WASHINGTON: EU member states condemned the Syrian government for using chemical weapons against its own citizens during the 11-year civil war in the country, and demanded that the regime of President Bashar Assad complies with international conventions on such weapons of mass destruction.

France delivered a statement on behalf of its fellow EU members during the four-day 27th Session of the Conference of the States Parties of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which concluded at the World Forum the Hague in the Netherlands on Friday.

DUBAI: The UAE has sent a convoy of six trucks, loaded with 85 tons of medical supplies worth $10 million, to support hospitals in Gaza, the Emirates News Agency (WAM) reported on Friday.

The medical aid will be delivered through Rafah Crossing Point with aims to support the healthcare sector in Gaza, the report added.

“The UAE has always sought to provide all possible support to improve the humanitarian response to help the Palestinian brothers, and to provide the necessary needs for the people there, especially women and children,” read the statement.

RMEILAN: A US-led coalition fighting jihadists resumed regular patrols in Kurdish-held areas of northeast Syria on Friday after earlier Turkish air strikes, an AFP correspondent and a Kurdish military source said.
Patrols were reduced following the Turkish strikes that began on Nov. 20 in Kurdish-controlled areas of Syria and Iraq, in response to a deadly Istanbul bombing that Ankara blamed on Kurdish groups.
The Kurds denied responsibility.
Hundreds of American troops are in Syria as part of the fight against remnants of the Daesh group jihadists.

TEHRAN: Iran said on Thursday it had opened an investigation into the death of a man who was shot while celebrating Iran’s World Cup defeat to arch enemy the United States.
The loss eliminated Iran’s national football team from the tournament in Qatar on Tuesday night, drawing a mixed response from pro- and anti-government supporters.
Following the match, “a person named Mehran Samak died suspiciously after being hit by shotgun pellets in the city of Bandar Anzali,” Gilan province’s prosecutor Mehdi Fallahmiri said, quoted by the judiciary’s Mizan Online website.

NEW YORK: The international community’s inability to address the Palestinian cause and to hold Israel accountable is the biggest failure in UN history, a Kuwaiti diplomat said on Thursday.
Addressing a General Assembly session on the Palestinian issue, Kuwait’s Permanent Representative to the UN Tarek Al-Bannai questioned the international community for “allowing the Israeli occupation (to) carry out systematic criminal violations without being held accountable or punished as if it is above the law.