Jane Araf
Appearances
NPR News Now
NPR News: 03-15-2025 3PM EDT
The U.S. military said it launched an airstrike with help from Iraqi intelligence and security forces in the country's al-Anbar province. It's a remote part of Iraq where ISIS has been hiding out and regrouping since its territorial defeat in Syria six years ago. The military said the target was the group's deputy leader for global attacks. Abdullah Malik al-Rafai.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 03-15-2025 3PM EDT
The Iraqi government said Rafai also served as head of ISIS in Iraq and Syria. The U.S. military said the airstrike also killed another ISIS operative, whom it did not name. The U.S. maintains bases in Iraq to fight ISIS, but has agreed with the Iraqi government to disband the coalition by the end of the year. Jane Araf, NPR News, Damascus.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 03-08-2025 4PM EST
The killings targeted Alawite communities, the same religious minority to which deposed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad belonged. The new government has been fighting loyalists of the old regime on the Mediterranean coast, and the killings began there after government forces were killed in clashes.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 03-08-2025 4PM EST
Syria has no army or even police force since the fall of the regime, and other fighters that the government now blames for the killings rushed in after the ambush. Syrian President Ahmed Ashara has tried to reassure minorities the government will protect them. This is the biggest challenge to central government rule since he took power. Jaina Raff, NPR News, Damascus.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 03-01-2025 4AM EST
The PKK is considered a terrorist organization by Turkey and the U.S., as guerrilla fighters have battled the Turkish military from mountain bases on the border with Iraq. The group has come under increasing pressure in Syria, where Turkish-backed militias are playing an increasing role since the fall of the Syrian regime. Jane Araf, NPR News, Damascus.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 03-01-2025 4AM EST
The PKK, the Kurdistan Workers' Party, has declared a ceasefire with Turkey after a call by its founder, Abdullah Ocalan. Ocalan has been in solitary confinement for 26 years in a Turkish prison. This week, he told Turkish politicians it was time for his followers to abandon armed struggle.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 02-23-2025 8PM EST
The funeral was held at Beirut's biggest sports stadium, the only venue large enough to accommodate mourners. Nasrallah is one of the founders of Hezbollah, created to counter the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982. His killing last September deeply shocked his followers and severely weakened the organization.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 02-23-2025 8PM EST
But at the funeral, mourners and officials said he was more influential as what they consider a martyr than he was alive. They vowed to continue his path of resistance against Israel and the United States. Senior Iranian and Iraqi officials attended the funeral, along with what Hezbollah said were mourners from dozens of countries. Jane Araf, NPR News, Beirut.
Up First from NPR
Jordan's King In Washington, New Tariffs, NYC Mayor's Corruption Charges
Hi, Leila.
Up First from NPR
Jordan's King In Washington, New Tariffs, NYC Mayor's Corruption Charges
Yeah, I would expect tense, and that's probably an understatement. It's hard to put a good face on this. That's because, as you noted, Jordan is a key ally, and without any consultation— According to Jordanians and White House officials, Trump floated that plan last week during a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the U.S.
Up First from NPR
Jordan's King In Washington, New Tariffs, NYC Mayor's Corruption Charges
to take over Gaza and forcibly push 2 million Palestinians to Egypt and Jordan. Monday night, Trump doubled down, threatening Jordan if it didn't accept the plan.
Up First from NPR
Jordan's King In Washington, New Tariffs, NYC Mayor's Corruption Charges
So Jordan is a small country with a large number of refugees, and it relies on foreign aid. But this plan is one of those rare ones that has united citizens and the country's leaders in opposition to it. And what is the king likely to say? Well, I spoke with Marwan Washer, the foreign foreign minister of Jordan, now with the Carnegie Endowment think tank.
Up First from NPR
Jordan's King In Washington, New Tariffs, NYC Mayor's Corruption Charges
He says this is going to be one of the toughest meetings the king has faced. Let's listen.
Up First from NPR
Jordan's King In Washington, New Tariffs, NYC Mayor's Corruption Charges
And by that, he means that creating an alternative Palestinian homeland here means that Jordan would essentially cease to exist as a country in many ways. The majority of its citizens are already descendants of Palestinian refugees. So this is something that Jordan doesn't believe it could or ever would agree to, no matter what the cost.
Up First from NPR
Jordan's King In Washington, New Tariffs, NYC Mayor's Corruption Charges
Well, the Jordanian foreign minister, Ayman al-Safadi, has quite clearly said that expulsion of Palestinians here would be a breach of its historic peace treaty with Israel and therefore seen as a declaration of war.
Up First from NPR
Jordan's King In Washington, New Tariffs, NYC Mayor's Corruption Charges
I asked Mosher, who's also a former senior official at the World Bank, about that. Here's what he said.
Up First from NPR
Jordan's King In Washington, New Tariffs, NYC Mayor's Corruption Charges
So he points out that Congress would be quite resistant to this because It's a friend. Many of Congress people are friends of Jordan. If the U.S. cut aid, would other countries step up? Well, there is one key friend, Saudi Arabia, and its rulers have made clear that they will not accept this plan. So in the end, that could be what stops it. NPR's Jane Araf in Amman, thank you. Thank you.
Up First from NPR
Supreme Court Hears TikTok Case, Syrians Return Home, French Rape Trial Verdicts
Yeah, well, Damascus itself, of course, has changed quite dramatically. I mean, just a couple of minutes ago, there were a bunch of sixth graders who were jumping up and down on a bronze statue of toppled leader Bashar al-Assad's head. We wanted to go further afield, though, so we traveled through Syrian's southern desert to a place I have been trying to get to for years.
