The Syrian opposition figures were apparently offended by Syrian government flags in the airport [Image from social media]

by Al Jazeera

Russia-hosted talks on the war in Syria are being held in Sochi without the representation of any major opposition group.

Turkey-backed rebel figures have refused to leave the Russian city’s airport in a last-minute protest.

An amateur video obtained by Al Jazeera on Tuesday showed a group of Syrian opposition delegates, who had arrived from Ankara late on Monday, waiting for a flight back to Turkey.

“Late last night, there was a kerfuffle down at the airport here – distressed Turkish officials running around trying to persuade a group of Turkish-backed opposition delegates to leave the airport,” said Al Jazeera’s Rory Challands, reporting from Sochi, referring to Monday evening.

“They apparently didn’t want to come out of the airport buildings because they had seen Syrian government flags plastered all over the branding for this Sochi conference, and that upset them.”

New constitution

The Sochi event, officially known as a Syrian Congress of National Dialogue, aims to foster an agreement between the government and the opposition to form a commission to write a new constitution for the war-torn country, Challands said.

But that seemed unlikely to happen without backing from major opposition figures.

The Syrian Negotiation Commission (SNC), the country’s main opposition group, said following two days of UN-led talks in Vienna last week it would not attend the Sochi congress.

The SNC accused Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his Russian backers of continuing to rely on military might and showing no willingness to enter into honest negotiations.

Authorities from Syria’s Kurdish autonomous region said at the weekend they would also boycott the event because of the ongoing Turkish offensive on the Kurdish enclave of Afrin.

“The belief among the opposition has always been that the Sochi conference, and probably this commission as well, is essentially representing Moscow and Damascus interests,” Challands said.

“They, along with Turkey, have been saying over the past few hours and days that perhaps they would agree with the proposals of the commission as long as it is limited and focused on maintaining direction towards Geneva [the UN-curated peace process].”

He added the opposition groups believed talks in Geneva were going to ultimately give the final peace settlement for Syria.

“And Turkey and the Syrian opposition groups do not want anything to deviate from that.”

The Sochi conference was originally scheduled to be a two-day event, but it was shortened to a one-day forum on Tuesday.

Russia’s Tass news agency on Tuesday cited the forum’s organising committee as saying that 1,511 out of more than 1,600 invited delegates arrived in Sochi for the event from Syria, Geneva, Cairo, Moscow and Ankara.

The committee source reportedly said 107 delegates were representing the Syrian “domestic” opposition, including Qadri Jamil from “the Moscow platform”, Randa Kassis from “the Astana platform”, Syria’s Tomorrow Movement led by Ahmad Jarba, Haytham Manna from National Coordination Committee for Democratic Change and representatives of the Civil Movement.

The committee source broke down the ethnicities of the participants, saying the majority were Arabs. Kurds, Yazidis, Assyrians, Armenians, Circassians, Chechens, Dagestanis, Abkhazians, Turkmens and Druze were also represented, according to the source.

Inside Syria, clashes and air raids by the Turkish army continued against Syrian Kurdish fighters in Afrin on the eve of the Sochi congress on Monday, with new civilian casualties reported.

In neighbouring Idlib, at least 23 civilians were killed on Monday in air raids launched by Syrian government warplanes, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) and Syrian Civil Defence.

The incident led to angry protests in various parts of Kasur that resulted in deaths and several injuries [Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

Police have arrested the main suspect involved in the rape and murder of a seven-year-old girl in the central Punjab province of Pakistan, a police official told Al Jazeera.

Zainab Ansari was found dead in a rubbish dump on January 9 in Kasur, several days after her disappearance.

An autopsy revealed she had been raped and strangled to death.

“The suspect lives in the same [area] where Zainab lived,” a police district official confirmed to Al Jazeera on Tuesday.

The suspect has confessed, the official said.

“He was arrested before, but was released as we did not have evidence. After that, he shaved his beard off so that no one could recognise him.”

The rape and murder of Zainab Ansari was the 12th such case in Kasur district in the last year, according to local media reports.

The incident led to angry protests in various parts of Kasur that resulted in at least two deaths and several injuries.

