Tag: InternationalNews

{Backed by Russia and Turkey and accepted by Assad and opposition groups, truce to be followed by peace negotiations.}

A ceasefire across Syria has gone into effect after the government and some armed opposition groups accepted a truce agreement brokered by Russia and Turkey.

Thursday’s ceasefire began at 12am local time (22:00 GMT), and, if it holds, will be followed by peace negotiations in Kazakhstan’s capital Astana within one month.

Turkey and Russia have pledged to act as guarantors to the cessation of hostilities.

Previous UN-backed attempts to end the Syrian civil war, which started as a largely unarmed uprising against President Bashar al-Assad in March 2011, have failed and often led to fierce fighting.

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group and Jabhat Fateh al-Sham group [formerly al-Nusra Front] have been excluded from the ceasefire, according to reports.

Al Jazeera’s Charles Stratford, reporting from Gaziantep on the Turkish border with Syria, said “there are high hopes that this [truce] might work, but there are huge potential problems with it. The biggest seems to be this group – Jabhat Fateh al-Sham.

“There are fears that if there are air strikes targeting” Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, which has often fought alongside a number of signatories to the agreement, “then there may be some casualties” among those factions as well.

A statement carried on Thursday by Syria’s state news agency SANA said the truce agreement excluded ISIL, also known as ISIS; Jabhat Fateh al-Sham; and “groups linked to them”.

Earlier in the day, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that an agreement had been reached on a “countrywide” ceasefire for Syria.

Though the ceasefire is being described as “nationwide”, fighting could very well continue in the areas under the control of ISIL and the other groups excluded from the ceasefire – Idlib, in the northwest, and the outskirts of Damacus, for instance.

{{Trilateral agreement}}

Russia launched its air war in support of Assad’s forces in September 2015, marking a major turning point in the Syrian government’s fight against armed opposition groups.

Al Jazeera’s Natasha Ghoneim, reporting from Moscow, said three different documents were signed as part of a trilateral agreement involving Russia, Turkey and Iran.

“The first document lays out an agreement between the Syrian government and opposition groups on the ground,” she said.

“The second document includes measures designed to control the ceasefire, and the third lays out what needs to happen next in order for there to be peace talks.”

The Turkish foreign ministry confirmed the news of the ceasefire and called on countries with influence on the groups fighting in Syria to provide the necessary support for the ceasefire to last.

“Russia and Turkey strongly support the truce and will monitor it together,” the ministry said.

Speaking in the Turkish capital Ankara later on Thursday, representatives of Syria’s High Negotiations Committee (HNC) said the rebels would abide by the truce but would retaliate against violations by Syrian government forces and their allies.

The HNC is an umbrella group representing Syria’s political and armed opposition factions, including the Free Syrian Army (FSA).

No direct talks

Usama Abu Zeyd, FSA’s spokesman, said the rebels had held no direct talks with the Syrian government or Iran during the truce talks and insisted that Assad would have no place in the future of Syria.

“The ceasefire covers all the territories of Syria and it extends to include all the groups fighting under the Syrian armed opposition,” he said, adding that the rebels had agreed to start peace talks.

Abu Zeyd confirmed that the truce excluded ISIL and the main Syrian Kurdish armed group, the Kurdish Popular Protection Units (YPG), but did not specify whether Jabhat Fateh al-Sham was also excluded.

Syrian government forces and allied paramilitaries entered the eastern part of Aleppo city a week ago after the last residents and opposition fighters were evacuated from the enclave under a Turkish-Russian deal.

The pullout gave Assad’s forces full control over Aleppo, which had been divided between his government and opposition fighters since 2012.

Talk to Al Jazeera: Qatar FM – The fall of Aleppo won’t end the Syrian war
In his announcement from Moscow, Putin sounded a cautionary note, making it clear that the ceasefire deal was a work in progress.

“The agreements reached are, no doubt, very fragile and they demand special attention and follow-up in order to keep them and develop them,” he said.

