Closing summary
Syria’s Bashar al-Assad said on Monday he was evacuated to Russia from the Hmeimim base in Syria on the evening of 8 December as it came under drone attacks, after leaving Damascus that morning with opposition fighters closing in. The comment, in a statement that was published on the Syrian presidency’s Telegram channel and dated 16 December from Moscow, was Assad’s first in public since he was toppled more than a week ago by a rebel offensive.
Assad also said in a statement on his Facebook page that he had planned to keep fighting but the Russians evacuated him. He said that “at no time during the events that have taken place in Syria” had he considered leaving the country, according to the TASS news agency.
US president-elect Donald Trump said on Monday that Turkey will hold the key to what happens in Syria, where rebels toppled the government of Bashar al-Assad earlier this month. Turkey, a Nato member, backed the rebels whose assumption of power in Damascus ended Syria’s 13-year civil war.
In Damascus, residents dismissed Assad’s comments and some told the Associated Press that he had abandoned Syria’s people long ago. “Is he going to run away from us? He still won’t be able to run away from God,” said one resident, Moataz al-Ahmed, as children stepped on a fallen statue of Assad’s father, Hafez, who had begun the family’s half-century rule.
British officials will meet Syria’s interim authorities for talks in Damascus this week, foreign minister David Lammy said on Monday. “I can confirm today that we have sent a delegation of senior UK officials to Damascus this week for meetings with the new interim Syrian authorities and members of civil society groups in Syria,” Lammy told a press conference.
The head of Russia’s Chechnya region, Ramzan Kadyrov, on Monday suggested removing Syria’s Hayat Tahrir al-Sham from Russia’s list of “terrorist organisations.” Kadyrov made the suggestion on his official Telegram channel and said Russia and Syria should organise contact groups once the designation was removed to establish bilateral ties.
Extremism, Russia and Iran should not have a place in Syria’s future, EU’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas told reporters on Monday after meeting with European foreign ministers. “Many foreign ministers emphasised that it should be a condition for the new leadership to eliminate Russian influence (in Syria),” Kallas said. Four Syrian official told Reuters on Saturday that while Russia is pulling back its military from the frontlines in northern Syria and from posts in the Alawite Mountains, Moscow is not leaving its two main bases in the country after the fall of president Bashar al-Assad.
The vault of Syria’s central bank holds nearly 26 tonnes of gold, the same amount it had at the start of its bloody civil war in 2011, even after the chaotic fall of Bashar al-Assad’s despotic regime, four people familiar with the situation told Reuters. But the country has only a small amount of foreign currency reserves in cash, the same people said. Syria’s gold reserves stood at 25.8 tonnes in June 2011, according to the World Gold Council, which cites the Central Bank of Syria as its data source. That is worth $2.2bn at current market prices, according to Reuters calculations.
The Israeli ambassador to Ireland said closing its embassy in Dublin was “the correct diplomatic decision”, and claimed there was “a hostile atmosphere” in the country. The Israeli government announced the closure in a statement on Sunday, saying it was because of the “extreme anti-Israel policies of the Irish government”, and accusing Ireland of “crossing every red line”. Ambassador Dana Erlich accused Ireland of taking a more “extreme stance” than any other country.
European Union nations on Monday set out conditions for lifting sanctions on Syria and kickstarting aid to the conflict-ravaged country amid uncertainty about its new leaders’ intentions just over a week after they seized power, AP reports. At a meeting in Brussels, the EU’s top diplomats said they want guarantees from members of Syria’s interim government that they are preparing for a peaceful political future involving all minority groups, one in which extremism and former allies Russia and Iran have no place.
Foreign ministers from the United States, UK, France, Germany and Italy will hold talks on Tuesday to discuss developments in Syria, Italy’s Antonio Tajani said. “We hope that the first positive signals will transform into concrete positive signals,” foreign minister Tajani said at a conference of diplomats at the Italian foreign ministry. The virtual meeting comes amid Western moves towards the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) rebel group that is in charge following the ousting of president Bashar al-Assad.