In 2015, Kasur was in the international headlines when hundreds of videos of child molestation surfaced, and police later arrested several members of a racket involved in selling child pornography to websites in Europe.

Most of the victims were under 14, including a six-year-old boy, according to officials.

The hashtag #JusticeForZainab has trended in Pakistan and elsewhere.

Aidarous al-Zubaidi held a meeting in Aden on the future of South Yemen [Courtesy of Southern Transitional Council]

by Al Jazeera

A group of separatists in southern Yemen, backed by the United Arab Emirates (UAE), have declared a state of emergency in the port city of Aden and vowed to overthrow the country’s internationally recognised government within the next week.

Aidarous al-Zubaidi, the leader of the Southern Transitional Council (STC), said Yemen’s parliament would be barred from convening in Aden or anywhere else in southern Yemen unless President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi replaced Prime Minister Ahmed bin Daghr and his entire cabinet.

Speaking at a meeting on Sunday, al-Zubaidi accused Hadi’s government of “rampant corruption” and of “waging a misinformation campaign against the southern leaders using state funds”.

“The Southern Resistance Forces (SRF) declare a state of emergency in Aden and announce that it has begun the process of overthrowing the legitimate government and replacing it with a cabinet of technocrats,” a statement issued by the STC said.

The SRF, an armed group that has clashed with forces loyal to Hadi for control of strategic areas including Aden airport, will “become the core of a new force that will rebuild South Yemen’s security and military institutions,” the statement added.

Several commanders from security forces set up by the UAE attended the meeting and declared their support for the announcement.

The statement, however, did not give details on how it intended to topple Hadi’s government, only that he had a week to comply.

Different agendas?
The announcement underscores rising tensions between Hadi’s government, which is supported by Saudi Arabia, and the southern separatists, who are backed by the UAE.

The UAE entered Yemen’s war in March 2015 as part of a Saudi-led coalition after Houthi rebels, traditionally based in the northwest of the country, overran much of the country, including the capital Sanaa, in 2014.

Nearly three years on, Saudi Arabia has said it “wants out” of the war, but the UAE has become more involved in the conflict, indicating a divide in the two countries’ agendas.

The UAE has been financing and training armed groups in the south of the country who answer to al-Zubaidi, a 50-year-old militia leader who emerged from relative obscurity in late 2015 after helping purge the Houthis from Aden.

Al-Zubaidi was initially rewarded and made governor of Aden by Hadi, but soon fell out of favour after reports emerged he was receiving patronage from the UAE to campaign for secession.

The Middle East Eye news website, quoting sources, reported that Hadi was incensed with the UAE, accusing Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed of acting as an occupying force, as opposed to a liberation force.

Hadi’s weakening has gone hand-in-hand with the UAE’s growing power in southern Yemen.

The Gulf nation has financed a network of militias that only answer to it, set up prisons, and created a security establishment parallel to Hadi’s government, according to Human Rights Watch.

The Arab coalition has so far failed to achieve its stated aims as Houthi rebels continue to hold the capital Sanaa and much of the north.

The war has taken a huge toll on the country with more than 60,000 people killed and wounded by fighting, and millions of Yemenis at risk of famine amid a massive cholera outbreak.

The Lebanese army said it is continuing to search for other displaced people trapped in the snow [Jamal Saidi/Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

The bodies of nine Syrian refugees who crossed into Lebanon were found frozen in a mountainous area near the border with Syria, according to the Lebanese army.

The military said in a statement that the bodies were discovered on a people-smuggling route in the early hours of Friday after a snowstorm hit the Masnaa area, where Lebanon’s largest official border crossing with Syria is located.

“The army saved six other displaced Syrians, one of whom died later in a hospital from frostbite,” the statement added, raising the death toll to 10.

“The bodies were taken to the hospitals in the area, and the army continues to search for other displaced people trapped in the snow, in order to evacuate them and provide medical treatment for them.”

