middle-east
Oldest pearl town found in UAE
Archaeologists said Monday they have found the oldest pearling town in the Persian Gulf on an island off one of the northern sheikhdoms of the United Arab Emirates.
Artifacts found in this town on Siniyah Island in Umm al-Quwain, likely once home to thousands of people and hundreds of homes, date as far back as the region's pre-Islamic history in the late 6th century. While older pearling towns have been mentioned in historical texts, this represents the first time archaeologists say they have physically found one from this ancient era across the nations of the Persian Gulf.
“This is the oldest example of that kind of very specifically Khaleeji pearling town,” said Timothy Power, an associate professor of archaeology at the United Arab Emirates University, using a word that means "Gulf" in Arabic. “It’s the spiritual ancestor of towns like Dubai.”
The pearling town sits on Siniyah Island, which shields the Khor al-Beida marshlands in Umm al-Quwain, an emirate some 50 kilometers (30 miles) northeast of Dubai along the coast of the Persian Gulf. The island, whose name means “flashing lights” likely due to the effect of the white-hot sun overhead, already has seen archaeologists discover an ancient Christian monastery dating back as many as 1,400 years.
The town sits directly south of that monastery on one of the curling fingers of the island and stretches across some 12 hectares (143,500 square yards). There, archaeologists found a variety of homes made of beach rock and lime mortar, ranging from cramped quarters to more sprawling homes with courtyards, suggesting a social stratification, Power said. The site also bears signs of year-round habitation, unlike other pearling operations run in seasonal spots in the region.
“The houses are crammed in there, cheek by jowl,” he added. "The key thing there is permanence. People are living there all year around."
In the homes, archaeologists have discovered loose pearls and diving weights, which the free divers used to quickly drop down to the seabed while relying only on their held breath.
The town predates the rise of Islam across the Arabian Peninsula, making its residents likely Christians. Islam’s Prophet Muhammad was born around 570 and died in 632 after conquering Mecca in present-day Saudi Arabia.
Umm al-Quwain's Department of Tourism and Archaeology, UAE University, the Italian Archaeological Mission in the emirate and the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York University all took part in the excavation. Umm al-Quwain, the least-populated emirate in the UAE, plans to build a visitor's center at the site.
Today, the area near the marshland is more known for the low-cost liquor store at the emirate’s Barracuda Beach Resort. In recent months, authorities have demolished a hulking, Soviet-era cargo plane linked to a Russian gunrunner known as the “Merchant of Death” as it builds a bridge to Siniyah Island for a $675 million real estate development. Authorities hope that development, as well as other building, will grow the emirate's economy.
However, even this ancient site bears lessons for the Emirates.
The story of pearling, which rapidly collapsed after World War I with the introduction of artificial pearls and the Great Depression, holds particular importance in the history of the UAE — particularly as it faces a looming reckoning with another extractive industry. While crude oil sales built the country after its formation in 1971, the Emirates will have to confront its fossil fuel legacy and potentially plan for a carbon-neutral future as it hosts the United Nations COP28 climate talks later this year.
Those searching the site found a dumpsite nearby filled with the detritus of discarded oyster shells. People walking across the island can feel those remains crunching under their feet in areas as well.
“You only find one pearl in every 10,000 oyster shells. You have to find and discard thousands and thousands of oyster shells to find one," Power said. ”The waste, the industrial waste of the pearling industry, was colossal. You’re dealing with millions, millions of oyster shells discarded.”
Palestinian militant group: commander assassinated in Syria
A commander in the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad was killed in Syria on Sunday in what it described as an assassination by Israeli agents.
The Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Jihad group, said in a statement that Ali Ramzi al-Aswad, 31, was killed Sunday morning in the Damascus countryside in a “cowardly assassination with bullets bearing the fingerprints of the Zionist enemy,” referring to Israel.
There was no immediate statement from Israel on Sunday’s alleged assassination.
