
Qatar supplies Syria's White Helmets with vehicles, logistical equipment
LONDON: Qatar has provided a consignment of vehicles, water pumps and other logistical equipment to the Syrian Civil Defense, also known as the White Helmets, to support its humanitarian and rescue efforts.
Since the collapse of Bashar Assad's regime late last year, the White Helmets have been at the forefront of rescue and first aid operations in Syria, providing essential relief services and contributing to rebuilding efforts.
The consignment was received at the Internal Security Force headquarters in Al-Duhail on Wednesday in the presence of Syrian Minister of Emergency and Disaster Management Raed Al Saleh and Qatari Brig. Gen. Nawaf Majed Al-Ali, assistant commander for security operations at the internal force.
The equipment included fire engines, mobile water tanks, high-altitude rescue vehicles, water pumps and personnel transport vehicles that will be used in search and rescue operations and emergency response, the Qatar News Agency reported.
Mounir Moustafa, director of the White Helmets, praised Qatar's support and said the equipment and training programs would significantly enhance their daily operations.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Arab News
2 hours ago
- Arab News
Syrian security forces detain cousin of toppled leader Assad
Syria's security forces have detained Wassim Assad, a cousin of toppled leader Bashar Assad, state news agency SANA said on Saturday. Wassim Assad was sanctioned by the United States in 2023 for leading a paramilitary force backing Assad's army and for trafficking drugs including the amphetamine-like drug captagon. Bashar Assad was toppled by an Islamist-led rebel insurgency in December and fled to Moscow. Most of his family members and inner circle either fled Syria or went underground. Syria's new security forces have been pursuing members of the former administration — mainly those involved in the feared security branches accused of rights abuses. Rights groups have called for a fully-fledged transitional justice process to hold them to account.


Arab News
5 hours ago
- Arab News
UN urges more support to speed up Syria refugee returns
DAMASCUS: UN refugee agency chief Filippo Grandi has urged more international support for Syria to speed up reconstruction and enable further refugee returns after some 14 years of civil war. 'I am here also to really make an appeal to the international community to provide more help, more assistance to the Syrian government in this big challenge of recovery of the country,' Grandi told reporters on Friday on the sidelines of a visit to Damascus. Syrians who had been displaced internally or fled abroad have begun gradually returning home since the December overthrow of longtime ruler Bashar Assad, whose brutal repression of peaceful anti-government protests in 2011 triggered war. But the wide-scale destruction, including to basic infrastructure, remains a major barrier to returns. Grandi said over two million people had returned to their areas of origin, including around 1.5 million internally displaced people, while some 600,000 others have come back from neighboring countries including Lebanon, Jordan and Turkiye. 'Two million of course is only a fraction of the very big number of Syrian refugees and displaced, but it is a very big figure,' he said. According to UNHCR, some 13.5 million Syrians remain displaced internally or abroad. Syria's conflict displaced around half the pre-war population, with many internally displaced people seeking refuge in camps in the northwest. Grandi said that after Assad's toppling, the main obstacle to returns was 'a lack of services, lack of housing, lack of work,' adding that his agency was working with Syrian authorities and governments in the region 'to help people go back.' He said he discussed the importance of the sustainability of returns with Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Al-Shaibani, including ensuring 'that people don't move again because they don't have a house or they don't have a job or they don't have electricity' or other services such as health. Sustainable returns 'can only happen if there is recovery, reconstruction in Syria, not just for the returnees, for all Syrians,' he said. He added that he also discussed with Shaibani how to 'encourage donors to give more resources for this sustainability.' With the recent lifting of Western sanctions, the new Syrian authorities hope for international support to launch reconstruction, which the UN estimates could cost more than $400 billion.


Arab News
2 days ago
- Arab News
Syria completes first global SWIFT transfer since war
DAMASCUS: Syrian Arab Republic has carried out its first international bank transaction via the SWIFT system since the outbreak of its 14-year civil war, its central bank governor said on Thursday, a milestone in the country's push to reintegrate into the global financial system. Abdelkader Husriyeh told Reuters in Damascus that a direct commercial transaction had been carried out from a Syrian to an Italian bank on Sunday, and that transactions with US banks could begin within weeks. 'The door is now open to more such transactions,' he said. Syrian banks were largely cut off from the world during the civil war after a crackdown by Bashar Assad on anti-government protests in 2011 led Western states to impose sanctions, including on Syria's central bank. Assad was ousted as president in a lightning offensive by rebels last year and Syria has since taken steps to re-establish international ties, culminating in a May meeting between interim President Ahmed Al-Sharaa and US President Donald Trump in Riyadh. The US then significantly eased its sanctions and some in Congress are pushing for them to be totally repealed. Europe has announced the end of its economic sanctions regime. Syria needs to make transfers with Western financial institutions in order to bring in huge sums for reconstruction and to kickstart a war-ravaged economy that has left nine out of 10 people poor, according to the UN. Husriyeh chaired a high-level virtual meeting on Wednesday bringing together Syrian banks, several US banks and US officials, including Washington's Syria envoy Thomas Barrack. The aim of the meeting was to accelerate the reconnection of Syria's banking system to the global financial system and Husriyeh extended a formal invitation to US banks to re-establish correspondent banking ties. 'We have two clear targets: have US banks set up representative offices in Syria and have transactions resume between Syrian and American banks. I think the latter can happen in a matter of weeks,' Husriyeh told Reuters. Among the banks invited to Wednesday's conference were JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley and Citibank, though it was not immediately clear who attended.