The rights of Syria’s Kurds must be preserved during the transitional period, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on Thursday after a meeting with the powerful Kurdish leader Mazloum Abdi in Iraq.
Mr Barrot began a Middle East tour with a trip in Iraq, where he discussed with officials ways to strengthen bilateral ties and lay the groundwork for two key conferences on regional peace, the Third Baghdad Conference, which has been organised by Paris and Baghdad since 2021, and the second to be held in New York in June, on the implementation of a two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. France is co-organising the event with Saudi Arabia
During the two-day trip, Mr Barrot met Iraq's Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al Sudani, as well as members of the semi-autonomous Kurdistan regional government.
During his visit to Kurdistan, he met Mr Abdi, the commander of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) along with top officials from the Kurdish Autonomous Administration in north-east Syria.
Mr Barrot posted a photo of the meeting on X, with the comment: “Ten years of fighting side by side against Daesh [ISIS].
“The rights and interests of the Kurds must be fully taken into account in the Syrian transition!”
The Kurdish issue has been one of the most complex in the country since the Turkish-backed Hayat Tahrir Al Sham, an armed group formerly affiliated with Al Qaeda, led the rebel offensive in December that toppled Bashar Al Assad and installed the new government in Damascus.
Hawar News Agency said the meeting focused on “ways to support political and security stability in the region [North and East Syria], enhance dialogue among Syrian parties, and discuss France’s role in supporting political settlement efforts”.
It added that the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria seeks to “garner international support for the Democratic Autonomous Administration project and strengthen their involvement in the Syrian political process”.
HTS is seeking to disarm the country's several factions and militias, which operated during the years of the civil war, and offering some of them places in a new army and other security organisations it is setting up. President Ahmad Al Shara, who is also the HTS leader, has pledged to unify the country since his appointment by former rebel factions in January.
In March, Mr Al Sahara and Mr Abdi signed a briefly worded agreement at the presidential palace in Damascus to bring the east under the control of the new authorities and end hostilities in the resource-rich eastern part of the country. But how the deal will be implemented has yet to be negotiated and there is no guarantee the process would even succeed.
At the conclusion of his Iraq visit, Mr Barrot will head to Kuwait and Saudi Arabia for three days.
The French Foreign Ministry said Mr Barrot will also discuss preparations for another international conference, to be held in New York in June, on the implementation of a two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. France is co-organising the event with Saudi Arabia.
French President Emmanuel Macron this month announced France's intention to recognise a Palestinian state as part of a broader diplomatic drive aimed at securing regional peace and setting up Arab diplomatic relations with Israel.
“What we want to trigger is a series of other recognitions” of a Palestinian state, “but also the recognition of Israel by states that today do not do so”, Mr Macron said last week.
How to protect yourself when air quality drops
Install an air filter in your home.
Close your windows and turn on the AC.
Shower or bath after being outside.
Wear a face mask.
Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.
If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Correspondents
By Tim Murphy
(Grove Press)
Coming soon
Torno Subito by Massimo Bottura
When the W Dubai – The Palm hotel opens at the end of this year, one of the highlights will be Massimo Bottura’s new restaurant, Torno Subito, which promises “to take guests on a journey back to 1960s Italy”. It is the three Michelinstarred chef’s first venture in Dubai and should be every bit as ambitious as you would expect from the man whose restaurant in Italy, Osteria Francescana, was crowned number one in this year’s list of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants.
Akira Back Dubai
Another exciting opening at the W Dubai – The Palm hotel is South Korean chef Akira Back’s new restaurant, which will continue to showcase some of the finest Asian food in the world. Back, whose Seoul restaurant, Dosa, won a Michelin star last year, describes his menu as, “an innovative Japanese cuisine prepared with a Korean accent”.
Dinner by Heston Blumenthal
The highly experimental chef, whose dishes are as much about spectacle as taste, opens his first restaurant in Dubai next year. Housed at The Royal Atlantis Resort & Residences, Dinner by Heston Blumenthal will feature contemporary twists on recipes that date back to the 1300s, including goats’ milk cheesecake. Always remember with a Blumenthal dish: nothing is quite as it seems.
What are the main cyber security threats?
Cyber crime - This includes fraud, impersonation, scams and deepfake technology, tactics that are increasingly targeting infrastructure and exploiting human vulnerabilities.
Cyber terrorism - Social media platforms are used to spread radical ideologies, misinformation and disinformation, often with the aim of disrupting critical infrastructure such as power grids.
Cyber warfare - Shaped by geopolitical tension, hostile actors seek to infiltrate and compromise national infrastructure, using one country’s systems as a springboard to launch attacks on others.
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Something of a fashion anomaly, normcore is essentially a celebration of the unremarkable. The term was first popularised by an article in New York magazine in 2014 and has been dubbed “ugly”, “bland’ and "anti-style" by fashion writers. It’s hallmarks are comfort, a lack of pretentiousness and neutrality – it is a trend for those who would rather not stand out from the crowd. For the most part, the style is unisex, favouring loose silhouettes, thrift-shop threads, baseball caps and boyish trainers. It is important to note that normcore is not synonymous with cheapness or low quality; there are high-fashion brands, including Parisian label Vetements, that specialise in this style. Embraced by fashion-forward street-style stars around the globe, it’s uptake in the UAE has been relatively slow.
SQUADS
South Africa:
Faf du Plessis (capt), Hashim Amla, Temba Bavuma, Farhaan Behardien, Quinton de Kock (wkt), AB de Villiers, JP Duminy, Imran Tahir, David Miller, Wayne Parnell, Dane Paterson, Andile Phehlukwayo, Dwaine Pretorius, Kagiso Rabada
Coach: Ottis Gibson
Bangladesh:
Mashrafe Mortaza (capt), Imrul Kayes, Liton Das (wkt), Mahmudullah, Mehidy Hasan, Mohammad Saifuddin, Mominul Haque, Mushfiqur Rahim (wkt), Mustafizur Rahman, Nasir Hossain, Rubel Hossain, Sabbir Rahman, Shakib Al Hasan, Soumya Sarkar, Tamim Iqbal, Taskin Ahmed.
Coach: Chandika Hathurusingha
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
The Byblos iftar in numbers
29 or 30 days – the number of iftar services held during the holy month
50 staff members required to prepare an iftar
200 to 350 the number of people served iftar nightly
160 litres of the traditional Ramadan drink, jalab, is served in total
500 litres of soup is served during the holy month
200 kilograms of meat is used for various dishes
350 kilograms of onion is used in dishes
5 minutes – the average time that staff have to eat
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Five expert hiking tips
Always check the weather forecast before setting off
Make sure you have plenty of water
Set off early to avoid sudden weather changes in the afternoon
Wear appropriate clothing and footwear
Take your litter home with you
Tonight's Chat on The National
Tonight's Chat is a series of online conversations on The National. The series features a diverse range of celebrities, politicians and business leaders from around the Arab world.
Tonight’s Chat host Ricardo Karam is a renowned author and broadcaster who has previously interviewed Bill Gates, Carlos Ghosn, Andre Agassi and the late Zaha Hadid, among others.
Intellectually curious and thought-provoking, Tonight’s Chat moves the conversation forward.
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Our legal advisor
Ahmad El Sayed is Senior Associate at Charles Russell Speechlys, a law firm headquartered in London with offices in the UK, Europe, the Middle East and Hong Kong.
Experience: Commercial litigator who has assisted clients with overseas judgments before UAE courts. His specialties are cases related to banking, real estate, shareholder disputes, company liquidations and criminal matters as well as employment related litigation.
Education: Sagesse University, Beirut, Lebanon, in 2005.
