A ship carrying wheat has arrived in Syria’s Latakia port, the first such delivery since former President Bashar al-Assad was ousted in December, the government said, as it pushes to boost an economy ravaged by nearly 14 years of ruinous civil war.
Traders say Syria has this year been largely relying on overland imports from neighbours.
Officials of the new government led by interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa say that while imports of wheat and other basics are not subject to sanctions from the United States or United Nations, challenges in securing financing for trade deals have deterred global suppliers from selling to Syria.
The Syrian General Authority for Land and Sea Borders said in a statement that the ship carried 6,600 tonnes of wheat. It did not identify the nationality or destination of the boat, but one regional commodity trader told the Reuters news agency it was from Russia.
Russia and Iran were Syria’s primary military and economic backers under al-Assad. They previously provided most of Syria’s wheat and oil products, but stopped after opposition fighters swept through the country in triumph and al-Assad fled to Moscow.
Syria’s border authority called the shipment “a clear indication of the start of a new phase of economic recovery in the country”, adding that it should pave the way for more arrivals of vital supplies.
Al-Sharaa’s government is sharply focused on economic recovery after 14 years of conflict and has also been making efforts to open travel routes to the country.
Most international airlines suspended operations to and from Damascus in 2012 amid the Syrian government’s violent crackdown on protests that began in 2011 and the subsequent civil war that drew in multiple outside actors.
However, in January 2024, several airlines resumed service at Damascus International Airport following an announcement by the Syrian Civil Aviation Authority that international flights would be accepted.
On Saturday, a Syrian passenger flight departed on Sunday for the United Arab Emirates (UAE), marking the resumption of air travel between the two countries.
A UN official said on Saturday that Syria’s authorities should also begin the process of economic recovery, without waiting for Western sanctions imposed under al-Assad’s rule to be lifted.
“Waiting for sanctions to be lifted leads nowhere,” Abdallah Al Dardari, the regional chief for Arab states at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), told the AFP news agency in an interview in Damascus.
Al Dardari said this process should include “projects… directly affecting citizens”, the provision of services by civil society, particularly in education, and “the rapid improvement of public services”.
“People need to feel the improvement quickly … especially in such a difficult period,” he said. “With a clear vision and well-defined priorities, once the sanctions are lifted, funding will flow into Syria. ”
Ukraine and Russia have accused each other of breaching an “Easter truce” announced by Russian President Vladimir Putin that Ukraine said was being violated from the moment it started.
In a surprise announcement on Saturday, Putin ordered his forces to “stop all military activity” along the front line in the war against Ukraine, citing humanitarian reasons. The 30-hour cessation of hostilities would have been the most significant pause in the fighting throughout the three-year conflict.
But just hours after the order was meant to have come into effect, air raid sirens sounded in Kyiv and several other Ukrainian regions, with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accusing Russia of having maintained its attacks and engaging in a PR stunt.
Russia’s Ministry of Defence also alleged on Sunday that Ukraine had broken the truce more than 1,000 times.
“Across various frontline directions, there have already been 59 cases of Russian shelling and five assaults by Russian units,” Zelenskyy said on social media, citing a report as of 6am (03:00 GMT) from Ukrainian commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrskii.
He said in the six hours up to midnight (21:00 GMT on Saturday), there were “387 instances of shelling and 19 assaults by Russian forces”, with drones “used by Russians 290 times”.
“Overall, as of Easter morning, we can state that the Russian army is attempting to create the general impression of a ceasefire, while in some areas still continuing isolated attempts to advance and inflict losses on Ukraine,” Zelenskyy said.
“In practice, either Putin does not have full control over his army, or the situation proves that in Russia, they have no intention of making a genuine move toward ending the war, and are only interested in favourable PR coverage,” he added.
According to the Kremlin, fighting stopped at 6pm Moscow time (15:00 GMT) on Saturday until Sunday midnight (21:00 GMT) owing to Easter.
But as church bells rang out for Easter services on Sunday, residents in Kyiv expressed doubts whether Russia would observe the brief truce.
Natalia Malaieva noted that an air raid alert was heard in Kyiv moments after the truce began.
“Missiles and drones flew over. There were explosions caused by missiles,” she said. “What kind of a ceasefire is that? ”
Olha Malashuk added: “He [Putin] probably wants to rearm the troops … That is why no one believes him any more. ”
Orthodox worshippers attend the Easter service in Saint Michael’s Golden-Domed Cathedral in Kyiv [Sergei Supinsky/AFP]
Accusations and counteraccusations
In a statement on social media on Sunday, the Russian Defence Ministry said Ukrainian forces had shot at Russian positions 444 times and it had counted more than 900 Ukrainian drone attacks.
