DAMASCUS: France’s foreign minister said Thursday that sustaining the fight against the Daesh group is an “absolute priority” for Paris, after meeting his Syrian counterpart in Damascus.
Jean-Noel Barrot is on the first stop of a regional tour as France reassesses how to tackle militants after Kurdish allies in Syria, who were guarding detained Daesh militants, were forced to disband under pressure from Damascus.
Barrot will move on to Iraq on Thursday afternoon before heading to Lebanon on Friday, according to the French foreign ministry.
In the Syrian capital, he met his counterpart Asaad Al-Shaibani, with the pair discussing how to prevent a resurgence of Daesh fighters after the Kurdish forces’ withdrawal from swathes of northern Syria.
“For 10 years, France has fought relentlessly and mercilessly against the terrorists of Daesh in Iraq as well as in Syria,” said Barrot, using an Arabic acronym for Daesh.
“I have come to reaffirm this absolute priority of France here in Syria.”
Until now, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces had been the main partner on the ground of a western anti- militant coalition, but under military pressure from Damascus they are to integrate into the Syrian army.
“This tour stems from the convergence of two crises,” a French diplomatic source told AFP, referring to Barrot’s trip.
“One that erupted very recently in northeastern Syria, with clashes between the Syrian authorities in Damascus and the Kurdish-dominated SDF, and the ever-present threat of a military escalation between the United States and Iran.”
Western powers must now work with Syria’s government to contain Daesh, the source said, but “there is not the same history, the same reflexes developed together, or the same bonds of trust,” alluding to Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa’s past.
Sharaa, who overthrew former Syrian president Bashar Assad in December 2024, has been seeking to impose his authority over all the country including Kurdish-controlled areas.
Other issues on Barrot’s agenda will be the question of integrating Syria’s myriad minorities into its new political landscape.
France has positioned itself as an advocate of Kurdish rights and will be pushing Damascus to comply with an agreement announced last week aimed at integrating Kurdish institutions and forces into the Syrian state.
The agreement dashed the Kurds’ hopes of retaining an autonomous zone they had established in northern and northeastern Syria during a civil war that ravaged Syria between 2011 and 2024.
France tells Syria anti-Daesh fight is its ‘absolute priority’
https://arab.news/276g8
France tells Syria anti-Daesh fight is its ‘absolute priority’
- Barrot will move on to Iraq on Thursday afternoon before heading to Lebanon on Friday
- “For 10 years, France has fought relentlessly and mercilessly against the terrorists of Daesh in Iraq as well as in Syria,” said Barrot
Lebanese government imposes immediate ban on Hezbollah’s military activities
BERUIT: Lebanon's government said Hezbollah’s overnight attack against Israel were “illegal” and imposed an immediate ban on the group’s military activities, while also demanding its hand over its weapons.
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said only the state could decide whether to go to war and called on the Lebanese military to prevent the firing of projectiles and detain anyone involved.
The move comes after Iran-backed Hezbollah launched rockets at Israel, provoking retaliatory Israeli strikes. The government convened for five hours and 15 minutes in an early morning meeting on Monday before reaching its decision.
The Lebanese cabinet meeting, chaired by President Joseph Aoun, started at 8am with ministers discussing the repercussions Hezbollah's launching of missiles from southern Lebanon into Israel and the Israeli attacks on Lebanon.
Sources initially told Arab News that ministers were “pushing for a decisive response to Hezbollah’s recklessness, regardless of the consequences.”
Lebanese MP Melhem Khalaf said the priority was to “shelter people that are evacuating their homes in relatively safe places. What happened at dawn on Monday has taken us from one stage to another, and we don't know where they've taken us.”
As US-Israeli attacks on Iran continued, Hezbollah said it fired missiles from Lebanon into Israel early Monday in response to the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and “repeated Israeli aggressions.”
There were no reports of injuries or damage, and Israel said it had intercepted one projectile, while several fell in open areas.
Israel retaliated with strikes on Lebanon, killing at least 31 people and wounding 149 others, according to Lebanon's Health Ministry. Around two thirds of the dead were in the south of the country.
Lebanon’s government said it was holding an emergency meeting after Hezbollah’s attack triggered the Israeli airstrikes.
Iran has been firing missiles at Israel and Arab states in a counter-offensive since the joint America-Israeli attack Saturday that killed Khamenei and other top Iranian officials. The war has quickly expanded to proxy forces, including Hezbollah firing out of Lebanon.
MP Bilal Abdullah told Arab News: “All the appeals issued by officials in Lebanon not to embroil us in this destructive war seem to have been in vain. We were supposed to protect Lebanon.
“Whoever launched the missiles and drones from Lebanon has slaughtered Lebanon. Displacing people is a major tragedy. We are in the winter season, and the cold is severe.”