“Now we need to do everything for these agreements to work, so that negotiators would come to Astana and would begin to work on real peace process. I call on the Syrian government, armed opposition, all countries involved to support these agreements.”

Nour Hallak, a civil-society activist based in Idlib, said there is some “hope” among Syrians because the latest ceasefire “includes all the factions”.

“When we started to hear about the ceasefire, we felt that it may be for real this time,” he told Al Jazeera by Skype, alluding to the previous failed truce attempts.

In a statement on Thursday, Staffan de Mistura, the UN special envoy to Syria, said he “welcomes” the ceasefire deal and expressed hope that it will “will save civilian lives, facilitate the delivery of humanitarian assistance across Syria, and pave the way for productive talks in Astana”.

De Mistura had estimated in April that more than 400,000 Syrians had been killed since 2011.

Calculating a precise death toll is difficult, partially owing to the forced disappearances of tens of thousands of Syrians whose fates remain unknown.

Almost 11 million Syrians – half the country’s prewar population – have been displaced from their homes.

{Philippine leader says he will throw corrupt officials from a helicopter midair, adding that he did it to a man before.}

Rodrigo Duterte, the president of the Philippines, has threatened corrupt government officials by saying he would have thrown them off a flying helicopter, warning that he had personally carried out the action before and had no qualms about doing it again.

The former prosecutor and governor said that he once hurled a Chinese man suspected of rape and murder out of a helicopter.

“If you are corrupt, I will fetch you using a helicopter to Manila and I will throw you out. I have done this before. Why would I not do it again?” Duterte said during a speech to victims of a typhoon on Tuesday, a clip of which was posted later on a video feed of the president’s office.

According to police, more than 5,900 people have been killed since Duterte took office in late June and declared a war on drugs, leading to fears of mass extrajudicial killings and a breakdown in the rule of law.

Duterte’s latest threat comes just a few weeks after he admitted killing people during his 22 years as a mayor of Davao city, sometimes riding a motorcycle looking for “encounters to kill”.

He said those killings were part of legitimate police operations, including a hostage incident. Some senators have warned Duterte that he risks impeachment over his comments.

{{‘They were lucky’
}}

Duterte also said that six people arrested last week during a seizure of more than half a tonne of methamphetamine, known locally as “shabu”, in the capital were fortunate he was out of town.

“They were lucky I was not in Manila that time. If I had known there were that much shabu inside a house, I would definitely kill you,” he said.

“Let’s not make any drama, I will personally gun you down if nobody else will do it.”

It was not immediately clear when or where the helicopter incident Duterte spoke of took place.

His spokesman, Ernesto Abella, suggested it may not have actually happened.

“Let’s just say, ‘urban legend’,” Abella said without elaborating.

Duterte has at various times claimed he killed people.

In an interview with Rappler in late 2015, before he took over the presidency, he said that he recently killed three people.

During the same period, responding to reports that “he killed 700 people,” he said: “They underestimate the figures … [I killed] around 1,700.”

The UN’s top human rights envoy has called for an investigation into Duterte’s claims of killing people, to which Duterte last week responded by calling him “stupid”, an “idiot” and a “son of a bitch” who should go back to school.

{Authorities in Sydney arrest 15 men allegedly involved in smuggling of contraband worth hundreds of millions of dollars.}

Australian authorities have seized more than a tonne of cocaine worth hundreds of millions of dollars, according to police who described it as one of the country’s largest drug seizures.

Police listed on Thursday 600kg of cocaine intercepted by the French navy off Tahiti in March and 500kg seized on Christmas Day in Sydney – all destined for the Australian market.

Fifteen men, including commercial fishing operators, were arrested over the past few days for allegedly importing the cocaine from South America.

The arrests followed a two-and-a-half year investigation into fishermen who were allegedly using trawlers to move cocaine from South America to Australia.

Police said the secret operation culminated in arrests on Christmas Day at Sydney Fish Market when a trawler docked that had allegedly been used to meet a “mother ship”, which police told The Telegraph had travelled from Chile.

The authorities released video footage showing three men being arrested aboard a fishing boat and led away in handcuffs.

