I have just returned from a week in Syria with the British-Syrian diaspora, who have done much over the past 12 years to keep the flame of hope alive. If smiles and positivity are anything to go by, I for one am overwhelmed by a sense of hope after a few days in Damascus and Homs with the people I’ve been involved with.
This is something I never expected after the years of death and destruction witnessed in the north-west province of Idlib. The old Syrian regime and their Russian backers tried to subjugate the people with gas attacks and a scorched earth policy designed to raze the place to the ground – but they could not put out the fire in people’s hearts for a free Syria.
It was ostensibly the British-Syrian diaspora, from the Syrian British Medical Society (SBMS) and UOSSM (Union of Syrian Medical Charities), who kept the medical facilities in Idlib running, giving the residents some hope and the will to carry on.
They were ably supported over all these years by eminent and some wealthy Syrians, in effect in exile in the UK and Europe, who would often be in north-west Syria using their own money and resources to keep the lights on and put food in people's mouths as [removed president Bashar Al] Assad and [Russian President Vladimir] Putin tried to kill them.
The revolution that toppled the old guard in Damascus grew out of north-west Syria, and the interim President Ahmad Al Shara, though once an extremist, now appears to be a viable leader who seems to be steering the new Syria into a path to become a moderate, secular and democratic country, which it once was in the mists of time before the Assads.
The Syrians I know, some very close to the new team, tell me they are the real deal, but Al Assad and Putin have bankrupted the country and most immediately Al Shara needs money and advice to keep the mechanics of government moving.
Those of us in Iraq in 2003 saw what happened when the Saddam regime was deposed and the government ministries were folded, causing disaster, and allowing the extremists to develop and almost fatally destroy the country.
This must not be allowed to happen in Syria. Britain is uniquely placed through the British-Syrian diaspora to make a real difference, and opening the British embassy in Damascus cannot happen soon enough.
There may not be a grand building readily available, I’m sure one could be sourced very quickly. I urge the FCDO to take a "bit" of risk with their own, no doubt extensive and elongated threat assessments, but I gauge as one who knows a bit about this place and a bit about security and protection, that if we use the usual "over-abundance" of caution we may miss this fleeting opportunity to stabilise this place.
If we do miss it, expect more threats to the UK itself. I visited the new Syrian Health Ministry, which would like to replicate what SBMS and others did in north-west Syria across the whole of the country.
In the same vein, they have asked the White Helmets, the civil emergency teams set up with British government funding and by the likes of former British Army officer James Le Mesurier, to now run the emergency services countrywide.
Of course, this part of the Middle East is a tinderbox at the moment, with Israel to the south and Lebanon to the west, but at least with the demise of the Russians and Iranians, Syria is now being run by Syrians and not by tyrants and dictators who are out for all they can get.
The Labour government in London still appears to bear the scars of the disastrous Iraq invasion of 2003, and its inexperienced team seem to confuse what happened in Iraq and Afghanistan as a possible blueprint they do not want to replicate in this place.
But I can assure them, that as one who has spent considerable time in all three countries at the worst of their times, the Syria today is different and can, if we act quickly and decisively, be put on the path to a much brighter tomorrow.
The new government in Damascus does not need us to tell them what to do. They know what they want to do, but they want and need our advice and resources to ensure they can do it.
- Hamish de Bretton-Gordon is a former British army officer who has written extensively about Syria and visited the country regularly over the past decade
Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
MATCH INFO
Uefa Nations League
League A, Group 4
Spain v England, 10.45pm (UAE)
Oppenheimer
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GIANT REVIEW
Starring: Amir El-Masry, Pierce Brosnan
Director: Athale
Rating: 4/5
Arabian Gulf League fixtures:
Friday:
- Emirates v Hatta, 5.15pm
- Al Wahda v Al Dhafra, 5.25pm
- Al Ain v Shabab Al Ahli Dubai, 8.15pm
Saturday:
- Dibba v Ajman, 5.15pm
- Sharjah v Al Wasl, 5.20pm
- Al Jazira v Al Nasr, 8.15pm
Ain Dubai in numbers
126: The length in metres of the legs supporting the structure
1 football pitch: The length of each permanent spoke is longer than a professional soccer pitch
16 A380 Airbuses: The equivalent weight of the wheel rim.
9,000 tonnes: The amount of steel used to construct the project.
5 tonnes: The weight of each permanent spoke that is holding the wheel rim in place
192: The amount of cable wires used to create the wheel. They measure a distance of 2,4000km in total, the equivalent of the distance between Dubai and Cairo.
