| Daily News BriefDecember 18, 2024 |
| Top of the Agenda International Envoys Call for Accountability, Aid, and Peace in Syria Amid Transition UN Special Envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen says that the war in Syria has not fully ended. In a testimony to the UN Security Council yesterday, he flagged the risk of ongoing fighting between armed groups in the country’s north. A cease-fire between U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters and Turkish-backed forces in the town of Manbij was extended to the end of this week, Washington announced. UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher said that continued combat could impede the flow of aid into Syria, where the UN refugee agency expects some one million refugees to return in the first six months of 2025. An agency official called on countries not to force refugees to return. Some three million refugees are in Turkey. Yesterday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen pledged more than $1 billion to support Syrian refugees in or returning from Turkey, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan called for an upgrade to Turkey’s relationship with the European Union. Meanwhile, as mass graves in Syria have become accessible to outside investigators, the U.S. government, UN bodies, and human rights groups have begun compiling evidence on abuses under the Bashar al-Assad regime in order to seek accountability. (AFP, Reuters, Euronews) |
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