Up First from NPR
Supreme Court Hears TikTok Case, Syrians Return Home, French Rape Trial Verdicts
It's the Rukban camp, and it's in this remote corner of the desert where people who are fleeing ISIS thought that they could go across to Jordan and then were trapped there. 7,000 people cut off for nine years. There's also a U.S. base there. It's part of the anti-ISIS coalition. They've been partnering with Syrian forces that ended up forcing the retreat of the Syrian regime.
Up First from NPR
Supreme Court Hears TikTok Case, Syrians Return Home, French Rape Trial Verdicts
So those refugees, those refugees in their own countries now have the possibility for the first time to go home. They don't have the money and they don't have a lot of other things, but there is the possibility. And up and down that highway. we were seeing the same thing.
Up First from NPR
Supreme Court Hears TikTok Case, Syrians Return Home, French Rape Trial Verdicts
Last night near Hama, one of the key towns that were taken that led to the retreat of the regime, there was a truck stop full of families traveling home. Inside, there were Syrians crowding a sweets counter. I spoke with one young mother who was going home for the first time in 13 years. She was going to introduce her kids to their grandparents.
Up First from NPR
Supreme Court Hears TikTok Case, Syrians Return Home, French Rape Trial Verdicts
There have obviously been a lot of tragedies, a lot of deaths, For the people who are able to reunite with their families, all of that time makes it somewhat sweeter.
Up First from NPR
Supreme Court Hears TikTok Case, Syrians Return Home, French Rape Trial Verdicts
Yesterday at the Euphrates River, about a six-hour drive from Damascus, we were at one of the dividing lines between U.S.-backed Kurdish-led forces and Turkish-backed fighters who played a big role in in the retreat of the regime here. And that road from Damascus to the Euphrates River kind of mirrors the fall of regime forces.
Up First from NPR
Supreme Court Hears TikTok Case, Syrians Return Home, French Rape Trial Verdicts
There were regime tanks on the road being stripped, fuel being siphoned by poor people, defaced posters of the regime, trucks with people heading home. But then when we got closer to Manbij, where Syrian Arab coalition fighters were recently in control, There was kind of a vacuum there and people were afraid.
Up First from NPR
Supreme Court Hears TikTok Case, Syrians Return Home, French Rape Trial Verdicts
We drove further along to near the actual front line and we spoke to a commander of one of the factions from Lua al-Shamal. He asked us to call him Abu Suleiman. He's the military commander for the operations room. He told us, that the Kurdish-led forces, who he called terrorists, had broken the ceasefire.
Up First from NPR
Supreme Court Hears TikTok Case, Syrians Return Home, French Rape Trial Verdicts
That's a ceasefire that's been negotiated by the U.S., but it is one of those fault lines and one of the areas of concern for the U.S. and others as to what happens in this new Syria.
Up First from NPR
Trump At The Superbowl, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Turmoil, Air Aid To Gaza
Well, those were part of multinational efforts that dropped aid from the air on pallets with parachutes. Some of them ended up in the sea, and there was always the danger of those heavy pallets landing on people. So these flights, 16 a day over 18 days, have actually landed in Gaza, although on the outskirts, which makes the aid much more targeted.
Up First from NPR
Trump At The Superbowl, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Turmoil, Air Aid To Gaza
They were Blackhawk helicopters and they were loaded with cardboard boxes containing anesthesia drugs, antibiotics, and other medications. They also contain things like disposable diapers and infant formula. So the helicopters can carry only a fraction of the capacity of a truck, and they are much more expensive.
Up First from NPR
Trump At The Superbowl, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Turmoil, Air Aid To Gaza
These airlifts are still subject to Israeli regulations, but Jordanian aid officials say they can get medicine into Gaza this way much more reliably and much faster.
Up First from NPR
Trump At The Superbowl, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Turmoil, Air Aid To Gaza
Well, we took off from an air base about an hour from Amman and flew along the Dead Sea then into Israel. In Israel, you can see built up communities and green fields. And then it's a very stark difference when you cross over into Gaza. From the air, we could see skeletons of buildings hit by Israeli airstrikes and others in rubble. And in the distance, there was that Mediterranean coastline.
Up First from NPR
Trump At The Superbowl, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Turmoil, Air Aid To Gaza
So, A, we landed just within Israel's buffer zone in Gaza, not far from the city of Daraballah. And it was a very rare glimpse of Gaza, even that limited view, because Gaza journalists have been reporting from there at great risk from the start. But Israel, for the most part, bans foreign organizations, news organizations from Gaza.
Up First from NPR
Trump At The Superbowl, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Turmoil, Air Aid To Gaza
It was really surreal because you don't see anything living in that part of it, Deir el-Bawah, which has been heavily hit. I mean, really, from what we were seeing, it was just rubble. And it's important to note that Israel prevented us, according to the Jordanian authorities, from taking photographs on the ground of what we were seeing.
Up First from NPR
Trump At The Superbowl, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Turmoil, Air Aid To Gaza
The only thing we could take photos of once we landed were the buffer zone and the helicopter. But to actually see it real, in real life, was really unreal.
Up First from NPR
Trump At The Superbowl, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Turmoil, Air Aid To Gaza
Those are going to be tough. That coveted coastline that Trump officials have their eye on is Palestinian territory, and Jordan sees the plan as an existential threat. So Jordan is a key ally and security partner, and it's made clear it would see Israel trying to relocate more Palestinians here as a breach of their peace treaty and a declaration of war.
Up First from NPR
Trump At The Superbowl, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Turmoil, Air Aid To Gaza
Thank you.