Also Read: Putin, Assad discuss rebuilding Syria, regional issues
The Islamic Jihad said in a statement Aswad’s family had been displaced from the city of Haifa in 1948 and settled in the refugee camps in Syria, where he joined the organization as a young man.
In 2019, Israeli warplanes fired missiles at the home of Akram al-Ajouri, a member of Islamic Jihad’s leadership living in exile. Ajouri was not harmed, but his son was reportedly killed in the attack.
Last month, airstrikes on residential areas in Damascus that Syrian officials said killed at least five people were attributed to Israel. An Islamic Jihad official warned Israel in a statement that there would be “a decisive response without delay to any assassination attempt (on) the leaders of the resistance.”
Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes on targets inside government-controlled parts of Syria in recent years, including attacks on the Damascus and Aleppo airports, but it rarely acknowledges or discusses the operations.
Military: rocket fired from Gaza lands on southern Israel
The Israeli military said Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip fired a rocket toward southern Israel Saturday evening.
The rocket fell and exploded in an open area, triggering warning sirens in the Nahal Oz community to the east of Gaza City.
There were no reports of casualties or damage. The Israeli military usually responds to such rocket fire with airstrikes in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, raising the possibility of further violence just ahead of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
The rocket attack comes a day before Israeli and Palestinian officials are set to meet in Egypt in a U.S.-backed effort to defuse violence that has soared especially in the West Bank and east Jerusalem for nearly a year.
The meeting in the Red Sea resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh is a follow-up to last month’s meeting in Jordan for the same purpose. However, deadly Israeli raids in the West Bank and Palestinian attacks continued since the Feb. 26 meeting in Aqaba. Twenty-three Palestinians and three Israelis have been killed in the ongoing bloodshed since then.
Since the start of this year, 85 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire. Palestinian attacks against Israelis have killed 14 people in the same period.
According to an Associated Press tally, about half of the Palestinians killed this year were affiliated with militant groups. Israel says most of the dead were militants. But stone-throwing youths protesting the incursions, some in their early teens, and others not involved in confrontations, including three men over 60, have also been killed.
Nearly 150 Palestinians were killed in the West Bank and east Jerusalem in 2022, making it the deadliest year in those areas since 2004, according to the leading Israeli rights group B’Tselem. Palestinian attacks against Israelis during that same time killed 30 people.
Israel captured the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians seek those territories for their future independent state.
20 years after U.S. invasion, young Iraqis see signs of hope
Along the Tigris River, young Iraqi men and women in jeans and sneakers danced with joyous abandon on a recent evening to a local rapper as the sun set behind them. It’s a world away from the terror that followed the U.S. invasion 20 years ago.
Iraq’s capital is full of life, its residents enjoying a rare peaceful interlude in a painful modern history. The city’s open-air book market is crammed with shoppers. Affluent young men cruise muscle cars. A few glitzy buildings sparkle where bombs once fell.
President George W. Bush called the U.S.-led invasion launched March 20, 2003, a mission to free the Iraqi people. It threw out a dictator whose rule kept 20 million people in fear for a quarter-century. But it also broke a unified state in the heart of the Arab world. About 300,000 Iraqis were killed between 2003 and 2023, along with more than 8,000 U.S. military, contractors and civilians.
Half of today's population isn’t old enough to remember life under Saddam Hussein. In interviews from Baghdad to Fallujah, young Iraqis deplored the chaos that followed Saddam’s ouster, but many were hopeful about nascent freedoms and opportunities.
Editor’s note: John Daniszewski and Jerome Delay were in Baghdad 20 years ago when the U.S. bombing began. They returned for this report on how Iraq has changed –—especially for young people.
In a chandeliered reception room, President Abdul Latif Rashid, who assumed office in October, spoke glowingly of Iraq’s prospects. Perception of Iraq as a war-torn country is frozen in time, he told The Associated Press: Iraq is rich; peace has returned.
