Syria’s new government says to suspend constitution, parliament for three months
Syria’s new government says to suspend constitution, parliament for three months/node/2582817/middle-east
Syria’s new government says to suspend constitution, parliament for three months
Syria’s new government spokesman Obaida Arnaout said that the transitional period will last three months. (AFP)
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Updated 12 December 2024
AFP
Syria’s new government says to suspend constitution, parliament for three months
Mohammed Al-Bashir named as the country’s transitional prime minister until March 1
Updated 12 December 2024
AFP
DAMASCUS: Syria’s new government spokesman said on Thursday the country’s constitution and parliament would be suspended for the duration of the three-month transition period following president Bashar Assad’s ouster.
“A judicial and human rights committee will be established to examine the constitution and then introduce amendments,” Obaida Arnaout said.
The current constitution dates back to 2012 and does not specify Islam as the state religion.
Militants led by the Islamist militant group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham seized the capital Damascus on Sunday, sending Assad fleeing into exile.
On Tuesday, they named Mohammed Al-Bashir, who headed the militants’ self-proclaimed “Salvation Government” in their northwestern bastion of Idlib, as the country’s transitional prime minister until March 1.
Arnaout said a meeting would be held on Tuesday “between Salvation Government ministers and the former ministers” of Assad’s administration to carry out the transfer of power.
“This transitional period will last three months,” he added in an interview with AFP. “Our priority is to preserve and protect institutions.”
Speaking at the state television headquarters, now seized by the new militant authorities, Arnaout pledged that they would institute “the rule of law.”
“All those who committed crimes against the Syrian people will be judged in accordance with the law,” he added.
Asked about religious and personal freedoms, he said “we respect religious and cultural diversity in Syria,” adding that they would remain unchanged.
The Sunni majority country was ruled with an iron fist by Assad, a follower of the Alawite offshoot of Shiite Islam who sought to project himself as a protector of minority communities.
Hamas calls for swift prisoner release as Cairo talks set to begin
Foreign ministers of several countries say the talks a “real opportunity” to achieve a comprehensive and sustainable ceasefire in Gaza
The diplomatic push follows the Palestinian militant group’s positive response to US President Donald Trump’s roadmap
Updated 59 min 48 sec ago
AFP
CAIRO: Hamas on Sunday called for a swift start to a hostage-prisoner exchange with Israel as negotiators from the two warring sides meet in Egypt for crucial talks aimed at ending the nearly two-year war.
Foreign ministers of several countries, including Egypt, said the talks were a “real opportunity” to achieve a comprehensive and sustainable ceasefire in Gaza.
“Hamas is very keen to reach an agreement to end the war and immediately begin the prisoner exchange process in accordance with the field conditions,” a senior Hamas official said on condition of anonymity.
The diplomatic push follows the Palestinian militant group’s positive response to US President Donald Trump’s roadmap for the release of captives in exchange for Palestinians held in Israeli jails.
Negotiators are due to hold talks in the Egyptian resort of Sharm El-Sheikh, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressing hope that hostages held in Gaza could be released within days.
Netanyahu said Saturday he had instructed negotiators to go to Egypt “to finalize the technical details,” while Cairo confirmed it would also be hosting a delegation from Hamas for talks on “the ground conditions and details of the exchange of all Israeli detainees and Palestinian prisoners.”
Egyptian state-linked media said the two parties would hold indirect talks on Sunday and Monday, just before the second anniversary of the October 7 Hamas attack that sparked the war.
The White House said Trump had sent two envoys to Egypt — his son-in-law Jared Kushner and Middle East negotiator Steve Witkoff.
“During communications with mediators, Hamas insisted that it is essential for Israel to halt military operations across all areas of the Gaza Strip, cease all air, reconnaissance, and drone activity, and withdraw from inside Gaza City,” a Palestinian source close to Hamas said.
“In parallel with the cessation of Israeli military activity, Hamas and the resistance factions will also halt their military operations and actions,” he added.
According to Trump’s plan, Israel is expected to release 250 Palestinian prisoners with life sentences and more than 1,700 detainees from the Gaza Strip who were arrested after October 7, 2023, when Hamas attacked Israel, triggering the ongoing war.
But Trump warned he would “not tolerate delay” from Hamas, urging the group to move quickly toward a deal “or else all bets will be off.”
Trump said on Truth Social that Israel had agreed to an initial line of withdrawal in Gaza and that this had been shared with Hamas.
“When Hamas confirms, the Ceasefire will be IMMEDIATELY effective, the Hostages and Prisoner Exchange will begin, and we will create the conditions for the next phase of withdrawal,” he posted, alongside a map of the proposed line.
Netanyahu said that “in the coming days we will be able to bring back all our hostages... during the Sukkot holidays,” referring to the week-long Jewish festival that begins on Monday.