10 bodies of Syrians were found near the Lebanon-Syria border crossing in Masna'a. 5 refugees were found alive. It appears they died while trying to cross into Lebanon. All countries bordering on Syria have locked their borders to refugees. https://t.co/I7mlmDaSJe via @chehayebk pic.twitter.com/58xxSGYtlE

— Elizabeth Tsurkov (@Elizrael) January 19, 2018

The identities of the Syrian refugees were not immediately known. According to some reports, at least one child was found among the bodies.

Two other Syrian nationals were arrested and charged with people-smuggling, the army added.

‘We are deprived of everything’
Temperatures dropped on Friday as winter storms battered the Lebanon-Syria border, making the lives of the more than 357,000 Syrian refugees living in makeshift tents in the Bekaa Valley, some 60km north of Masnaa, even more difficult.

Reporting from the region, Al Jazeera’s correspondent Zeina Khodr said that Syrian refugees “face many challenges during the winter months”.

“They live in tents that are made out of plastic sheeting, which does little to protect them from the cold and the rain,” she said.

Hammadi Chelbi, a Syrian refugee who has been living in Bekaa Valley after he fled the Syrian conflict in its first year, told Al Jazeera that he and his family are living in misery.

“We have nothing but pain, sickness and suffering,” he said. “We are deprived of everything.”

There are one million registered Syrian refugees in Lebanon, although government officials estimate that the number is closer to 1.5 million.

The UN’s refugee agency (UNHCR) says it is not getting the money it needs to help Syrian refugees in Lebanon through another harsh winter.

Last year, it requested $228m but received less than 60 percent of that, prompting it to warn that life in the camps was getting worse.

Sheikh Abdullah bin Ali Al Thani was last seen in a wheelchair after arriving in Kuwait [Al Jazeera]

by Al Jazeera

A member of the Qatari royal family, who was allegedly held against his will in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), has accused Saudi Arabia and the UAE of orchestrating a months-long Gulf crisis in order to seize Qatar’s wealth, and threatened to commit suicide.

Sheikh Abdullah bin Ali Al Thani has previously been portrayed by Saudi Arabia and the UAE as the main opposition figure to the Qatari government amid the major diplomatic dispute.

In an audio recording from January 15 obtained by Al Jazeera, Sheikh Abdullah said he was put under “tremendous pressures” which led him to decide to “put an end to his life”.

“The [Gulf] crisis is based on interests and the desire of both Mohammed bin Zayed and Mohammed bin Salman to usurp the wealth and riches of Qatar,” Al Thani said, referring to the Abu Dhabi and Saudi crown princes respectively.

“I urge my fellow Qataris to defend your position, beware of them,” he added. “They may lure you with money to destroy your own country.”

On January 14, Sheikh Abdullah released a video statement, saying he was a “prisoner” in the UAE, and that if anything happened to him, “Sheikh Mohammed” is responsible.

While he did not specify, Abdullah appeared to be referring to Abu Dhabi’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

Sheikh Abdullah was transferred to a hospital shortly after his arrival in a wheelchair in Kuwait on Wednesday.

Abdullah’s brother, Sheikh Khalid, told Al Jazeera on Tuesday that his sibling’s health deteriorated due to exhaustion and pressure he was exposed to under Emirati authorities.

Sheikh Khalid had added that his brother was in stable condition and should be leaving the hospital soon.

In his audio message, threatening suicide, Sheikh Abdullah said: “Due to the pressures on me, my confinement, and inability to return home (Qatar) or join my family, namely my two daughters, I have decided to end my life with the aim of preventing any harm to others.”

After Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt imposed a land, sea and air blockade on Qatar in June, Sheikh Abdullah appeared frequently on Saudi and UAE television programmes expressing his views in support of the measures against Doha.

Sheikh Abdullah was residing in Saudi Arabia since the blockade began.

An Egyptian court sentenced Qaradawi for “incitement to murder” and “vandalising public property” [The Associated Press]

by Al Jazeera

An Egyptian military court has sentenced eight people to death, including four in absentia, for alleged involvement in acts of violence in 2015.

Another 17 people were sentenced to life behind bars, including prominent Muslim scholar Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who, along with six others, was tried in absentia on Wednesday.