If young people are “a little bit patient, I think life will improve drastically in Iraq.”
Most Iraqis aren’t nearly as bullish. Conversations start with bitterness about how the U.S. left Iraq in tatters. But speaking to younger Iraqis, one senses a generation ready to turn a page.
Safaa Rashid, 26, is a writer who talks politics with friends at a coffee shop in Baghdad's Karada district.
Read more: Why US troops remain in Iraq 20 years after 'shock and awe'
After the invasion, Iraq lay broken, violence reigning, he said. Today is different; he and like-minded peers freely talk about solutions. “I think the young people will try to fix this situation.”
Noor Alhuda Saad, 26, a Ph.D. candidate and political activist, says her generation has been leading protests decrying corruption, demanding services and seeking inclusive elections — and they won't stop until they’ve built a better Iraq.
Blast walls have given way to billboards, restaurants, cafes, shopping centers. With 7 million inhabitants, Baghdad is the Middle East’s second-largest city; streets teem with commerce.
In northern and western Iraq, there are occasional clashes with remnants of the Islamic State group. It's but one of Iraq’s lingering problems. Another is corruption; a 2022 audit found a network of former officials and businessmen stole $2.5 billion.
In 2019-20, young people protested against corruption and lack of services. After 600 were killed by government forces and militias, parliament agreed to election changes to allow more groups to share power.
The sun bakes down on Fallujah, the main city of the Anbar region — once a hotbed of activity for al-Qaida of Iraq and, later, the Islamic State group. Beneath the girders of the city’s bridge across the Euphrates, three 18-year-olds return home from school for lunch.
In 2004, this bridge was the site of a gruesome tableau. Four Americans from military contractor Blackwater were ambushed, their bodies dragged through the street and hung. For the 18-year-olds, it’s a story they’ve heard from families — irrelevant to their lives.
One wants to be a pilot, two aspire to be doctors. Their focus is on good grades.
Fallujah gleams with apartments, hospitals, amusement parks, a promenade. But officials were wary of letting Western reporters wander unescorted, a sign of lingering uncertainty.
"We lost a lot — whole families,” said Dr. Huthifa Alissawi, a mosque leader recalling the war years.
These days, he enjoys the security: “If it stays like now, it is perfect.”
Sadr City, a working-class suburb in eastern Baghdad, is home to more than 1.5 million people. On a pollution-choked avenue, two friends have side-by-side shops. Haider al-Saady, 28, fixes tires. Ali al-Mummadwi, 22, sells lumber.
They scoff when told of the Iraqi president’s promises that life will be better.
“It is all talk,” al-Saady said.
His companion agrees: “Saddam was a dictator, but the people were living better, peacefully.”
Khalifa OG raps about difficulties of life and satirizes authority, but isn’t blatantly political. A song he performed next to the Tigris mocks “sheikhs” wielding power in the new Iraq through wealth or connections.
Read more: 20 years since U.S.-led invasion of Iraq: Timeline of events
Abdullah Rubaie, 24, could barely contain his excitement. “Peace for sure makes it easier” for parties like this, he said. His stepbrother Ahmed Rubaie, 30, agreed.
“We had a lot of pain ... it had to stop,” Ahmed Rubaie said. These young people say sectarian hatred is a thing of the past. They're unafraid to make their voices heard.
Mohammed Zuad Khaman, 18, toils in his family’s café in a poor Baghdad neighborhood. He resents the militias’ hold on power as an obstacle to his sports career. Khaman's a footballer, but says he can’t play in Baghdad’s amateur clubs — he has no “in” with militia-related gangs.
“If only I could get to London, I would have a different life.”
The new Iraq offers more promise for educated young Iraqis like Muammel Sharba, 38.
A lecturer at Middle Technical University in once violence-torn Baquba, Sharba left Iraq for Hungary to earn a Ph.D. on an Iraqi scholarship. He returned last year, planning to fulfil obligations to his university and then move back to Hungary.