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
MADAME%20WEB
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PROFILE OF SWVL
Started: April 2017
Founders: Mostafa Kandil, Ahmed Sabbah and Mahmoud Nouh
Based: Cairo, Egypt
Sector: transport
Size: 450 employees
Investment: approximately $80 million
Investors include: Dubai’s Beco Capital, US’s Endeavor Catalyst, China’s MSA, Egypt’s Sawari Ventures, Sweden’s Vostok New Ventures, Property Finder CEO Michael Lahyani
What can victims do?
Always use only regulated platforms
Stop all transactions and communication on suspicion
Save all evidence (screenshots, chat logs, transaction IDs)
Report to local authorities
Warn others to prevent further harm
Courtesy: Crystal Intelligence
SPECS
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Pharaoh's curse
British aristocrat Lord Carnarvon, who funded the expedition to find the Tutankhamun tomb, died in a Cairo hotel four months after the crypt was opened.
He had been in poor health for many years after a car crash, and a mosquito bite made worse by a shaving cut led to blood poisoning and pneumonia.
Reports at the time said Lord Carnarvon suffered from “pain as the inflammation affected the nasal passages and eyes”.
Decades later, scientists contended he had died of aspergillosis after inhaling spores of the fungus aspergillus in the tomb, which can lie dormant for months. The fact several others who entered were also found dead withiin a short time led to the myth of the curse.
Spare
Profile
Company name: Spare
Started: March 2018
Co-founders: Dalal Alrayes and Saurabh Shah
Based: UAE
Sector: FinTech
Investment: Own savings. Going for first round of fund-raising in March 2019
RESULTS
5pm Maiden (PA) Dh70,000 (Dirt) 1,400m
Winner AF Nashrah, Tadhg O’Shea (jockey), Ernst Oertel (trainer)
5.30pm Maiden (PA) Dh70,000 (D) 1,400m
Winner Mutaqadim, Riccardo Iacopini, Ibrahim Al Hadhrami.
6pm Maiden (PA) Dh70,000 (D) 1,600m
Winner Hameem, Jose Santiago, Abdallah Al Hammadi.
6.30pm Maiden (PA) Dh70,000 (D) 1,600m
Winner AF Almomayaz, Sandro Paiva, Ali Rashid Al Raihe.
7pm Handicap (PA) Dh70,000 (D) 1,800m
Winner Dalil Al Carrere, Fernando Jara, Mohamed Daggash.
7.30pm Handicap (TB) Dh70,000 (D) 1,000m
Winner Lahmoom, Royston Ffrench, Salem bin Ghadayer.
8pm Handicap (PA) Dh70,000 (D) 1,000m
Winner Jayide Al Boraq, Bernardo Pinheiro, Khalifa Al Neyadi.
LILO & STITCH
Starring: Sydney Elizebeth Agudong, Maia Kealoha, Chris Sanders
Director: Dean Fleischer Camp
Rating: 4.5/5
The specs: 2018 Jaguar E-Pace First Edition
Price, base / as tested: Dh186,480 / Dh252,735
Engine: 2.0-litre four-cylinder
Power: 246hp @ 5,500rpm
Torque: 365Nm @ 1,200rpm
Transmission: Nine-speed automatic
Fuel consumption, combined: 7.7L / 100km
MOUNTAINHEAD REVIEW
Starring: Ramy Youssef, Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman
Director: Jesse Armstrong
Rating: 3.5/5
Racecard
5.25pm: Etihad Museum – Maiden (TB) Dh82,500 (Turf) 1,200m
6pm: Al Shindaga Museum – Handicap (TB) Dh87,500 (Dirt) 1,200m
6.35pm: Poet Al Oqaili – Handicap (TB) Dh95,000 (T) 1,400m
7.10pm: Majlis Ghurfat Al Sheif – Handicap (TB) Dh87,500 (D) 1,600m
7.45pm: Hatta – Handicap (TB) Dh95,000 (T) 1,400m
8.20pm: Al Fahidi – Rated Conditions (TB) Dh87,500 (D) 2,200m
8.55pm: Zabeel Trophy – Rated Conditions (TB) Dh120,000 (T) 1,600m
9.30pm: Coins Museum – Rated Conditions (TB) Dh95,000 (D) 1,600m
10.05pm: Al Quoz Creative – Handicap (TB) Dh95,000 (T) 1,000m
THE CLOWN OF GAZA
Director: Abdulrahman Sabbah
Starring: Alaa Meqdad
Rating: 4/5
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Wicked: For Good
Director: Jon M Chu
Starring: Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo, Jonathan Bailey, Jeff Goldblum, Michelle Yeoh, Ethan Slater
Rating: 4/5
Superliminal%20
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