It added that the border regions of Bryansk, Kursk and Belgorod had come under attack. “As a result, there were deaths and injuries among the civilian population as well as damage to civilian objects,” the ministry said.
Quoting a source in “operative services”, the Russian state news agency TASS said at least three blasts were heard in the Budennovsky district of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, which has been under Russia’s control since 2014.
The report blamed Ukrainian forces for what it said was an attack carried out during the truce. There was no immediate comment from Ukraine.
A Ukrainian military spokesperson confirmed that activities on the front lines with Russia had decreased, but the fighting had not stopped.
“It is decreasing, but it hasn’t disappeared,” Viktor Trehubov told national television.
“To be honest, we didn’t hold out much hope that this would actually happen,” the military spokesperson for Ukraine’s eastern front said.
Reporting from Moscow, Al Jazeera’s Yulia Shapovalova said both sides were accusing each other, but according to analysts, it is almost impossible to stop all the hostilities immediately. But generally, the situation on the battlefield is much calmer, and the number of attacks has decreased.
“The Russian reaction to this ceasefire is very positive,” she added.
“People hope that it will last, and analysts also say that Russia and Putin are likely in a favourable position right now for a longer truce and peace negotiations, taking into account Russia’s gains on the battlefield and the efforts by the US side as well,” Shapovalova said.
‘A pure political step’
Andrei Fedorov, a former Russian deputy foreign minister, called Putin’s announcement “a pure political step” and said it was taken for both domestic and international reasons.
“Easter is one of the main holidays for Russia and Putin wants to show that he’s following Russian Orthodox Church tradition,” he told Al Jazeera.
“At the same time, it’s a very important test for him if Ukraine will do the same, because now when there will be a new stage of talks on Ukraine, [and] it’s very important for Putin to have real arguments that say, ‘look, Ukraine is not following the agreements. Ukraine is breaking down the ceasefire. ’”
Putin’s announcement came a day after United States President Donald Trump said Washington will “take a pass” on trying to resolve the Russia-Ukraine war if either Moscow or Kyiv makes it too difficult to end it.
Reporting from Washington, DC, Al Jazeera’s Rosalind Jordan said neither side can currently really afford to anger the Trump administration.
“Especially now that they are saying very publicly here in Washington that they are ready to walk away, even though President Trump has said repeatedly that he is tired of what he calls the ‘carnage’ in the war between Ukraine and Russia,” she said.
But there has been no reaction from the Trump administration this weekend to developments in the Ukraine war.
Vladimir Sotnikov, an associate professor of international relations at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow, said he fears Trump has “jumped into” a peace plan that “won’t work in the near future”.
“Both sides – Ukraine and Russia – are still very far from sitting down at the table and trying to talk to each other,” Sotnikov told Al Jazeera.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun says he will not be rushed to disarm Hezbollah under unfavourable circumstances as the Israeli military continues to launch deadly air strikes on the country in violation of a November ceasefire.
In comments to reporters after a meeting with a Maronite patriarch to mark Easter on Sunday, the former army chief said he considers disarming the Iran-aligned group a “sensitive, delicate issue” that must be handled with consideration to preserve national peace.
“Any controversial domestic issue in Lebanon can only be approached through conciliatory, nonconfrontational dialogue and communication. If not, we will lead Lebanon to ruin,” Aoun said.
The Trump administration has been applying sustained pressure on Beirut to push for the disarming of Hezbollah, leading to Aoun announcing last week that he hopes to complete the process by the end of 2025 – the first time a senior official has set any deadline.
Aoun’s comments on Sunday came shortly after the Lebanese government praised the army for foiling an imminent attack on Israel, a first since the November ceasefire with Hezbollah, which Israel has violated on numerous occasions.
The Lebanese army released images of confiscated rockets and launch pads and said it arrested multiple individuals previously involved in rocket attacks on Israel as well.
The raid that led to the confiscated munitions was reported to have taken place in the Sidon area of southern Lebanon.
The office of Prime Minister Nawaf Sharif urged security forces to “thwart suspicious plots that seek to embroil Lebanon in further wars” and said this work proves that the Lebanese state is moving towards full sovereignty over its territory with its own forces.