Sharba became an biker in Hungary but never imagined he could pursue his passion at home. Now, he's found a cycling community. He notices better technology and less bureaucracy, too.
So he plans to remain.
“I don’t think European countries were always as they are now,” he said. “I believe that we need to go through these steps, too.”
20 years since U.S.-led invasion of Iraq: Timeline of events
It’s been 20 years since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq began. Here are some key dates from the invasion and following developments.
March 20, 2003: The invasion is launched, and Baghdad is attacked with missiles and bombs in an attempt to target Saddam Hussein and bring down the government.
April 9, 2003: American troops storm Baghdad, and the statue of Saddam is toppled in Firdous Square in a symbolic collapse of his government.
May 1, 2003: U.S. President George W. Bush declares an end to major combat operations in Iraq.
August 2003: Initial hopes for peace recede. An anti-coalition insurgency begins in earnest. Attacks include a car bombing of the Jordanian embassy; a truck bomb that demolishes the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad and kills top U.N. envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello; and the bombing of a Najaf shrine that kills more than 85 people, including Shiite leader Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim.
December 2003: Saddam is captured in an underground hideout near Tikrit.
Also Read: 20 years after U.S. invasion, young Iraqis see signs of hope
March 2004: Violent resistance to the U.S. presence intensifies. Four security contractors are ambushed and killed in Fallujah, prompting a battle for the insurgent-dominated city west of Baghdad. Al-Qaida in Iraq, a militant Sunni movement that attracts some of Saddam’s former Baathist security forces, leads the insurgency.
April-August 2004: Clashes emerge between U.S.-led coalition forces and followers of Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who demands that foreign forces leave Iraq.
October 2004: U.S. arms inspector David Kay reports his team has found no evidence of stockpiled weapons of mass destruction.
November 2004: Following the failure of a first U.S. campaign for Fallujah, a second battle destroys much of the city but leaves the U.S. in control.
January 2005: Iraqis select a new parliament in the first elections since the fall of Saddam. Shiite and Kurdish parties take an overwhelming majority after Sunnis largely boycott.
December 2005: Fighting takes on the character of a sectarian civil war between Shiites and Sunnis, with ethnic cleansing, killings and terror attacks in mixed neighborhoods. The death toll mounts around the country over the next two years among insurgents, coalition forces and Iraqi civilians.
January 2007: After enlisting sympathetic Sunni tribal leaders to oppose the anti-coalition insurgency in the so-called Sunni Awakening, President Bush orders a surge of 30,000 U.S. troops to contain the spreading violence.
Late 2008: After a year of escalating chaos, coalition forces begin to root out both al-Qaida and Shiite militias opposing the elected government. Barack Obama is elected U.S. president on a promise to withdraw U.S. forces.
December 2010: After much political turmoil, Shiite politician Nouri al-Maliki wins second term as prime minister, supported by al-Sadr.
December 2011: The last U.S. troops leave Iraq, turning responsibility for security over to the Iraqi army and police.
2013-2018: From the remnants of al-Qaida in Iraq, a new terrorist force emerges. The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria breaks Sunni militants out of prisons and mounts a battle to establish a worldwide Islamic State caliphate based in Syria. In Iraq, the Islamic State group takes over Mosul, Fallujah, Tikrit and Ramadi with lightning speed, ultimately controlling about 40 percent of the country. A U.S. bombing campaign, special forces operations and Shiite militias allied with Iran turn back the tide. Islamic State group is evicted from strongholds in northern Iraq and in Syria, although skirmishes continue in remote areas.
October 2019-January 2020: With the battle against the Islamic State group mostly ended, Iraqi public dissatisfaction boils over with anti-government protests against rampant corruption, poor services and unemployment erupting in Baghdad and the predominantly Shiite south. The demonstrations draw young men and women who camp out alongside each other, a rare occurrence in the conservative, majority-Muslim country.