The alleged acts of violence include the murder of a police officer in Cairo, a judicial source told Anadolu news agency on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on speaking to media.

Al-Qaradawi, the Egyptian-born head of the Doha-based International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS), was reportedly charged with “incitement to murder”, “spreading false news” and “vandalising public property”.

Twenty-six defendants in the same case were acquitted, including four senior members of Egypt’s banned Muslim Brotherhood group.

Wednesday’s raft of sentences is still subject to appeal. Defendants who were tried in absentia will receive retrials in the event that they are arrested or turn themselves in to the authorities.

Egypt has been roiled by violence since mid-2013 when Mohamed Morsi – the country’s first freely elected president and a Muslim Brotherhood leader – was overthrown and imprisoned in a bloody military coup.

In September, Interpol removed al-Qaradawi, 91, from its online wanted list.

The international police organisation made the move after an assessment of the Egyptian charges against the scholar, who lives in exile in Qatar.

by Al Jazeera

International NGOs have condemned the US government’s decision to cut more than half of its planned funding to the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees.

Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, said in a Twitter post late on Tuesday that Washington was “holding Palestinian kids’ humanitarian needs hostage to political agendas”.

Jan Egeland, secretary-general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, urged the US government to reverse its decision announced on Tuesday to withhold $65m out of $125m aid package earmarked for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA).

“The move will have devastating consequences for vulnerable Palestinian refugees across the Middle East, including hundreds of thousands of refugee children in the West Bank and Gaza, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria who depend on the agency for their education,” he said in a statement on Tuesday.

“It will also deny their parents a social safety net that helps them to survive, and undermine the UN agency’s ability to respond in the event of another flare-up in the [Israeli-Palestinian] conflict.”

On Twitter, Egeland said: “Cutting aid to innocent refugee children due to political disagreements among well-fed grown men and women is a really bad politization of humanitarian aid. US holds back $65m aid to Palestinians.”

The Turkish Mnistry of Foreign Affairs said cuts to UNRWA would “hamper the efforts towards a two-state political solution and regional stability”. It also said that Ankara would increase its contributions to the agency.

Yazan Muhammad Sabri, an 18-year-old Palestinian refugee in Dheisheh camp in the occupied West Bank town of Bethlehem, told Al Jazeera last week that “if the wakala [UNRWA] goes away, there will be no education, no healthcare, no sanitation”.

“There will be nothing – everything will disappear,” he said.

Salah Ajarmeh, a 44-year-old refugee living in West Bank’s Aida camp, told Al Jazeera that “if the services stop, there will be a revolution”.

“Palestinian uprisings began in the refugee camps in Jordan and Syria, and this will happen again.”

‘Not a bargaining chip’
Husam Zomlot, head of the Palestine Liberation Organisation’s delegation to the US, said in a statement on Wednesday that Palestinian refugees and children’s access to basic humanitarian services was “not a bargaining chip but a US and international obligation”.

“Taking away food and education from vulnerable refugees does not bring a lasting and comprehensive peace,” the statement said.

“Heeding Israeli Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu’s zero-sum game to take Jerusalem off the table and now attempting to dismantle UNRWA, thinking that it would relinquish the rights of Palestinian refugees is a fallacy.”

Zomlot was referring to the earlier US decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, a move that prompted widespread international condemnation and led Palestinian leaders to say that they would “no longer” accept any peace plan put forward by the US.

Tuesday’s announcement on UNRWA came after US President Donald Trump had threatened on January 2 to cut aid to Palestinians.

In a series of tweets, Trump had said: “… We pay the Palestinians HUNDRED OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS a year and get no appreciation or respect.

“… With the Palestinians no longer willing to talk peace, why should we make any of these massive future payments to them?”

The US views the YPG as a highly effective fighting force in the fight against ISIL [Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that the US was working to form a “terror army” on his country’s southern border by training a new force in Syria that includes Kurdish fighters.

“What we are supposed to do is to drown this terror army before in comes into being,” he said in an address in the capital Ankara on Monday, calling the Kurdish fighters “backstabbers” who will point their weapons to the US in the future.