The United Nations envoy to Syria has told Islamist militants who toppled Bashar al-Assad that they need to oversee a “credible and inclusive” transition, as world powers sought to engage with the country’s new rulers. Geir Pedersen, a Norwegian diplomat, met the Syrian rebel leader. Ahmed al-Sharaa, formerly known by his nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, in Damascus on Monday. He also met the interim prime minister, Mohammed al-Bashir.
An uncle of the recently ousted Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad used an adviser in Guernsey to secretly manage his wealth, which included a vast European property empire worth hundreds of millions of euros that prosecutors claim was acquired with funds looted from the wartorn state. Rifaat al-Assad, known as the “Butcher of Hama” for overseeing the violent suppression of a rebellion in the 1980s, has been accused of war crimes by Swiss prosecutors. In 2020, he was convicted by a French court of embezzling Syrian state funds and pouring the money into luxury properties, with the French state seizing assets worth €90m.
A team of Turkish rescuers began an in-depth search of Syria’s infamous Sednaya prison on Monday, a spokesperson for Turkey’s AFAD disaster management agency told AFP. Located just north of Damascus, the prison known locally as locally known as “the human slaughterhouse”, has become a symbol of the rights abuses of the Assad regime, especially since the Syrian civil war erupted in 2011. Prisoners held inside the complex were freed early last week by the rebels who ousted Bashar al-Assad on 8 December.
That’s all from me, Tom Ambrose, and the Middle East live blog for today. Thanks for following along.
Standing at the gates of the Khmeimim airbase, a fighter from the Islamist rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) eyed a pink vape being puffed on by a Russian soldier. Catching his gaze, the soldier offered it to him. The bearded fighter took a drag and shrugged, giving a thumbs up to the Russian soldier, who let him keep it.
Just over a week ago, Russian jets taking off from Khmeimim airbase were heading to northern Syria to drop bombs on rebel groups. This week, Russians are negotiating with the same factions, now in control of the country after their 12-day lightning offensive that toppled the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad.
“We don’t feel unsafe, we are hoping to make friendly relations with the new government as soon as it becomes a legitimate government,” said a representative of the Russian military, who allowed the Guardian rare access to the Khmeimim airbase on Sunday. The representative said communications with HTS started a week ago to coordinate military affairs between Russian forces in Syria and the country’s new leaders.
“Neither side is making provocations and things have been fine,” the Russian military representative said, as he gestured to boxes of humanitarian aid and Russian ministry of defence-branded backpacks, which they said were a gift from Russia to the Syrian people.
HTS fighters guarded the gates of the airbase as Russian Mig fighter jets took off. “We used to be scared whenever we would hear the sound of a Russian jet – now it’s become normal,” Abu Khalil, a 26-year-old HTS fighter guarding the airbase said. Outside, Russian soldiers still milled about the town of Khmeimim, shopping at stores whose signs were written in Cyrillic.
The vault of Syria’s central bank holds nearly 26 tonnes of gold, the same amount it had at the start of its bloody civil war in 2011, even after the chaotic fall of Bashar al-Assad’s despotic regime, four people familiar with the situation told Reuters.
But the country has only a small amount of foreign currency reserves in cash, the same people said.
Syria’s gold reserves stood at 25.8 tonnes in June 2011, according to the World Gold Council, which cites the Central Bank of Syria as its data source. That is worth $2.2bn at current market prices, according to Reuters calculations.
The central bank’s foreign exchange reserves amount, however, to just around $200m in cash, one of the sources told Reuters, while another said the US dollar reserves were “in the hundreds of millions”.
While not all reserves would be held in cash, the drop is substantial compared with before the war. At the end of 2011, Syria’s central bank reported $14bn in foreign reserves, according to the International Monetary Fund. In 2010, the IMF had estimated Syria’s foreign reserves to stand at $18.5bn.
