LAST UPDATE | 11 Dec 2024
SYRIA’S NEW PRIME minister has said his Islamist-led alliance that ousted president Bashar al-Assad will guarantee minority rights, as he called on the millions who fled the war to return home.
Assad fled Syria after a lightning offensive spearheaded by the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group and its allies, which brought to a spectacular end five decades of brutal rule by his clan.
Syrians across the country and around the world erupted in celebration, after enduring a stifling era during which anyone suspected of dissent could be thrown into jail or killed.
With Assad’s overthrow plunging Syria into the unknown, its new rulers have sought to assure religious minorities that they will not repress them.
They have also pledged justice for the victims of Assad’s iron-fisted rule, with HTS leader Abu Mohammed al-Jolani vowing that officials involved in torturing detainees will not be pardoned.
“We will not pardon those involved in torturing detainees,” said Jolani, now using his real name Ahmed al-Sharaa, urging “countries to hand over any of those criminals who may have fled so they can be brought to justice”.
Yesterday, he sought to allay fears over how Syria would be ruled, telling broadcaster Sky News the country was “exhausted” by war and would not be heading back into one.
“Syria will be rebuilt… The country is moving towards development and reconstruction. It’s going towards stability,” he said.
“People are exhausted from war. So the country isn’t ready for another one, and it’s not going to get into another one.”
Jolani’s group, HTS, is rooted in Syria’s Al-Qaeda branch and is proscribed by many Western governments as a terrorist organisation, though it has sought to moderate its image.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged all nations to support an “inclusive” political process in Syria, saying the United States would eventually recognise a government if it meets such standards.
In the Assads’ home village Qardaha, the tomb of the former leader’s father was set alight, AFP footage showed, with rebel fighters in fatigues and young men watching it burn.
The Baath party of the deposed president announced it would suspend its work “in all its forms… until further notice” and hand over assets to the authorities.
Lebanon’s Hezbollah meanwhile said it hoped that Syria’s new rulers would “take a firm stand against Israeli occupation, while preventing foreign interference in its affairs”.
The Britain-based Observatory said Israeli strikes had “destroyed the most important military sites in Syria”.
The monitor said the strikes targeted weapons depots, naval vessels and a research centre that Western governments suspected of having links to chemical weapons production.
Israel, which borders Syria, also sent troops into the UN-patrolled buffer zone east of the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights.
The UN official in New York told AFP yesterday that Israeli forces were occupying seven locations in the buffer zone.
Israel backer the United States said the incursion must be “temporary”, after the United Nations said Israel was violating the 1974 armistice.
Fighting also continued in the north of the country, where battles between Turkish-backed and Kurdish-led forces left 218 people dead over the last three days, according to the Observatory.
Iran criticises neighbouring ‘invaders’ in first response
Iran’s leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei accused the US and Israel of taking part in a “joint” plot to overthrow Assad.
He also blamed another “neighbouring state of Syria” for its “obvious role” in the recent developments, without naming the country.
Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey all share borders with Syria. Of those neighbours, Turkey has long supported the ouster of Assad.
Turkey has forces in northern Syria, while in the south the Israeli army has sent troops into a UN-patrolled buffer zone on the countries’ shared border east of the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights.
The US also has troops based in Syria, where they have worked with Kurdish-led fighters battling the Islamic State group.
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