His comments came after reports revealed US’ plan to establish a 30,000-strong new border security force with the involvement of Kurdish fighters in northern Syria.

According to media reports quoting US officials, the US-led coalition fighting the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL also known as ISIS) will recruit around half of the new force from the Syrian Defence Forces (SDF), an umbrella group of fighters dominated by the People’s Protection Units (YPG).

Ankara considers Kurdish YPG fighters as a “terrorist” organisation with links to the Kurdish fighters within Turkey that seek more autonomy. The US views the YPG as a highly effective fighting force against ISIL.

Erdogan said that Turkey’s armed forces had completed preparations for an operation against the Kurdish-controlled region of Afrin in northwest Syria and the town of Manbij.

He warned Turkey’s allies against helping “terrorists” in Syria and said: “We won’t be responsible for consequences.”

Turkish foreign ministry made a statement in the same line late on Sunday, saying that it was “wrong and objectionable” to cooperate with the YPG.

“The establishment of the so-called Syria Border Protection Force was not consulted with Turkey, which is a member of the coalition,” the Turkish foreign ministry said.

“To attribute such a unilateral step to the whole coalition is an extremely wrong move that could harm the fight against Daesh,” it added, using an alternative acronym for ISIL.

Turkish forces pounded US-backed Kurdish fighters in Syria with artillery fire on Sunday, after the intention to establish a new force was announced.

Turkey carried out a military campaign called 2016 Euphrates Shield Operation, which targeted ISIL and the YPG. That eight-month battle officially ended in March 2017.

US’ YPG move
US President Donald Trump decided to arm YPG fighters, despite Turkey’s objections and a direct appeal from Erdogan at a White House meeting last May.

American arms shipments began before the offensive to recapture the city of Raqqa from ISIL. YPG played a prominent role in defeating the group in its former de facto capital in northern Syria late last year.

Tensions between the NATO allies remain high, despite Trump saying last November that Washington would no longer supply weapons to the YPG.

A senior Syrian Kurdish official said on Sunday that fighting between the YPG and Turkish forces was already under way.

“There are attacks and clashes on the border between Turkey and the People’s Protection Units YPG,” Hediye Yusuf said on Twitter.

She called Turkey’s operation against Afrin a “violation” that “undermines international efforts to reach a political solution in Syria”.

Ankara has been reinforcing its southern border by sending armoured vehicles, tanks, and heavy machine guns, according to local media.

Turkey has been working closely with Russia and Iran to end the nearly seven-year Syrian war, despite Moscow and Tehran supporting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad – and Ankara backing the anti-Assad opposition.

YPG is considered by Turkey to be a “terrorist group” with ties to the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has waged a decades-long fight inside the country.

PKK is blacklisted as a terrorist organisation by Turkey and its Western allies. More than 40,000 people in Turkey have been killed since the 1980s after the PKK launched its rebellion.

by Naveed Siddiqui, Dawn

Pakistan has suspended military and intelligence cooperation with the United States in the wake of US President Donald Trump’s allegation that Pakistan has given the US “nothing but lies and deceit” and suspension of security aid for Pakistan, Defence Minister Khurram Dastgir Khan said while addressing a gathering at Institute of Strategic Studies in Islamabad on Tuesday.

Speaking during a seminar titled ‘Contours of Security Environment of Pakistan’, Khan said the US is facing defeat in Afghanistan despite spending billions of dollars. He alleged that the US is using Pakistan as a ‘scapegoat’ for its failures in Afghanistan.

“Pakistan does not want to put a price on its sacrifices but wants them to be recognised,” the defence minister said, adding that Pakistan will not allow Afghanistan’s war to be fought on Pakistani territory.

Khan also said that the US is busy in a blame game against Pakistan rather than providing it with assistance to secure the Pak-Afghan border.

The US Embassy in Islamabad said it had not been informed about the suspension of military cooperation by Pakistan.

“We have not received any formal communication regarding a suspension,” Embassy spokesman Richard Snelsire said, according to VOA news.

Answering a question during the seminar, the defence minister said that Pakistan took the right steps by blocking Nato supplies to Afghanistan in the aftermath of 2011 attack at Salala check post.