US president-elect Donald Trump said on Monday that Turkey will hold the key to what happens in Syria, where rebels toppled the government of Bashar al-Assad earlier this month.
Turkey, a Nato member, backed the rebels whose assumption of power in Damascus ended Syria’s 13-year civil war.
Turkey reopened its embassy in Damascus on Saturday, two days after its intelligence chief visited the Syrian capital.
UK delegation travels to Damascus for talks
British officials will meet Syria’s interim authorities for talks in Damascus this week, foreign minister David Lammy said on Monday.
“I can confirm today that we have sent a delegation of senior UK officials to Damascus this week for meetings with the new interim Syrian authorities and members of civil society groups in Syria,” Lammy told a press conference.
Updated
Syrians in Damascus dismiss Assad's comments
In Damascus, residents dismissed Assad’s comments and some told the Associated Press that he had abandoned Syria’s people long ago.
“Is he going to run away from us? He still won’t be able to run away from God,” said one resident, Moataz al-Ahmed, as children stepped on a fallen statue of Assad’s father, Hafez, who had begun the family’s half-century rule.
The spokesperson for the transitional government’s political department said in an interview Monday that “the Assad regime is finished with no return” and Russia “should reconsider its presence on Syrian territory as well as its interests”.
The spokesperson, Obeida Arnaout, said Syria has entered a new phase that will be open to the world, and the new government is looking to build good relations with its neighbours and beyond.
He also called on the US and other countries to reconsider the designation of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the main rebel group and a former al-Qaida affiliate, as a terrorist organisation, calling it “not right and not accurate”.
Updated
Extremism, Russia and Iran should not have a place in Syria’s future, EU’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas told reporters on Monday after meeting with European foreign ministers.
“Many foreign ministers emphasised that it should be a condition for the new leadership to eliminate Russian influence (in Syria),” Kallas said.
Four Syrian official told Reuters on Saturday that while Russia is pulling back its military from the frontlines in northern Syria and from posts in the Alawite Mountains, Moscow is not leaving its two main bases in the country after the fall of president Bashar al-Assad.
The Israeli ambassador to Ireland said closing its embassy in Dublin was “the correct diplomatic decision”, and claimed there was “a hostile atmosphere” in the country.
The Israeli government announced the closure in a statement on Sunday, saying it was because of the “extreme anti-Israel policies of the Irish government”, and accusing Ireland of “crossing every red line”.
Ambassador Dana Erlich accused Ireland of taking a more “extreme stance” than any other country.
She called Ireland “an extreme voice in the international arena” when asked about its intervention in South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
It comes as Irish premier Simon Harris said that Ireland will not be silenced about its views on Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.
Ireland’s position on the war in Gaza “should not be seen as a hostile act”, the Irish deputy prime minister, Micheál Martin, has saidafter Israel decided to close its embassy in Dublin.
Israel ordered the closure on Sunday, citing Ireland’s decision last week to support a petition at the international court of justice accusing Israel of genocide. The Israeli foreign minister, Gideon Sa’ar, said the move was prompted by the Irish government’s “extreme anti-Israeli policies”.
Speaking to reporters in Brussels, Martin renewed Irish criticism of the scale of Israel’s response to the 7 October Hamas attacks, and defended his country’s decision to support the ICJ petition.
Any action taken by the Irish government had “not been motivated by anything other than respect for international humanitarian law”, said Martin, who is also Ireland’s foreign minister. “The utilisation of the international courts by Ireland … where there can be international accountability for war crimes in any part of the world, including in Gaza, should not be seen as a hostile act.
“Ireland stands by the approach it has taken, which has been motivated, as I have said, towards full accountability for what is happening in Gaza.”
Martin, who is expected to be made prime minister in January, said there was “huge anger” at the “level of killing of innocent men, women and children in Gaza”, and that what was happening in the north of the Palestinian territory “defies explanation”.
