DAMASCUS // The Palestine Liberation Organisation is in talks with the Syrian government about ending a Palestinian refugee camp siege that has prompted tens of thousands to flee, Palestinian officials said yesterday.
Pro-Damascus Palestinian groups have lain siege for months to pro-rebel groups inside the Yarmuk camp in the southern outskirts of Damascus, prompting the exodus of at least 135,000 of its 170,000 residents.
“Negotiations are underway for the withdrawal of the armed men from the camp, the opening of the entrance points and the return of services,” the PLO’s ambassador to Damascus, Anwar Abdel Hadi said.
“If they succeed and the armed men withdraw, the Syrian police will take control of the camp, as it was before the fighting, and the Syrian army will remain on the outskirts.”
The fighting around the camp pits pro-Damascus Palestinian factions, such as Al Saiqa and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, against groups like Hamas that support the Syrian rebels.
The pro-Damascus groups have pushed a few hundred metres inside the camp, but the pro-rebel groups, who are backed by Al Qaeda loyalists, remain holed up inside.
Their position has become increasingly difficult in recent weeks, however, as advances by the Syrian army in Damascus province have threatened to cut their supply lines.
Living conditions for the camp’s remaining civilian residents have become dire, as supplies of food and medicines have run out.
The PLO delegation, led by executive committee member Zakaria Al Agha, arrived from the West Bank town of Ramallah on Sunday to discuss the Palestinian proposal for ending the siege.
A member of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a PLO faction which is not party to the fighting, said the proposal called for the return of the refugees.
“It stipulates the withdrawal of the armed men, the return of the camp’s residents to their homes and the provision of support for their return to normal life,” said the front member Rashid Kweidar, who is close to the negotiations.
The PLO ambassador said an aid convoy was “outside the camp right now”, waiting to enter to deliver relief supplies.
Abu Bassel Fuad, a member of the pro-Damascus Palestine Liberation Front, said the priority was “the entry of food, medicines and vaccines for children”.
He said the aim was to open “humanitarian corridors to allow the transport of the wounded and the safe movement of residents”.
* Agence France-Presse
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Dubai Police has also issued a list of banned items at the ground on Sunday. These include:
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In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Electoral College Victory
Trump has so far secured 295 Electoral College votes, according to the Associated Press, exceeding the 270 needed to win. Only Nevada and Arizona remain to be called, and both swing states are leaning Republican. Trump swept all five remaining swing states, North Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, sealing his path to victory and giving him a strong mandate.
Popular Vote Tally
The count is ongoing, but Trump currently leads with nearly 51 per cent of the popular vote to Harris’s 47.6 per cent. Trump has over 72.2 million votes, while Harris trails with approximately 67.4 million.
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