Strikes continue
Despite Trump calling on Israel to halt its bombings, Israel has continued to carry out strikes on Gaza.
AFPTV footage showed thick smoke billowing into the skyline over the coastal territory on Sunday.
Gaza civil defense agency, a rescue force operating under Hamas authority, said Israeli strikes killed at least five people in Gaza City in the morning, after several attacks through the night.
On Saturday, nearly 60 people were killed in Israeli strikes, including 40 in Gaza City alone, the agency reported.
“The decision to occupy Gaza, the collapse of multi-story buildings, and the intensity of IDF operations in the city have led to the evacuation of roughly 900,000 residents to the south, creating immense pressure on Hamas and the countries that support it,” Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a speech on Sunday.
The United Nations had estimated that around one million people were living the area before the start of the assault.
“There has been a noticeable decrease in the number of air strikes (since last night). The tanks and military vehicles have slightly pulled back, but I believe this is a tactical move, not a withdrawal,” said Muin Abu Rajab, 40, a resident of Al-Rimal neighborhood in Gaza City.
No role for Hamas
Hamas has insisted it should have a say in the territory’s future.
Trump’s roadmap stipulates that Hamas and other factions “not have any role in the governance of Gaza,” while also calling for a halt to hostilities, the release of hostages within 72 hours, a gradual Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and Hamas’s disarmament.
Under the proposal, administration of the territory would be taken up by a technocratic body overseen by a post-war transitional authority headed by Trump himself.
“Netanyahu will not be able to escape this time... (Trump) is the only one who can force Israel to comply and stop the war,” said Sami Adas, 50, who lives in a tent in Gaza City with his family.
Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 67,139 Palestinians, according to health ministry figures in the Hamas-run territory that the United Nations considers reliable.
Syria selects members of first post-Assad parliament
More than 1,500 candidates are running for the assembly, which will have a renewable 30-month mandate
Incoming parliament will exercise legislative functions until a permanent constitution is adopted and new elections are held
Updated 05 October 2025
AFP
DAMASCUS: Members of local committees in Syria began on Sunday selecting members of a transitional parliament, in a process criticized as undemocratic, with a third of the members appointed directly by interim leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa.
The assembly’s formation is set to consolidate the power of Sharaa, whose Islamist forces led a coalition that toppled longtime ruler Bashar Assad in December after more than 13 years of civil war.
An AFP correspondent witnessed dozens of members of the local committees queueing at Syria’s National Library, formerly called the Assad National Library, to cast their vote.
According to the organizing committee, more than 1,500 candidates – just 14 percent of them women – are running for the assembly, which will have a renewable 30-month mandate.
Sharaa is to appoint 70 representatives out of the 210-member body.
The other two-thirds will be selected by local committees appointed by the electoral commission, which itself was appointed by Sharaa.
But southern Syria’s Druze-majority Sweida province, which suffered sectarian bloodshed in July, and the country’s Kurdish-held northeast are excluded from the process for now as they are outside Damascus’s control, and their 32 seats will remain empty.
“I support the authorities and I’m ready to defend them, but these aren’t real elections,” said Louay Al-Arfi, 77, a retired civil servant sitting with friends at a Damascus cafe.
“It’s a necessity in the transitional phase, but we want direct elections” to follow, he said.
The new authorities dissolved Syria’s rubber-stamp legislature after taking power.
Under a temporary constitution announced in March, the incoming parliament will exercise legislative functions until a permanent constitution is adopted and new elections are held.
Sharaa has said it would be impossible to organize direct elections now, noting the large number of Syrians who lack documentation after millions fled abroad or were displaced internally during the civil war.
‘Not elections’
Around 6,000 people are taking part in Sunday’s selection process.
Preliminary results are expected to emerge after it ends, with state television reporting that some centers started counting the votes.
The final list of names is due to be announced on Monday.
Under the rules, candidates must not be “supporters of the former regime” and must not promote secession or partition.
Those running include Syrian-American Henry Hamra, the first Jewish candidate since the 1940s.
“The next parliament faces significant responsibilities, including signing and ratifying international agreements. This will lead Syria into a new phase, and it is a major responsibility,” said Hala Al-Qudsi, a member of Damascus’s electoral committee who is running for a seat herself.
Qudsi was particularly focused on the ongoing negotiations between Syria and Israel, stating that she would “say ‘no’ to any security agreement with Israel that does not serve the interests of the Syrian people.”
In September, Sharaa again voiced hope for a security agreement with Israel, which has kept up attacks on Syria, despite ongoing negotiations between the neighbors.
Rights groups have criticized the selection process, saying it concentrates power in Sharaa’s hands and lacks representation for the country’s ethnic and religious minorities.
In a joint statement last month, more than a dozen groups said the process means Sharaa “can effectively shape a parliamentary majority composed of individuals he selected or ensured loyalty from.”