Another 12 men were arrested over the past few days.

“This is a very significant organised crime group,” said New South Wales Police Force Assistant Commissioner Mark Jenkins.

Chris Sheehan, the federal police acting assistant commissioner, said that investigations were continuing in South America to find the suppliers of the contraband.

{US secretary of state outlines vision for peace between Israel and Palestine weeks ahead of Donald Trump’s inauguration.}

Israel’s settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank threatens both hope for peace with the Palestinians and Israel’s own future as a democracy, John Kerry has said in a speech.

The US secretary of state sounded the warning on Wednesday in a final plea outlining the outgoing Obama administration’s vision for peace between Israel and Palestine.

“The settler agenda is defining the future in Israel. And their stated purpose is clear: They believe in one state: Greater Israel,” Kerry said.

“If the choice is one state, Israel can either be Jewish or democratic, it cannot be both, and it won’t ever really be at peace,” he added.

The speech in Washington, DC comes days after the US abstained from a UN vote to halt all Israeli settlement activity in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

By declining to use its veto at the Security Council, the US enabled the adoption of the first UN resolution since 1979 to condemn Israel over its settlements policy.

Al Jazeera’s Kimberly Halkett, reporting from Washington, DC, said: “Many question the timing of the US actions with just three weeks until the swearing in of President-elect Donald Trump. Supporters believe it is tough talk that should have come years earlier. Critics argue it shouldn’t have come at all.”

Trump, who had called on the US to veto the UN vote, told reporters that Israel is being treated “very, very unfairly”, maintaining that countries that are “horrible places” never get reprimanded at the Security Council.

He refused to directly answer a question about whether Israel should stop building settlements, saying he is “very, very strong on Israel”.

Settlements built on Palestinian land are considered illegal under international law.

There are close to 600,000 Israeli citizens living in Jewish-only housing settlements across the West Bank, and at least 200,000 in East Jerusalem, according to the Israeli human rights watchdog B’tselem.

Kerry defended the US decision to abstain from the UN vote, saying they voted “in accordance with our [US] values” and conscience.

“No one thinking seriously about peace can ignore the reality of the threat settlements pose to peace,” Kerry said. “The problem goes well beyond just settlements. Trends indicate a comprehensive effort to take West Bank land for Israel and prevent any Palestinian development there.”

Middle East reactions

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he was ready to resume peace talks if Israel agreed to freeze settlement construction.

Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said: “Abbas is fully convinced that just, comprehensive and lasting peace can be achieved, and it’s doable in all core issues on the basis on the Arab Peace Initiative.”

Specific terms of the Saudi-brokered initiative include ending the Israeli occupation, establishing a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital on the 1967 borders, and solving issues such as “refugees and prisoners on the basis of the relevant international legality resolutions”, said Erekat.

In his response to the speech, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Kerry’s words were a “great disappointment”.

“If the US is true to its word, it should now come out and say we will not allow any more resolutions in the Security Council on Israel, period,” he added.

The conflict was not about settlements but about “Israel’s very right to exist”, he said.

INTERACTIVE: Palestine Remix

In his speech, Kerry insisted that Israel and a future Palestinian state should exist on the territory they held before the 1967 war, which could be achieved through “equivalent swaps” of land only by mutual consent.

Kerry said a fair and realistic solution must be found for the Palestinian refugee issue “with international assistance that includes compensation and options in assistance in finding permanent homes and acknowledgment of suffering”.

There are approximately five million registered Palestinian refugees, many living in camps across the occupied Palestinian territories as well as the neighbouring Arab countries, according to the UN refugee agency.

“Today, there are a similar number of Jews and Palestinians living between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea,” said Kerry.

“They have a choice. They can choose to live together in one state, or they can separate into two states.”

Al Jazeera’s Andrew Simmons, reporting from Jerusalem, said Kerry’s speech was more of a “massive defence of the US administration’s actions in not vetoing the UN resolution” than a “blueprint for the future”.

