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Syria says ready to sign Arab League deal

Syria has responded "positively" to a proposed Arab League plan aimed at ending eight months of violence, and expects the agreement to be signed soon, says Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad al-Makdesi.

(Reuters) - Damascus - After months of hardline policy, Syria's Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad al-Makdesi responded positively to the Arab League initiative aimed at halting President Bashar al-Assad's crackdown on protests in which the United Nations says more than 4,000 people have been killed.

Damascus had complained that the initiative, which includes a plan to allow observers into the country to monitor its implementation, would infringe its national sovereignty. But it says it has been seeking clarification on the proposal and had not rejected it out of hand.

"The protocol is intended to be signed soon," Makdesi told journalists in Damascus.

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FOCUS: Israel-Palestine War

After Abbas: Here Are The Three Frontrunners To Be The Next Palestinian Leader

Israel and the West have often asked: Where is the Palestinian Mandela? The divided regimes between Gaza and the West Bank continues to make it difficult to imagine the future Palestinian leader. Still, these three names are worth considering.

Photo of Mahmoud Abbas speaking into microphone

Abbas is 88, and has been the leading Palestinian political figure since 2005

Thaer Ganaim/APA Images via ZUMA
Elias Kassem

Updated Dec. 5, 2023 at 12:05 a.m.

Israel has set two goals for its Gaza war: destroying Hamas and releasing hostages.

But it has no answer to, nor is even asking the question: What comes next?

The government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected the return of the current Palestinian Authority to govern post-war Gaza. That stance seems opposed to the U.S. Administration’s call to revitalize the Palestinian Authority (PA) to assume power in the coastal enclave.

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But neither Israel nor the U.S. put a detailed plan for a governing body in post-war Gaza, let alone offering a vision for a bonafide Palestinian state that would also encompass the West Bank.

The Palestinian Authority, which administers much of the occupied West Bank, was created in1994 as part of the Oslo Accords peace agreement. It’s now led by President Mahmoud Abbas, who succeeded Yasser Arafat in 2005. Over the past few years, the question of who would succeed Abbas, now 88 years old, has largely dominated internal Palestinian politics.

But that question has gained new urgency — and was fundamentally altered — with the war in Gaza.

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