“You can call the process what you like, but not elections,” said Bassam Alahmad, executive director of the France-based Syrians for Truth and Justice, among the groups that signed the statement.
At a meeting in Damascus this week, candidate Mayssa Halwani, 48, said criticism was normal.
“The government is new to power and freedom is new for us,” she said.
Nishan Ismail, 40, a teacher in the Kurdish-controlled northeast, said “elections could have been a new political start” after Assad’s fall, but “the marginalization of numerous regions shows that the standards of political participation are not respected.”
Negotiations on integrating the Kurds’ civil and military institutions into the new central government have stalled, with Damascus rejecting calls for decentralization.
In southern Syria’s Druze-held city of Sweida, activist Burhan Azzam, 48, expressed a similar sentiment.
The authorities “have ended political life” in Syria, he said, adding that the selection process “doesn’t respect the basic rules of democracy.”
Israel strikes Gaza as Palestinians pin hopes on Trump peace plan
Israel escalates its offensive as Egypt prepares to host peace talk delegates
Palestinians wonder when Donald Trump’s Gaza plan will be implemented
Updated 05 October 2025
Arab News
CAIRO/JERUSALEM: Israeli planes and tanks pounded areas across the Gaza Strip overnight and on Sunday, destroying several residential buildings, witnesses said, as traumatized Palestinians hoped a US plan to end the war would soon ease their suffering.
US President Donald Trump, who had called for an end to the bombing, said on Saturday on his Truth Social platform that Israel had agreed to an “initial withdrawal line” inside Gaza and that “when Hamas confirms, the Ceasefire will be IMMEDIATELY effective.”
Israel escalated its offensive as Egypt prepares to host delegates from Hamas, Israel and the United States, and Qatar, to kick off talks over the implementation of the most advanced effort yet to halt the conflict. Cairo talks will tackle unresolved issues
Hamas had drawn a welcoming response from Trump on Friday by saying it accepted certain key parts of his 20-point peace proposal, including ending the war, Israel’s withdrawal, and the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian captives.
But the group left some issues up for further negotiation, as well as questions unanswered, such as whether it would be willing to disarm, a key demand from Israel to end the war.
“Progress would depend on whether Hamas would agree to the map, which shows the Israeli army would remain in control of most of the Gaza Strip,” said a Palestinian official, close to the talks.
“Hamas may also ask for a strict timetable for the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. The first phase of talks will determine how things are going to proceed,” he told Reuters, asking not to be named.
In a sign of Israeli optimism over the Trump plan, the shekel currency hit a three-year high against the dollar and Tel Aviv stocks reached an all-time high.
Domestically, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is caught between growing pressure to end the war — from hostage families and a war-weary public — and demands from hard-line members of his coalition who insist there must be no let-up in Israel’s campaign in Gaza.
Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on X that halting attacks on Gaza was a “grave mistake.”
Smotrich and Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, also a hard-liner, have significant influence in Netanyahu’s government and have threatened to bring it down if the Gaza war ends. Arab states welcome Hamas response to Trump plan
But opposition leader Yair Lapid of the centrist Yesh Atid party has said political cover will be provided so the Trump initiative can succeed and “we won’t let them torpedo the deal.”
Trump has won backing from Arab and other Muslim states.
, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Qatar, Jordan, Turkiye, Indonesia, and Pakistan issued a joint statement welcoming the steps taken by Hamas regarding Trump’s Gaza plan.
“The Foreign Ministers reiterated their joint commitment to support efforts toward the implementation of the proposal, to work for the immediate end of the war on Gaza, and achieve a comprehensive agreement,” they said in the joint statement.
In Gaza City, which Israel describes as one of Hamas’ last bastions, Israeli forces continued attacks and warned residents who left against returning, saying it was a “dangerous combat zone.”
On Sunday, witnesses said Israeli planes escalated attacks against targets across the city, Gaza’s biggest urban center.
This followed a tense night in which drones dropped grenades on the rooftops of residential buildings and troops blew up explosive-laden vehicles, demolishing dozens of houses in two Gaza City neighborhoods, Sabra and Sheikh Radwan.
Hamas keen to reach deal
A senior Hamas official on Sunday said the Palestinian militant group is eager to reach an agreement to end the war and implement a prisoner swap with Israel, as negotiators converge in Egypt for talks.
Israeli and Hamas negotiators are set to iron out details during talks in Egypt in a bid to end nearly two years of war in Gaza, after Hamas approved a peace plan proposed by US President Donald Trump.
“Hamas is very keen to reach an agreement to end the war and immediately begin the prisoner exchange process in accordance with the field conditions,” he said.
“The occupation must not obstruct the implementation of President Trump’s plan. If the occupation has genuine intentions to reach an agreement, Hamas is ready.”
A Palestinian source close to Hamas told AFP that the two delegations would be in the same building but away from media coverage.