Kerry has made it “clear to all where he and Obama stand on the dangers of the two-state solution falling apart”, he said.

{Numbers of voluntary deportations are on rise, but so are the numbers of refugees stopping at German borders.}

Nearly 55,000 migrants and refugees who were not eligible for or were likely to be denied asylum left Germany voluntarily in 2016, up by 20,000 from the number who left of their own volition in 2015, according to government officials.

Germany has toughened its stance on immigration in recent months, prompted by concerns about security and integration after admitting more than 1.1 million migrants and refugees from the Middle East, Africa and elsewhere since early 2015.

“That’s a considerable increase from last year,” Harald Neymanns, interior ministry spokesman, announced on Wednesday, adding that the 2016 figure had climbed to 54,123 through December 27.

“The increase is welcome. It’s always preferable when people leave the country voluntarily instead of being deported.”

READ MORE: Mediterranean migrant deaths in 2016 pass 5,000

A finance ministry spokesman said the government would boost funding slightly to 150 million euros ($157m) in 2017 to support efforts to encourage people to leave Germany.

Last week a failed asylum seeker who had sworn allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group killed 12 people when he drove a truck into a Christmas market in Berlin, prompting criticism of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s immigration policy.

Most of those leaving in 2016 returned to their homes in Albania, Serbia, Iraq, Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iran, Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper said earlier.

Those leaving are eligible for one-off support of up to 3,000 euros ($3,135) that is supposed to help support finding employment at home.

Separately, German security officials told Reuters news agency the number of those deported after their asylum requests were rejected rose to almost 23,800 from January to November – up from almost 20,900 in all of 2015.

There has also been a rise in the number of refugees turned away at the borders.

A report by the Neue Osnabruecker Zeitung daily said police had turned back 19,720 refugees through the first 11 months of 2016 – up from 8,913 in all of 2015.

Most were from Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq and Nigeria. They had been registered in other EU countries.

As public support for her pro-refugee policies wanes ahead of September’s federal election, Merkel has said it is vital to focus resources on those fleeing war, and to keep up public support by deporting foreigners to countries where there is no persecution.

Attacks and security alerts involving refugees and migrants have boosted the popularity of the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany party, whose rise above 10 percent in opinion polls could complicate Merkel’s re-election hopes.

On Tuesday, seven refugees from Syria and Iraq aged 15 to 21 were detained in Berlin on charges of attempted murder for trying to set fire to a homeless man in an underground station.

{Criticism comes days after Russian forces helped Assad government take control of Aleppo, displacing tens of thousands.}

Russia has called a US decision to ease restrictions on arming Syrian opposition groups a “hostile act” that would directly threaten Russian military forces in Syria.

Maria Zakharova, Russian foreign ministry spokesperson, said on Tuesday the policy change set out in the annual defence policy bill signed into law by US President Barack Obama last week, would lead to weapons ending up “in the hands of jihadists with whom the sham ‘moderate’ opposition have long acted jointly”.

The bill gives the next US administration under Donald Trump the authority to send Syrian rebels surface-to-air missiles.

“Such a decision is a direct threat to the Russian air force, to other Russian military personnel, and to our embassy in Syria, which has come under fire more than once. We therefore view the step as a hostile one,” Zakharova said in a statement.

Reporting from Moscow, Al Jazeera’s Natasha Ghoneim said Russia is “lashing out” at the US in the final days of Obama’s administration.

“The [Russian] foreign ministry is saying that the Obama administration is trying to complicate the global situation ahead of the president-elect Donald Trump taking office,” she said.

{{Campaign of air strikes}}

Throughout the Syrian civil war, the US has funded several Syrian rebel groups and provided them with logistical support as well as weapons.

Russia, on the other hand, launched a campaign of air strikes last year in support of President Bashar al-Assad and his government forces to battle the Syrian opposition groups, some of which are supported by the US.

Last week, the Syrian government recaptured previously rebel-held eastern Aleppo after an intense battle that led to the displacement of tens of thousands of civilians. Many other civilians were caught in the crossfire.