On Sunday, Sa’ar said “the antisemitic actions and rhetoric that Ireland is taking against Israel are based on delegitimisation and demonisation of the Jewish state and on double standards” and that “Ireland has crossed all red lines in its relationship with Israel”.
Caretaker prime minister Najib Mikati has ordered the reopening of Lebanon’s embassy in Damascus, his office said in a post on X on Monday.
European Union nations on Monday set out conditions for lifting sanctions on Syria and kick-starting aid to the conflict-ravaged country amid uncertainty about its new leaders’ intentions just over a week after they seized power, AP reports.
At a meeting in Brussels, the EU’s top diplomats said they want guarantees from members of Syria’s interim government that they are preparing for a peaceful political future involving all minority groups, one in which extremism and former allies Russia and Iran have no place.
The EU’s high representative for foreign policy Kaja Kallas said the bloc wants a “stable, peaceful and all-comprising government in place,” but that it will probably take weeks, if not months, for Syria’s new path to be clear.
At a meeting of EU foreign ministers, she told reporters:
Syria faces an optimistic, positive, but rather uncertain future, and we have to make sure that this goes to the right direction.
For us, it’s not only the words, but we want to see the deeds.
The United Nations envoy to Syria has told Islamist militants who toppled Bashar al-Assad that they need to oversee a “credible and inclusive” transition, as world powers sought to engage with the country’s new rulers.
Geir Pedersen, a Norwegian diplomat, met the Syrian rebel leader. Ahmed al-Sharaa, formerly known by his nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, in Damascus on Monday. He also met the interim prime minister, Mohammed al-Bashir.
A statement released by Pedersen’s office said the envoy had offered UN support and stressed “the need for a credible and inclusive Syrian-owned and led political transition”.
Diplomats have been scrambling for influence over whatever government replaces the Assad regime. Assad fled to Moscow a week ago after a bloody 13-year civil war that descended into a proxy conflict for multiple regional powers – principally Iran, Turkey and Russia.
Read the full story here.
The dramatic collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria has thrown light on the country’s industrial-scale export of a banned amphetamine-type stimulant called Captagon.
Victorious Islamist-led fighters have seized military bases and distribution hubs for the drug, which has flooded the hidden market across the Middle East, with Saudi Arabia one of the top importers of the substance.
William Christou reports for the Guardian from a Captagon factory outside Damascus
You can also read Wiliam’s report here.
Updated
An uncle of the recently ousted Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad used an adviser in Guernsey to secretly manage his wealth, which included a vast European property empire worth hundreds of millions of euros that prosecutors claim was acquired with funds looted from the wartorn state.
Rifaat al-Assad, known as the “Butcher of Hama” for overseeing the violent suppression of a rebellion in the 1980s, has been accused of war crimes by Swiss prosecutors. In 2020, he was convicted by a French court of embezzling Syrian state funds and pouring the money into luxury properties, with the French state seizing assets worth €90m.
In a joint investigation, the Guardian and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism have now identified him as a client of a Guernsey consultant who was fined by regulators earlier this year. Ginette Louise Blondel, 40, was banned from working as a director for nine years and fined £210,000 by the Guernsey Financial Services Commission in March.
Originally employed as a personal assistant for the son of her client, then as a consultant, Blondel went on to manage a complex trust structure on the family’s behalf, according to a notice published by the regulator. In one instance, her personal bank account was used to distribute €1m to third parties on her client’s behalf.
Read the full story here.
Updated
Ireland’s position on the war in Gaza “should not be seen as a hostile act”, the Irish deputy prime minister, Micheál Martin, has said after Israel decided to close its embassy in Dublin.
Israel ordered the closure on Sunday, citing Ireland’s decision last week to support a petition at the international court of justice accusing Israel of genocide. The Israeli foreign minister, Gideon Sa’ar, said the move was prompted by the Irish government’s “extreme anti-Israeli policies”.
Speaking to reporters in Brussels, Martin renewed Irish criticism of the scale of Israel’s response to the 7 October Hamas attacks, and defended his country’s decision to support the ICJ petition.