Jan. 3, 2020: The U.S. assassinates top Iranian Gen. Qassim Soleimani, head of the Quds Force expeditionary forces, in a drone strike near the Baghdad airport. Iraqi militia commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis also is killed in the attack, bringing tensions between the U.S. and Iraq to a fever pitch, and later fragmenting rival Shiite camps.
October 2022: After a year of political stalemate following 2021 elections, the Shiite-dominated parliament chooses Kurdish leader Abdul Latif Rashid as president. He nominates Shiite politician Mohammed Shia al-Sudani as prime minister. Al-Sudani forms a government, promising to fight corruption and improve living standards.
20 years after U.S. invasion, young Iraqis see signs of hope
Along the Tigris River, young Iraqi men and women in jeans and sneakers danced with joyous abandon on a recent evening to a local rapper as the sun set behind them. It’s a world away from the terror that followed the U.S. invasion 20 years ago.
Iraq’s capital is full of life, its residents enjoying a rare peaceful interlude in a painful modern history. The city’s open-air book market is crammed with shoppers. Affluent young men cruise muscle cars. A few glitzy buildings sparkle where bombs once fell.
President George W. Bush called the U.S.-led invasion launched March 20, 2003, a mission to free the Iraqi people. It threw out a dictator whose rule kept 20 million people in fear for a quarter-century. But it also broke a unified state in the heart of the Arab world. About 300,000 Iraqis were killed between 2003 and 2019, along with more than 8,000 U.S. military, contractors and civilians.
Half of today's population isn’t old enough to remember life under Saddam Hussein. In interviews from Baghdad to Fallujah, young Iraqis deplored the chaos that followed Saddam’s ouster, but many were hopeful about nascent freedoms and opportunities.
___
Editor’s note: John Daniszewski and Jerome Delay were in Baghdad 20 years ago when the U.S. bombing began. They returned for this report on how Iraq has changed –—especially for young people.
____
In a chandeliered reception room, President Abdul Latif Rashid, who assumed office in October, spoke glowingly of Iraq’s prospects. Perception of Iraq as a war-torn country is frozen in time, he told The Associated Press: Iraq is rich; peace has returned.
If young people are “a little bit patient, I think life will improve drastically in Iraq.”
Also Read: Why US troops remain in Iraq 20 years after 'shock and awe'
Most Iraqis aren’t nearly as bullish. Conversations start with bitterness about how the U.S. left Iraq in tatters. But speaking to younger Iraqis, one senses a generation ready to turn a page.
Safaa Rashid, 26, is a writer who talks politics with friends at a coffee shop in Baghdad's Karada district.
After the invasion, Iraq lay broken, violence reigning, he said. Today is different; he and like-minded peers freely talk about solutions. “I think the young people will try to fix this situation.”
Noor Alhuda Saad, 26, a Ph.D. candidate and political activist, says her generation has been leading protests decrying corruption, demanding services and seeking inclusive elections — and they won't stop until they’ve built a better Iraq.
___
Blast walls have given way to billboards, restaurants, cafes, shopping centers. With 7 million inhabitants, Baghdad is the Middle East’s second-largest city; streets teem with commerce.
In northern and western Iraq, there are occasional clashes with remnants of the Islamic State group. It's but one of Iraq’s lingering problems. Another is corruption; a 2022 audit found a network of former officials and businessmen stole $2.5 billion.
In 2019-20, young people protested against corruption and lack of services. After 600 were killed by government forces and militias, parliament agreed to election changes to allow more groups to share power.
___
The sun bakes down on Fallujah, the main city of the Anbar region — once a hotbed of activity for al-Qaida of Iraq and, later, the Islamic State group. Beneath the girders of the city’s bridge across the Euphrates, three 18-year-olds return home from school for lunch.
In 2004, this bridge was the site of a gruesome tableau. Four Americans from military contractor Blackwater were ambushed, their bodies dragged through the street and hung. For the 18-year-olds, it’s a story they’ve heard from families — irrelevant to their lives.