Zakharova accused the Obama administration of trying to “put a mine” under the incoming administration of Donald Trump by attempting to get it to continue what she called the “anti-Russian line” of the US.

{{Diplomatic efforts }}

The Russian Interfax news agency cited Sergey Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, on Tuesday as saying that the Syrian government was taking part in talks – coordinated by Russia – with the opposition.

However, the reports have been rejected by some members of the Syrian opposition.

Al Jazeera’s Hashem Ahelbarra, reporting from Gaziantep in Turkey near the border with Syria, said there is a clear attempt by the Russians, the Turks and the Iranians to find a political solution to the war, with talks possibly to be held in Kazakhstan.

The Syrian National Council (SNC), the political umbrella of the Syrian opposition groups, “has distanced itself from the talks, saying that they so far have not met the Russians”, he said.

“At the same time, there are many powerful armed groups which are involved in those talks,” which shows there “is a widening rift between the different Syrian factions”.

Meanwhile, the Syrian government along with its ally Hezbollah, the Lebanese armed group, has stepped up its efforts to take control of rebel-held Wadi Barada on the outskirts of the capital Damascus.

Dozens of civilians were reportedly killed in barrel-bomb attacks on the area on Monday.

The Wadi Barada valley, a mountainous area near the Lebanese border, has been under siege since 2014 with food, water and electricity all in short supply.

The area is crucial for the government as it contains a vital river supplying drinking water to Damascus.

The operation was launched after the Syrian government accused the rebels of contaminating the water with diesel.

The Syrian civil war started as a largely unarmed uprising against Assad in March 2011, but quickly developed into a full-on civil war.

Staffan de Mistura, the UN special envoy to Syria, estimated in April that more than 400,000 Syrians had been killed since 2011.

Calculating a precise death toll is difficult, partially owing to the forced disappearances of tens of thousands of Syrians whose fates remain unknown.

Almost 11 million Syrians – half the country’s pre-war population – have been displaced from their homes.

{Dozens of MPs quit Saenuri Party and vow to start new party that observers say might try to recruit outgoing UN chief.}

Dozens of politicians have split from South Korea’s ruling party over the corruption scandal involving impeached president Park Geun-hye.

Their move on Tuesday could shape presidential elections that might take place in just months.

The 29 anti-Park MPs who left the Saenuri Party plan to create a new conservative party that observers say might try to recruit Ban Ki-moon, the outgoing UN secretary-general, as its presidential candidate.

There is a possibility of more MPs leaving Saenuri in coming weeks over rifts with Park loyalists who continue to occupy the party’s leadership.

Choung Byoung-gug, who left Saenuri, accused the loyalists of “neglecting the values of real conservatism” and “shamelessly defending the infringement of constitutional values” as they continued to support the scandal-hit president.

“One could have seen this coming given that the presidential impeachment motion pushed through by the national assembly which happened on December 9 was backed by 234 of the lawmakers here,” said Al Jazeera’s Craig Leeson, reporting from Seoul.

“Fifty-six were against out of 300 which suggests that many of Park’s own party members crossed the floor to make that motion go through.”

The split came as investigators widened their inquiry into the scandal surrounding Park, who has been accused of colluding with a longtime confidante to extort money and favours from the country’s biggest companies, and allowing the friend to manipulate government affairs.

The team led by special prosecutor Park Young-soo was planning to summon the president’s jailed friend, Choi Soon-sil, on Tuesday afternoon, following their first interrogation of her on Saturday.

The outgoing UN chief is seen as the best hope for conservatives to win back the Blue House after Park’s collapse complicated politics for her party.

Recent opinion polls put Ban slightly ahead of liberal politician Moon Jae-in, who conceded the presidential race to Park four years ago, as the favourite to win a presidential vote.

In a recent meeting with South Korean reporters in New York, Ban said he was ready to “burn” his body in devotion for South Korea, his strongest hint yet that he would run for president.

South Korea’s opposition-controlled parliament voted on December 9 to impeach Park over the scandal that drew millions of protesters in recent weeks.