Any action taken by the Irish government had “not been motivated by anything other than respect for international humanitarian law”, said Martin, who is also Ireland’s foreign minister. “The utilisation of the international courts by Ireland … where there can be international accountability for war crimes in any part of the world, including in Gaza, should not be seen as a hostile act.
Read the full story here
Assad claims departure from Syria 'was neither planned nor occurred in final hours of battles'
More details are coming to us regarding Assad’s statement posted on his Telegram channel:
“My departure from Syria was neither planned nor did it occur during the final hours of the battles,” it read.
“Moscow requested … an immediate evacuation to Russia on the evening of Sunday 8 December” after he moved to Latakia early that day.
The statement added:
At no point during these events did I consider stepping down or seeking refuge, nor was such a proposal made by any individual or party.
When the state falls into the hands of terrorism and the ability to make a meaningful contribution is lost, any position becomes void of purpose.
Updated
Assad claims he wished to keep fighting
Assad also said in a statement on his Facebook page that he had planned to keep fighting but the Russians evacuated him.
He said that “at no time during the events that have taken place in Syria” had he considered leaving the country, according to the TASS news agency.
Updated
Assad says he left Hmeimim base in Syria on 8 December for Moscow
Syria’s Bashar al-Assad said on Monday he was evacuated to Russia from the Hmeimim base in Syria on the evening of 8 December as it came under drone attacks, after leaving Damascus that morning with opposition fighters closing in.
The comment, in a statement that was published on the Syrian presidency’s Telegram channel and dated 16 December from Moscow, was Assad’s first in public since he was toppled more than a week ago by a rebel offensive.
The head of Russia’s Chechnya region, Ramzan Kadyrov, on Monday suggested removing Syria’s Hayat Tahrir al-Sham from Russia’s list of “terrorist organisations.”
Kadyrov made the suggestion on his official Telegram channel and said Russia and Syria should organise contact groups once the designation was removed to establish bilateral ties.
Foreign ministers from the United States, UK, France, Germany and Italy will hold talks on Tuesday to discuss developments in Syria, Italy’s Antonio Tajani said.
“We hope that the first positive signals will transform into concrete positive signals,” foreign minister Tajani said at a conference of diplomats at the Italian foreign ministry.
The virtual meeting comes amid Western moves towards the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) rebel group that is in charge following the ousting of president Bashar al-Assad.
The EU’s envoy to Syria headed to Damascus Monday for talks, after the United States and Britain said they had made contact with the new authorities in the Syrian capital.
Italy, which holds the presidency of the G7 group of rich nations in 2024, earlier this year named an ambassador to Damascus for the first time in over a decade.
A team of Turkish rescuers began an in-depth search of Syria’s infamous Sednaya prison on Monday, a spokesperson for Turkey’s AFAD disaster management agency told AFP.
Located just north of Damascus, the prison known locally as locally known as “the human slaughterhouse”, has become a symbol of the rights abuses of the Assad regime, especially since the Syrian civil war erupted in 2011.
Prisoners held inside the complex were freed early last week by the rebels who ousted Bashar al-Assad on 8 December.
AFAD said it had sent a team of nearly 80 people to conduct a search-and-rescue operation.
The complex is thought to descend several levels underground, fuelling suspicion more prisoners could be being held in as yet undiscovered hidden cells.
But the Association of Detainees and Missing Persons of Sednaya Prison (ADMSP), believes the rumours are unfounded.
AFAD said the team would work with “advanced search and rescue devices”, the Anadolu state news agency reported.
ADMSP said the rebels freed more than 4,000 prisoners from Sednaya.
The organisation, which is based in southern Turkey, believes more than 30,000 prisoners died there as a result of execution, torture, starvation or a lack of medical care between 2011 and 2018.
