{"id":40426,"date":"2019-08-09T21:23:04","date_gmt":"2019-08-09T21:23:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=40426"},"modified":"2019-08-09T21:23:04","modified_gmt":"2019-08-09T21:23:04","slug":"turkey-us-deal-end-to-turkish-ambitions-for-an-offensive-into-syria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=40426","title":{"rendered":"Turkey-US deal: End to Turkish ambitions for an offensive into Syria?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nBEIRUT:\u00a0Canadian Kristian Lee Baxter, 44, who was detained for nine months in Syria, was released after Lebanese officials stepped in to ensure his freedom.<\/p>\n

\nBaxter appeared at the General Security Headquarters in Beirut with the Canadian Ambassador to Lebanon Emmanuelle Lamoureux and the director-general of the Lebanese General Security Directorate, Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim. Baxter appeared to be slender and highly emotional.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThe Syrian state has cooperated with us by releasing a former American hostage (journalist Austin Tice, who was held in Syria from 2012) and today a Canadian citizen,\u201d said Ibrahim.<\/p>\n

\nHe added: \u201cBaxter was detained in Syria last year for violating their laws, and I renew my thanks to the Syrian state for cooperation and shortening his detention.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nIbrahim said his mediation with Syria was based on \u201cthe request of Canada, which asked Lebanon to intervene to release him. I informed President Michel Aoun and Prime Minister Saad Hariri on Thursday about the results of the process.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nIbrahim said the successful release is \u201cin Lebanon\u2019s interest because it brings us back to the world map.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nCommenting on Lebanese journalist Samir Kassab and Archbishops John Ibrahim and Paul Yazji, who have been missing in Syria for years, Ibrahim said: \u201cThe issue is being followed up, but we have no information that we can announce at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nIbrahim was asked about the sentence issued against Lebanese businessman Qassem Tajeddine, 63, in the US. \u201cThings have become clear with the court ruling,\u201d he said, adding that he had visited Tajeddine while he was on an official visit to the US and that \u201che was in difficult health conditions. I hope he has improved.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nOn Thursday, a US court sentenced Tajeddine to five years in prison and a $50 million (SR185m) fine for circumventing sanctions imposed on him as a \u201csignificant financial contributor to Hezbollah,\u201d according to the US Justice Department.<\/p>\n

\nLamoureux expressed her country\u2019s gratitude to Ibrahim and the role he played in bringing Baxter to his family. \u201cToday is a glorious day for Canadians,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\nThe envoy declined to give any details of the negotiations or to comment on the case \u201cbecause of Canada\u2019s privacy laws.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nBaxter tried to speak to journalists, but he was lost for words: \u201cI thought I would be there forever. I didn\u2019t know if anyone knew if I was alive.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nHe thanked the Canadian Embassy and the Lebanese authorities for their assistance in his release.<\/p>\n

\nHe looked very emotional and burst into tears. The Canadian ambassador also became emotional before she ended the press conference.<\/p>\n

\nBaxter, who is from British Columbia, had gone to Syria \u201cin search of adventure in a war-torn country,\u201d according to the Canadian Press.<\/p>\n

\nHis mother, Andrea Leclair, said at the time that her son was a \u201cworld traveler, adventurer, history lover and uses a metal detector as a hobby, but he didn\u2019t realize it was not allowed across the border.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cHe told me he was meeting nice people and that he was offered food, tea and coffee everywhere he went. He was having a great time before he went missing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\nLeclair added that she lost contact with her son on Dec. 1. He had arrived in Syria on Nov. 26 and was contacting her daily, but after she received the last message from him she discovered that \u201cthere was no Canadian Embassy operating in Syria.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nThe Canadian government has warned its citizens not to travel to Syria since the war started in 2011. Canada severed diplomatic relations with the country in 2012 and closed its embassy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BEIRUT:\u00a0Canadian Kristian Lee Baxter, 44, who was detained for nine months in Syria, was released after Lebanese officials stepped in to ensure his freedom. Baxter appeared at the General Security Headquarters in Beirut with the Canadian Ambassador to Lebanon Emmanuelle Lamoureux and the director-general of the Lebanese General Security Directorate, Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim. Baxter…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":40427,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40426\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/40427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}