bank Governor AbdulKader Husrieh has said.
Speaking via video link at a conference in New York, Husrieh also said he welcomed a deal with Visa to establish digital payment systems and added that the country is working with the International Monetary Fund to develop methods to accurately measure economic data to reflect the resurgence.
The Syrian central bank chief, who is helping guide the war-torn country’s reintegration into the global economy after the fall of Bashar Assad’s regime about a year ago, described the repeal of many US sanctions against Syria as “a miracle.”
The US Treasury on Nov. 10 announced a 180-day extension of the suspension of the so-called Caesar sanctions against Syria; lifting them entirely requires approval by the US Congress.
Husrieh said that based on discussions with US lawmakers, he expects the sanctions to be repealed by the end of 2025, ending “the last episode of the sanctions.”
“Once this happens, this will give comfort to our potential correspondent banks about dealing with Syria,” he said.
Husrieh also said that Syria was working to revamp regulations aimed at combating money laundering and the financing of terrorism, which he said would provide further assurances to international lenders.
Syria’s central bank has recently organized workshops with banks from the US, Turkiye, Jordan and Australia to discuss due diligence in reviewing transactions, he added.
Husrieh said that Syria is preparing to launch a new currency in eight note denominations and confirmed plans to remove two zeroes from them in a bid to restore confidence in the battered pound.
“The new currency will be a signal and symbol for this financial liberation,” Husrieh said. “We are glad that we are working with Visa and Mastercard,” Husrieh said.
