Syria's new president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, said in remarks broadcast on Monday he believes U.S. President Donald Trump's plan to resettle Palestinians from Gaza and take over the Strip "is a serious crime that will ultimately fail".
Syria's de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa © Mena Today
Syria's new president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, said in remarks broadcast on Monday he believes U.S. President Donald Trump's plan to resettle Palestinians from Gaza and take over the Strip "is a serious crime that will ultimately fail".
Trump had said the U.S. would take over the war-ravaged Gaza Strip and develop it economically after Palestinians are resettled elsewhere. He said Palestinians would not have the right of return to Gaza under his proposal.
In an interview with a UK podcast, Sharaa, an Islamist whose militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham was once an affiliate of al Qaeda, said Trump's proposal would not succeed.
"I believe no power can drive people from their land. Many countries have tried to do it and they have all failed, especially during the recent war in Gaza over the past year and a half," he said.
Sharaa, declared president for a transitional phase after his group's fighters led the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad, said it would be neither "wise nor morally or politically right" for Trump to lead an effort to force Palestinians out of their land.
"Over 80 years of this conflict, all attempts to displace them have failed; those who left have regretted their decision. The Palestinian lesson that every generation has learned is the importance of holding on to their land," he added.
The Islamist Ahmed al-Sharaa, self-proclaimed president of Syria, would do better to focus his energy on rebuilding his country and establishing a democracy before concerning himself with the future of Gaza.
By Jana Choukeir
Russia castigated Syria's new leaders in a closed United Nations briefing this week, two sources briefed on the meeting told Reuters, warning against the rise of jihadists in Syria and comparing sectarian killings of Alawites to Rwanda's genocide.
Turkey's foreign minister, defence minister and the head of the MIT intelligence agency are in Damascus on a working visit, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said on Thursday, without providing details.
The head of the Druze community in Israel on Thursday hailed plans for the first visit by a Druze religious delegation from Syria in five decades, despite escalating cross-border tensions underscored by an Israeli airstrike on Damascus.
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