The leader of the group that led the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad has promised that rebel factions in Syria will be “disbanded”, while the former president has denounced the country’s new rulers as “terrorists”.
Assad fled Syria on December 8 and rebels led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) captured the capital Damascus, ending decades of brutal dictatorship and years of civil war.
HTS leader Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, who now uses his real name Ahmed al-Sharaa, has sought to reassure minorities at home and governments abroad that the country’s temporary Leaders will protect all Syrians as well as state institutions.
At a meeting with members of the Druze community on Monday, he said all rebel factions would “disband and fighters will be trained to join the defense ministry”.
“Everything will be governed by the law,” he added, according to a post on the group’s Telegram channel.
He also stressed the need for unity among multi-ethnic and multi-faith countries.
“Syria must remain united,” he said. “There must be a social contract between the state and all religions to ensure social justice”.
Assad’s comments came shortly after Assad broke his silence for the first time since fleeing Syria for Russia, claiming he had evacuated military bases at Moscow’s request.
Russia joins Iran and Lebanese Hezbollah in helping support Assad’s rule.
“My departure from Syria was neither planned nor occurred in the final hours of the fighting, as some claimed,” Assad said in a statement on the ousted president’s Telegram channel.
“Moscow asked the base command to arrange an immediate evacuation to Russia,” he added.
“Any position becomes meaningless when a country falls into the hands of terrorism and loses the ability to make a meaningful contribution.”
However, five former officials told AFP that Assad left Syria hours before rebels captured Damascus.
– ‘Massive traffic’ –
The collapse of Assad’s rule shocked the world and sparked celebrations in Syria and beyond after his crackdown on pro-democracy protests in 2011 led to one of the deadliest wars this century.
But he left behind a country scarred by decades of torture, disappearances and summary executions, and economic mismanagement that left 70 percent of the population in need of aid.
U.N. aid chief Tom Fletcher on Monday urged “substantial support” for Syria.
He added that the international community should “unite” around the Syrian people.
Syria’s economy remains constrained by U.S. and European sanctions, and Western powers are still deciding how to deal with HTS.
The group is rooted in Al Qaeda’s Syrian branch and has been designated a terrorist organization by multiple governments.
The group’s Telegram channel said that in a meeting with a delegation of British diplomats on Monday, Jolani stressed the need to end “all sanctions imposed on Syria so that Syrian refugees can return to their country.”
Foreign governments have begun cautious engagement with Syria’s new interim rulers.
Türkiye and Qatar have reopened their embassies in Damascus, and U.S. and British officials have been communicating with Syrian officials.
The EU’s top diplomat arrived in Damascus on Monday for a meeting.
“We cannot leave a vacuum,” EU foreign policy chief Kaja Karas said of the visit in Brussels, warning that Russia and Iran “should not have a place in Syria’s future.”
However, she said lifting sanctions and removing HTS from the EU blacklist would depend on “when we see positive steps from the new leadership, not just words but real steps and actions.”
-“We live in pain”-
At the coastal port of Tartus on Monday, Russian troops loaded a truck at the entrance to the port they control.
HTS fighters manned a nearby checkpoint and said they were under orders not to approach Russians, and Russian flags remained flying over a military enclave in the terminal.
Away from the orchestrated diplomatic discussions in conference rooms, thousands of Syrians are still desperately searching for information about relatives who disappeared during Assad’s rule.
Some have been held for days, months or even years as rebels opened prisons during their offensive. But others remain ghosts for now.
“We want our children, alive, dead, burned to death, burned to ashes,” Ayoush Hassan, 66, told AFP in the notorious Saydnaya prison. , buried in a mass grave… Just tell us.
She traveled from her home in northern Syria to a prison in Damascus but could find no trace of her missing son.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor says more than 100,000 people have died in Syrian prisons and detention centers since 2011.
The war sparked by Assad’s crackdown on the rebellion has killed more than half a million people and forced more than half the population to flee their homes.
His departure has opened the eyes of ordinary Syrians to the lavish lifestyle enjoyed by the ruling elite as the country sinks into poverty.
Mudar Ghanem, a 26-year-old former prisoner who visited Assad’s white marble home in Latakia, said: “Just think, he spent so much money and we are living in In pain.
However, Assad’s fall did not end all conflicts in the country, with both Israel and Turkey launching attacks since Assad’s ouster.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Monday that Israel has launched more than 470 attacks on Syrian military sites since Assad fled.
The United States also said it carried out airstrikes in Syria on Monday, killing more than a dozen Islamic State militants in an attempt to prevent the group from taking advantage of Assad’s fall.
bursa/dhc