But Pakistan is not taking the same route after Trump’s recent tirade as it is a “leverage we want to use at the appropriate time”, he clarified.

The defence minister said Iran, China and Russia are as important to the region as the US and reaffirmed Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif’s statement signalling that the alliance between Pakistan and the US is over.

“This is not how allies behave,” Asif had said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal earlier this week. He maintained that Washington has turned Islamabad into a “whipping boy” for its failures in Afghanistan.

The Pentagon on Monday said that the US has told Pakistan what it must do if it wants Washington to resume paying out hundreds of millions of dollars in security aid.

“Our expectations are straightforward,” Pentagon spokesman Colonel Rob Manning told reporters.

“Taliban and Haqqani leadership and attack planners should no longer be able to find safe haven or conduct operations from Pakistani soil.”

Worsening relations
In the new year, Washington has increased pressure on Islamabad to “do more” in the fight against terrorism.

Washington has stated that the suspension of military aid, which came after Trump accused Pakistan of “lies and deceit”, is part of America’s South Asia strategy.

The development has followed in the aftermath of an increasingly terse back-and-forth between Washington and Islamabad since Trump announced the policy.

In Pakistan, the move has been seen as the first step to implementing Trump’s pledge to tighten economic restrictions on Islamabad.

Despite the tension, however, US and Pakistani officials remain in contact with each other. US Defence Secretary James Mattis on Friday said that the Pentagon was maintaining its communication with the Pakistani military establishment even after the suspension of military assistance.

Foreign Se­cre­tary Tehmina Janjua has said that Pakistan will continue to engage with Washington as far as possible, because America is not only a global power but also has a regional presence, and “for us it’s almost our neighbour”.

Trump has been openly supportive of Mohammed bin Salman during his anti-corruption crackdown in Saudi Arabia [Kevin Lamarque/Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

US President Donald Trump took credit for Saudi Arabia’s political shakeup which resulted in the elevation of Mohammed bin Salman to the position of crown prince last year, according to a startling account of his administration’s first year in the White House.

The suggested claim is included in Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, a controversial new book by Michael Wolff which reveals, among others, the US president’s close connections to Saudi Arabia.

“We’ve put our man on top,” Trump is said to have claimed to friends, according to the book, after Saudi King Salman removed his nephew Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef as next-in-line to the throne and replaced him with his son, Mohammed bin Salman, in June 2017.

The move marked a departure from Saudi Arabia’s line of succession, breaking with decades of custom maintained by the Kingdom’s royal family.

The veracity of the book’s claims has been contested by Trump, who said on Friday Wolff’s book is “full of lies”.

Trump visited Saudi Arabia’s capital, Riyadh, in May 2017 at the beginning of his first overseas tour as US president, having hosted Mohammed bin Salman in Washington, DC, two months earlier.

Mohammed Cherkaoui, a professor of conflict resolution at George Mason University, told Al Jazeera the account provided by Wolff in his book was “well-researched”.

“This is based on scores of interviews with people inside the White House and around Trump,” he said.

“It explains to some extent how Trump managed to influence the decision of King Salman … [and] goes back to the period when Mohammed bin Salman visited the US in March and the Riyadh summit which Trump attended in May [when] apparently he was lobbying … [for] a powerful man,” added Cherkaoui.

“[Trump] was basically grooming Mohammed bin Salman.”

The US president has been openly supportive of the Saudi crown prince in recent months, notably praising him after the dismissals and arrests of a number of senior ministers, businessmen and princes as part of an alleged anti-graft campaign.

“I have great confidence in King Salman and the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, they know exactly what they are doing,” Trump said on Twitter two days after the anti-corruption crackdown began on November 4.

Cherkaoui said Trump’s backing of the Saudi crown prince is a reflection of the US president’s “political philosophy”.

“He wants to deal with individuals, not institutions and not governments, so it’s a one-to-one,” he said.

“Trump saw in Mohammed bin Salman somebody who has the right influence, and also someone who would put the Saudi-US relationship into a higher dimension, both in an economic and strategic way [and help] combat terrorism which has become the new currency of Trumpism.”