Syrian government pulls out of Paris talks with Kurds

Syria has condemned a new “military incursion” by Israel in the southwestern Damascus
countryside area outside the capital, calling it a “grave threat to regional peace”, in the wake of the
two sides recently holding talks in Paris on de-escalating the conflict in southern Syria.

Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani accused Israel on Monday of violating the 1974
Disengagement Agreement by establishing intelligence facilities and military posts in demilitarised
areas to advance its “expansionist and partition plans”.

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Al-Shaibani made the remarks at an emergency meeting of the Organisation of Islamic
Cooperation’s (OIC) foreign ministers to discuss Israel’s genocidal war on the Gaza Strip.

The latest Israeli military action in Syria follows deadly clashes in the Druze-majority Syrian
province of Suwayda, where a week of sectarian violence in July killed 1,400 people before a
ceasefire put an end to the bloodshed. Israel carried out strikes on Syrian troops and also bombed
the heart of the capital, Damascus, under the pretext of protecting the Druze.

Al-Sharaa will be first Syrian leader to address UNGA
In the meantime, it was announced that Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa will speak at
the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in September, the first Syrian leader to do so in
decades, as the nation seeks to rebuild and reengage with the international community after 14
years of ruinous civil war and the fall of longtime leader Bashar al-Assad.

In the more than 50 years that the al-Assad dynasty ruled Syria, neither Hafez al-Assad nor his son,
Bashar, ever addressed the annual gathering of world leaders in New York.

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“He will be the first Syrian president to speak at the United Nations since former President
Nureddin al-Atassi (in 1967), and the first Syrian president ever to take part in the General
Assembly’s high-level week,” scheduled for September 22-30, a Syrian official told the AFP news
agency on Monday.