Syria’s anti-regime chief referred to as on residents nationwide to have a good time “the victory of the revolution” on Friday, as G7 leaders sought to type a united response to the brand new authorities.
The Assad household’s brutal reign, lasting greater than 5 a long time, got here to a swift finish on Sunday following a lightning-fast insurgent offensive led by Abu Mohammed al-Jolani’s group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which captured the capital.
Ousted president Bashar al-Assad fled Syria, bringing an finish to an period marked by the imprisonment and killing of suspected dissidents, in addition to almost 14 years of conflict that claimed greater than 500,000 lives and displaced thousands and thousands.
“I would like to congratulate the great Syrian people on the victory of the blessed revolution and call on them to go to the streets to express their joy,” Jolani stated on Telegram.
Jolani, now utilizing his actual identify, Ahmed al-Sharaa, is about to attend Friday prayers at Damascus’ landmark Umayyad Mosque.
During the early days of Syria’s rebellion in 2011, protesters would typically collect after midday prayers on Fridays, the Muslim day of prayer and relaxation.
Assad’s overthrow has allowed Syrians to flood prisons, hospitals, and morgues searching for long-disappeared family members, hoping for a miracle, or a minimum of closure.
“I turned the world upside down looking,” Abu Mohammed advised Agence France-Presse (AFP) as he looked for news of three lacking family on the Mazzeh airbase in Damascus. “But I didn’t find anything at all. We just want a hint of where they were, one percent.”
The spokesman for the newly put in authorities, Obaida Arnaout, advised AFP that the nation’s structure and parliament can be suspended throughout a three-month transition.
“A judicial and human rights committee will be established to examine the constitution and then introduce amendments,” he stated, pledging that “the rule of law” can be instituted.
Desperate searches
Leaders of the Group of Seven nations, who will meet just about at 2:30 p.m. GMT on Friday, stated they had been able to assist the transition to an “inclusive and non-sectarian” authorities in Syria.
They referred to as for the safety of human rights, together with these of girls and minorities, whereas emphasizing “the importance of holding the Assad regime accountable for its crimes.”
Inside a lot of Syria, the main target, for now, is on unraveling the secrets and techniques of Assad’s rule, significantly the community of detention facilities and suspected torture websites scattered throughout areas beforehand below authorities management.
Syria’s management stated it’s prepared to cooperate with Washington within the seek for U.S. residents who disappeared below Assad’s rule, together with U.S. journalist Austin Tice, who was kidnapped in 2012.
Another American, Travis Timmerman, has already been positioned alive, and Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated Washington was working to convey him dwelling.
The seek for different lacking detainees has ended extra painfully, with a whole lot of Syrians gathering Thursday to bury outspoken activist Mazen al-Hamada.
In exile within the Netherlands, he publicly testified on the torture he was subjected to in Syrian prisons.
He later returned to Syria and was detained. His physique was amongst greater than 30 present in a Damascus hospital morgue this week.
Israel prepared to remain in buffer zone
Assad was propped up by Russia, the place a senior Russian official advised U.S. media he has fled, in addition to Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah group.
The anti-regime forces launched their offensive on Nov. 27, the identical day a cease-fire took impact within the Israel-Hezbollah battle, which noticed Israel inflict staggering losses on Assad’s Lebanese ally.
Both Israel and Türkiye, which backs among the anti-regime forces who ousted Assad, have since carried out strikes inside Syria.
Speaking Thursday in Jordan, Blinken pressured the significance of “not sparking any additional conflicts” after mentioning each Israeli and Turkish army exercise in Syria.
Washington hopes to make sure that Syria will not be “used as a base for terrorism” and doesn’t pose “a threat to its neighbors,” added Blinken, whose nation has a whole lot of troops in Syria as a part of a coalition in opposition to the Daesh group.
In Ankara on Friday, Blinken advised Türkiye it was “imperative” to work in opposition to a resurgence of the Daesh group in Syria.
Hours after Assad’s ouster, Israel despatched troops right into a U.N.-patrolled buffer zone that’s purported to separate Israeli and Syrian forces on the Golan Heights, in a transfer the U.N. stated violated a 1974 armistice.
In the face of widespread worldwide criticism over the transfer, Israel says it seized the buffer zone to defend itself.
Israeli troops have been ordered to “prepare to remain” within the buffer zone all through the winter, Defense Minister Israel Katz’s workplace stated on Friday.
The Israeli army has additionally carried out a whole lot of air and naval strikes in opposition to Syrian army property, focusing on all the things from chemical weapons shops to air defenses to stop them from falling into insurgent arms.
The fall of Assad has prompted among the thousands and thousands of Syrians who fled overseas to return dwelling.
On Friday morning, round 60 individuals had been ready at Türkiye’s Öncüpınar border crossing, anxious to succeed in Syria.
In the southern metropolis of Sweida, the heartland of Syria’s Druze minority, the place anti-government demonstrations have been held for greater than a yr, a whole lot took to the streets Friday, singing and clapping in jubilation.
“Our joy is indescribable,” stated Haitham Hudeifa, 54. “Every province is celebrating this great victory.”
Source: www.dailysabah.com