“The Lebanese state alone is the authority that makes decisions regarding war and peace and is the body authorised to possess weapons,” he said.
Hezbollah has not immediately reacted to Sunday’s statements, but its leader Naim Qassem said on Friday that the group “will not let anyone disarm” it, especially as the Israeli military continues to occupy parts of southern Lebanon.
Hezbollah was formed in the aftermath of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982 and grew over the decades to possess substantial political and military power. This included forcing Israel out from its occupation of southern Lebanon in 2000 and fighting Israel to a stalemate in a 2006 war.
But the organisation has lost many leaders in Israeli assassinations as well as much military equipment since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza in October 2023 and must withdraw its military forces from southern Lebanon as part of the ceasefire.
Israeli air strikes kill two
Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health said on Sunday that two people were killed in two Israeli air raids in southern Lebanon.
Israeli warplanes fired at least two missiles at a house in Hula, a village in Nabatieh governorate, killing one person, the ministry said.
An Israeli drone attack also targeted a vehicle in Kaoutariyet as-Siyad, killing another person, it said.
The footage below, which has been verified by Al Jazeera’s Sanad fact-checking agency, shows plumes of smoke rising after Israeli air strikes targeted the heights of the Iqlim al-Tuffah region of southern Lebanon.
مراسل الجديد: سلسلة غارات عنيفة من الطيران الحربي إستهدفت أطراف مليتا ومرتفعات إقليم التفاح@farhat_muhamad1 pic. twitter. com/8TMHLdc06q
The Israeli military said one of its strikes on southern Lebanon killed a deputy head of a Hezbollah unit responsible for smuggling weapons and funds to the group, including across the country’s border with Syria.
The army added that the targeted man was “extensively involved” in Hezbollah efforts to revitalise after the group took heavy blows during the war.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has suspended the political party of former President Joseph Kabila and ordered the seizure of his assets, accusing the 53-year-old of high treason over alleged ties to the Rwandan-backed M23 rebel group.
In a statement late on Saturday, the country’s Interior Ministry said Kabila’s People’s Party for Reconstruction and Democracy (PPRD) was suspended for its “ambiguous attitude” towards the M23’s occupation of DRC territory.
The M23 rebellion has reignited violence in DRC’s mineral-rich eastern provinces, where conflict rooted in the spillover from Rwanda’s 1994 genocide and the struggle for control of minerals has persisted for decades.
The fighting has killed thousands and displaced hundreds of thousands of people, according to the United Nations. The M23 has also taken two important cities, Goma and Bukavu, in the east since the start of the year.
DRC President Felix Tshisekedi has accused Kabila of preparing “an insurrection” and backing an alliance that includes M23.
In another statement, the DRC’s Justice Ministry said Kabila and other party leaders’ assets would be seized after acts amounting to high treason.
Both statements said prosecutors had been instructed to initiate proceedings against him, but no details of the accusations were given. It is understood that no formal charges have yet been filed.
There has been no direct comment from Kabila, who ruled the country from 2001 to 2019.
However, his spokesperson Barbara Nzimbi wrote on X that the former president would address the nation “in the coming hours or days”. PPRD secretary Ferdinand Kambere told the Reuters news agency the suspension amounted to “a flagrant violation” of the DRC’s constitution.
The move to suspend Kabila’s party follows reports that he has returned to the country after spending two years in South Africa. Kabila left the DRC before the last presidential election in 2023.
According to the Interior Ministry, he has travelled to Goma, but his presence there has not been confirmed independently.
Kabila, a former military officer, came to power at the age of 29 following the assassination of his father, Laurent-Desire Kabila, during the Second Congo War.
He won elections in 2006 and 2011 that were marred by allegations of fraud and human rights abuses. After two years of deadly protests and mounting international pressure, he handed power to Felix Tshisekedi in 2019 – a transition hailed as the country’s first peaceful handover of power since independence in 1960.
Earlier this month, Kabila said his return was driven by a desire to help resolve the country’s political and security crisis. In an interview with Jeune Afrique, he said he hoped to “play a role in seeking a solution after six years of complete retreat and one year in exile”.
The suspension of Kabila’s party came as peace talks between the DRC government and M23 rebels, due to take place in April, were postponed.
Russia and Ukraine have carried out the largest prisoner exchange since the start of the war, swapping more than 500 prisoners in total. It comes as Russia’s President Vladimir Putin announced a temporary ‘Easter’ ceasefire, but Ukraine says the attacks haven’t stopped.