“The negotiations aim to discuss the timeline for preparing field conditions for the transfer of captives held in Gaza, as a prelude to launching the prisoner exchange process,” he added.
“During communications with mediators, Hamas insisted that it is essential for Israel to halt military operations across all areas of the Gaza Strip, cease all air, reconnaissance, and drone activity, and withdraw from inside Gaza City,” the source said.
“In parallel with the cessation of Israeli military activity, Hamas and the resistance factions will also halt their military operations and actions,” he added. Gazans desperate for start of Trump’s truce plan
“Where is Trump in all of this?” said Rami Mohammad-Ali, 37, from Gaza City, now displaced on the city’s western side.
“The explosions don’t stop, the drones drop bombs everywhere, as if nothing has happened. Where is the truce Trump told us about?” he asked.
Local health authorities said at least one Palestinian was killed, and several others were wounded in those attacks. Three other people were killed in separate Israeli strikes across the enclave, medics said.
Amjad Al-Shawa, head of the Palestinian NGOs Network, which liaises with the United Nations and international humanitarian organizations, said Gaza City has begun experiencing acute shortages of food and fuel, days after Israel blocked the route from the south to the north.
Under Trump’s plan, all Israeli hostages, alive and deceased, were due to be released within 72 hours of Israel publicly accepting the agreement. Israel says 48 hostages remain, 20 of whom are alive.
There may be logistical challenges too. Sources close to Hamas told Reuters handing over living hostages could prove relatively straightforward, but retrieving bodies of dead ones amid the huge devastation and rubble of Gaza may take longer than a few days to achieve.
Trump said on Friday he believed Hamas had shown it was “ready for a lasting PEACE” and he called on Netanyahu’s government to halt airstrikes in Gaza.
Iran approves plan to slash four zeros from currency
Lawmakers passed the bill two months after a parliamentary commission revived the long-stalled proposal aimed at simplifying transactions
Updated 05 October 2025
AFP
TEHRAN: Iran’s parliament on Sunday approved a plan to remove four zeros from the national currency, the rial, which has sharply depreciated as the country grapples with renewed sanctions.
Lawmakers passed the bill two months after a parliamentary commission revived the long-stalled proposal aimed at simplifying transactions, the legislature’s website said.
Under the plan, 10,000 current rials will be replaced by one new rial.
Both versions will circulate for up to three years, with the central bank given two years to launch the transition.
The rial has hit repeated record lows in recent days, according to black market trackers, amid the reimposition of United Nations sanctions on Iran.
Britain, France and Germany — signatories to Iran’s moribund 2015 nuclear deal — last month triggered the “snapback” mechanism to restore the international sanctions over the Islamic republic’s non-compliance.
On Sunday, the rial was trading at about 1,115,000 to the US dollar, compared with around 920,000 when the plan was revived in early August.
The redenomination was first floated in 2019 but later shelved.
It still requires approval by the Guardian Council and the signature of President Masoud Pezeshkian to take effect.
In daily life, Iranians drop a zero from the rial and use the resulting figure, called the toman, for most transactions.
Morocco sees eighth straight day of youth protests
Members of a Moroccan online youth collective protested for the eighth consecutive day on Saturday, demanding better public health and education services
Updated 05 October 2025
AFP
RABAT: Members of a Moroccan online youth collective protested for the eighth consecutive day on Saturday, demanding better public health and education services.
The demonstrations in the usually stable North African kingdom have bucked the perception of young Moroccans as being politically disengaged, and have been organized since last Saturday by GenZ 212, a group active on the web platform Discord.
In Tetouan, in the north of the country, hundreds of people gathered, chanting slogans such as “The people want an end to corruption” and “Freedom, dignity and social justice,” local media reported.
In the western city of Casablanca, protesters shouted “The people want education and health,” while in the capital, Rabat, a dozen people gathered in front of parliament, an AFP photographer said.
GenZ 212, whose founders remain anonymous, earlier on Discord called for protests in 14 cities between 6:00 p.m. (1700 GMT) and 9:00 pm.
They want reforms to social services, particularly health care and education, as well as an end to corruption and the resignation of Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch, whose tenure ends next year.
On Friday evening, hundreds of people rallied in numerous cities, including Rabat and Agadir.
Two days earlier, there were reports of violence in several smaller towns, with three people killed by police “in legitimate defense” after they allegedly tried to storm a station in the village of Lqliaa, near Agadir, the authorities said.
GenZ 212, which has more than 180,000 members on Discord, insists on the nonviolent nature of its protests, and the gatherings since then have been largely peaceful.
The rallies follow on from isolated protests that broke out in mid-September in several cities after reports of the deaths of eight pregnant women at the public hospital in Agadir who had been admitted for cesarean sections.
Demonstrators have seized on the deaths as evidence of the public health sector’s shortcomings, feeding wider discontent over social inequalities.