One wants to be a pilot, two aspire to be doctors. Their focus is on good grades.
Fallujah gleams with apartments, hospitals, amusement parks, a promenade. But officials were wary of letting Western reporters wander unescorted, a sign of lingering uncertainty.
"We lost a lot — whole families,” said Dr. Huthifa Alissawi, a mosque leader recalling the war years.
These days, he enjoys the security: “If it stays like now, it is perfect.”
___
Sadr City, a working-class suburb in eastern Baghdad, is home to more than 1.5 million people. On a pollution-choked avenue, two friends have side-by-side shops. Haider al-Saady, 28, fixes tires. Ali al-Mummadwi, 22, sells lumber.
They scoff when told of the Iraqi president’s promises that life will be better.
“It is all talk,” al-Saady said.
His companion agrees: “Saddam was a dictator, but the people were living better, peacefully.”
___
Khalifa OG raps about difficulties of life and satirizes authority, but isn’t blatantly political. A song he performed next to the Tigris mocks “sheikhs” wielding power in the new Iraq through wealth or connections.
Abdullah Rubaie, 24, could barely contain his excitement. “Peace for sure makes it easier” for parties like this, he said. His stepbrother Ahmed Rubaie, 30, agreed.
“We had a lot of pain ... it had to stop,” Ahmed Rubaie said. These young people say sectarian hatred is a thing of the past. They're unafraid to make their voices heard.
___
Mohammed Zuad Khaman, 18, toils in his family’s café in a poor Baghdad neighborhood. He resents the militias’ hold on power as an obstacle to his sports career. Khaman's a footballer, but says he can’t play in Baghdad’s amateur clubs — he has no “in” with militia-related gangs.
“If only I could get to London, I would have a different life.”
The new Iraq offers more promise for educated young Iraqis like Muammel Sharba, 38.
A lecturer at Middle Technical University in once violence-torn Baquba, Sharba left Iraq for Hungary to earn a Ph.D. on an Iraqi scholarship. He returned last year, planning to fulfil obligations to his university and then move back to Hungary.
Sharba became an biker in Hungary but never imagined he could pursue his passion at home. Now, he's found a cycling community. He notices better technology and less bureaucracy, too.
So he plans to remain.
“I don’t think European countries were always as they are now,” he said. “I believe that we need to go through these steps, too.”
Syria rebuilding hopes dim as war enters year 13
The recent deadly earthquake in Turkey and Syria which caused billions of dollars in damage has boosted the prospects of Syria's once widely shunned president return to the Arab fold, but appears unlikely to jump-start large-scale reconstruction in the war-ravaged country.
As Syria’s conflict enters its 13th year Wednesday, President Bashar Assad’s government still refuses to make concessions to his domestic opponents, rejecting long-standing demands by the United States and its allies as a political solution remains elusive.
Oil-rich Gulf Arab countries have been stepping up efforts to normalize ties with the Assad government, but analysts say the ongoing political paralysis is likely holding them back from pumping billions of dollars for reconstruction into Syria.
The Feb. 6, earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria, killing more than 50,000 people, including about 6,000 in Syria, exacerbated the destruction caused by Syria's 12-year conflict which has killed nearly half a million people.
The World Bank estimated in an initial post-earthquake assessment that the disaster had caused $5.1 billion worth of physical damage across both government- and rebel-held Syria. It estimated some $226 billion in losses — including economic and physical damage — during the first four years of the war in 2016, about four times Syria’s 2010 gross domestic product.
Since the balance of power shifted in Assad’s favor over the past few years, the government has rebuilt small parts of the country with the help of its allies. These include a section of the centuries-old market in the northern city of Aleppo and some historic mosques in Aleppo and the central city of Homs. However, entire cities, towns and villages remain in ruins, while the conflict has caused lasting damage to the country's electric, transportation and health systems.
The quake worsened the situation.
