Hamas's political leader abroad, Khaled Meshaal, has rejected calls to disarm Palestinian factions in Gaza, arguing that stripping weapons from an occupied people would turn them into an easy victim to be eliminated. Speaking on the second day of the Al Jazeera Forum in Doha on Sunday, Meshaal described the discussion around Hamas handing over its weapons as a continuation of a century-long effort to neutralise Palestinian armed resistance.
A ceasefire agreement between Syria's military and Kurdish-led forces has been extended for 15 days, the Syrian Ministry of Defence announced. The ministry said late on Saturday that the extension, which began at 11pm local time (20:00 GMT), aims to support a United States operation to transfer ISIL (ISIS) prisoners from detention facilities previously controlled by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
The Syrian government says it has taken over control of al-Aqtan prison, a facility in the northeastern city of Raqqa housing a number of ISIL (ISIS) detainees, following the withdrawal of Kurdish-led SDF fighters under a ceasefire agreement. The Interior Ministry said in a statement on Telegram on Friday that officials from the Prisons and Correctional Facilities Administration had assumed control of the prison in the former SDF stronghold of Raqqa, and had begun an examination of prisoners' conditions and their records, the state-run SANA news agency reported.
It also said it had asked the SDF to provide the name of a candidate for the role of assistant to the defence minister in Damascus, as part of efforts to integrate the Kurds into the Syrian state. The SDF confirmed it had accepted the ceasefire and said it would not engage in any military action unless attacked. We also affirm our openness to political paths, negotiated solutions, and dialogue,