International medical and humanitarian agencies fear dangerous outbreaks of diseases because the country's battered water and sanitation systems were further damaged by the quake. The Red Cross’ global chief recently said that rebuilding infrastructure ought to be a priority.
Still, the quake and recent rapprochement between regional powerhouses Iran and Saudi Arabia, who since 2011 have supported rival groups in Syria’s conflict, may be a turning point in Damascus’ political fortunes.
Assad appears poised to make a political comeback in the Arab world, more than a decade after the 22-member Arab League suspended Syria’s membership over his brutal crackdown on protesters and later on civilians during the war.
International sympathy following the quake appears to have sped up the regional rapprochement that had been brewing for years. Before the tragedy, the United Arab Emirates had already reestablished ties with Damascus, while Syria had been increasing its contacts with Turkey, a main backer of the opposition.
After the disaster, formerly hostile Arab countries such as Saudi Arabia delivered aid to government-held Syria, along with Assad's traditional backers Russia and Iran. Washington’s key allies began restoring or bolstering diplomatic ties with the Syrian government.
Tunisia’s president recently said he hopes to reestablish ties with Syria, while the foreign ministers of Jordan and Egypt met with Assad in Damascus for the first time since 2011. The region’s top parliamentarians agreed in a Baghdad summit last month to work toward ending Syria’s political isolation.
Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister acknowledged that there is a growing consensus among Arab countries that dialogue with Damascus is necessary. Riyadh is hosting the next Arab League summit in May, where most states hope to restore Syria’s membership after it was suspended in 2011, the Arab League's Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit said Tuesday.
Syria hopes that such reconciliation will unlock long-awaited funds to rebuild the battered country. However, analysts said it is unlikely to happen at any large scale for now.
“Reconstruction and its funding are thorny issues and are not currently on the table,” said prominent Istanbul-based Syrian economist Samir Seifan.
One reason is the sheer size of the challenge. Seifan estimated that Syria suffered about $150 billion in physical damage, and said reconstruction could ultimately cost over $400 billion as it includes lost opportunities such as development projects that would otherwise have been carried out.
Some Arab nations, such as key Syria opposition backer Qatar, want Assad to make concessions to the opposition in order to reconcile, he said.
But perhaps the largest barrier to ending Syria’s international isolation is that Washington has not had a change of heart about Assad.
“We have been clear when it comes to our policy on the Assad regime,” a U.S. State Department spokesperson told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity under regulations. “Absent enduring progress toward a political solution to the Syrian conflict, we will not normalize relations with the regime, nor will we support other countries normalizing relations.”
Syria has not implemented U.N. Security Council resolution 2254 adopted in December 2015 as a road map to peace in Syria. Acceptance of the road map is a key demand of the U.S and the European Union for normalizing relations with Damascus.
The resolution calls for a Syrian-led political process, starting with forming a transitional governing body, followed by the drafting of a new constitution and ending with U.N.-supervised elections.
In recent years, as government forces have taken control of most of the country, internationally mediated negotiations between Damascus and the opposition have stalled.
And while Washington and key European states remain hostile towards Assad, they don’t have a strong ally in the opposition, analysts say. Control of northwest Syria is split between the al-Qaida-affiliated rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and Turkish-backed militias that have fought against U.S.-backed Kurdish forces.
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham “will not be acknowledged as an opposition you can talk to, especially by the U.S. or the Europeans,” Joseph Daher, a Swiss-Syrian researcher and professor at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy, adding that they are still ”portrayed as an extremist group."
U.N. officials hope the earthquake will now push the parties to the conflict back to the table, after its damage compounded the devastation left by the war.
“The support provided in the aftermath of these earthquakes must be channeled into renewed energy on the political track, to address the fundamental issues underpinning the Syria conflict,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement marking the 12-year anniversary of the conflict.
Iran says 110 arrested over suspected schoolgirl poisonings
After killing hundreds and displacing thousands as it barreled through Mozambique and Malawi since late last week, Cyclone Freddy is set to move away from land Wednesday which should bring some relief to southern African regions that have been ravaged by its torrential rain and powerful winds.
The cyclone has killed at least 225 people in Malawi’s southern region including Blantyre, the country’s financial hub, according to local authorities. Another 88,000 people are displaced. In neighboring Mozambique, officials say at least 20 people have died since the storm made landfall in the port town of Quelimane on Saturday night. Over 45,000 people are still holed up in shelters, with about 1,300 square kilometers (800 square miles) still under water, according to the EU’s Copernicus satellite system.
“There are many casualties — either wounded, missing, or dead and the numbers will only increase in the coming days,” said Guilherme Botelho, the emergency project coordinator in Blantyre for Doctors Without Borders. Malawi, which has been battling a cholera outbreak, is at risk of a resurgence of the disease, Botelho said, “especially since the vaccine coverage in Blantyre is very poor.”The aid organization has suspended its outreach programs to protect its staff against flash floods and landslides but is supporting cyclone relief efforts at a local hospital.
A regional cyclone monitoring center on the island of Réunion projects that Freddy will move back out to sea by late Wednesday afternoon. It’s unclear whether the cyclone — now set to be the longest ever — will then dissipate or move away from land after that.
“Even rich countries that are advanced democracies would have been no match for the level of destruction this cyclone has brought,” said Kim Yi Dionne, a political scientist at the University of California Riverside. Freddy has accumulated more energy over its journey across the Indian Ocean than an entire U.S. hurricane season.
Yi Dionne said that the scale of destruction comes despite Malawi’s disaster agency having prepared and planned “for the challenges that come with our contemporary climate crisis.”Scientists say climate change caused by mostly industrialized nations pumping greenhouse gases into the air has worsened cyclone activity, making them more intense and more frequent. The recently-ended La Nina that impacts weather worldwide also increased cyclone activity in the region.
African nations, who only contribute about 4% of planet-warming emissions, are “once again paying the steepest price to climate change, including their own lives,” said Lynn Chiripamberi, who leads Oxfam’s southern Africa humanitarian program.
Cyclone Freddy has been causing destruction in southern Africa since late February. It pummeled Mozambique as well as the islands of Madagascar and Réunion last month as it traversed the Indian Ocean.
Freddy first developed near Australia in early February. The U.N.’s weather agency has convened an expert panel to determine whether it has broken the record for the longest-ever cyclone in recorded history, which was set by 31-day Hurricane John in 1994.
22,000 arrested in Iran protests pardoned
The head of Iran's judiciary says 22,000 people arrested in the recent protests that swept the Islamic Republic have been pardoned.
The state-run IRNA news agency quoted Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejehi on Monday as announcing the figure. The Associated Press could not independently verify the statement.
State media previously suggested Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei could pardon that many swept up in the demonstrations ahead of the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan.
The protests began in September over the death of a 22-year-old woman named Mahsa Amini after she was detained by the country's morality police.
After UAE, Saudi Arabia now considering 3-day weekend
Saudi Arabia is mulling a three-day weekend after the UAE enacted it last year.
According to Saudi local media, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development responded to a tweet by saying that it is evaluating the present work arrangement to extend the weekend to three days, reports Khaleej Times.
The message, according to sources, emerged on the ministry’s Twitter account, which is meant to respond to inquiries from its recipients, it said.
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According to the tweet, the ministry is conducting a periodic evaluation of the present work system in Saudi Arabia to enhance job creation and make the market more appealing to local and foreign investors. It further stated that a draft of the work system had been posted on a survey platform for public comment.
In a landmark reform, the UAE implemented a shortened workweek on January 1, 2022 UAE – adopting a Saturday-Sunday weekend, with half workday on Fridays.
The new approach was implemented throughout all government bodies, and most private-sector businesses followed suit. On Fridays, the office is only open until noon.
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