Updated
The Syrian Democratic Council has warned that the Tishreen Dam on the Euphrates River in northern Syria is at “serious risk of collapse” and called for an immediate halt to the “shelling by Turkiye and the Syrian National Army”.
Zozan Alosh, spokesperson for the Syrian Democratic Council said:
The collapse of the Tishreen Dam would have terrible consequences for the region and must be averted.
Millions of people would be left without electricity and water, and lives and homes would be lost in the flooding that followed. Turkiye and the Syrian National Army must immediately stop their shelling at the site, and allow engineers to repair the damage urgently.
Germany urges Israel to 'abandon' plan for more Golan Heights settlements – AFP
Germany has urged Israel to “abandon” a plan to double the population living in the occupied and annexed Golan Heights at the south-western edge of Syria.
Foreign ministry spokesperson, Christian Wagner, said on Monday :
It is perfectly clear under international law that this area controlled by Israel belongs to Syria and that Israel is therefore an occupying power.
Wagner added that Berlin therefore called on its ally Israel “to abandon this plan” which was announced on Sunday by the Israeli government.
He added:
It is absolutely crucial now, in this phase of political upheaval in Syria, that all actors in the region take into account the territorial integrity of Syria and do not call it into question.
Speaking at a regular press conference, he added that the situation is “complex” and that Israel had an interest to ensure that the Assad regime’s weapons “do not fall into the wrong hands”.
But he stressed that Germany was “now calling on all actors in the region to exercise restraint” and that war-ravaged “Syria has been a plaything of foreign powers for far too long”.
Updated
Syria’s Latakia port is working normally and ship are unloading cargo, port official Hassan Jablawi told Reuters.
Syria’s Kurds, who run a semi-autonomous administration in the north-east, called on Monday for an end to all fighting in the country and extended a hand to the new authorities in Damascus, Reuters reports.
In a statement at a press conference in Raqa, the Kurdish administration called for “a stop to military operations over the entire Syrian territory in order to begin a constructive, comprehensive national dialogue”, more than a week after Islamist-led rebels toppled Bashar al-Assad’s government.
Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has begun an official visit to Beirut in what is being described as a “highly symbolic” tour by a first EU leader to the country following the ceasefire agreement reached by Lebanon and Israel.
He is scheduled to hold talks with his Lebanese counterpart Najib Mikati after meeting Nabih Berry the speaker of the parliament of Lebanon and the Greek Orthodox patriarch of Antioch John X.
As the closest EU member state to the region, along with Cyprus, Greece is keen to make its presence felt with Mitsotakis recently voicing concerns that “southern Lebanon does not become a new Gaza. It would be a humanitarian tragedy that the broader region cannot withstand.” Aides say the visit is aimed at “sending a message of peace” as well as highlighting Greece’s role and presence in the region.
Athens has taken a lead role in coordinating the delivery of aid - part of an EU humanitarian air bridge - to Lebanon. On his visit to Beirut Mitsotakis will emphasise Greece’s readiness to help provide the assistance needed to implement the shaky ceasefire including reinforcing Lebanon’s armed forces and other state institutions.
As a frontline EU member state, Greece is also likely to put the issue of refugees at the top of the agenda following the toppling of the Assad regime in Syria.
Kremlin says no final decisions yet on fate of Russian military bases in Syria
The Kremlin said on Monday that no final decisions had yet been taken on the fate of Russia’s military bases in Syria and that it was in contact with those in charge of the country.
Four Syrian officials told Reuters over the weekend that Russia is pulling back its military from the front lines in northern Syria and from posts in the Alawite Mountains but is not leaving its two main bases after the fall of President Bashar al-Assad.
Russia said on Sunday it had evacuated some diplomatic personnel in Damascus as well as Belarusian and North Korean diplomats via a special Russian air force flight from its Khmeimim air base.
Death toll in Gaza Strip from Israel-Hamas war tops 45,000, Palestinians say
Israel’s military offensive in the Gaza Strip has killed at least 45,028 Palestinans and wounded 106,962 since 7 October 2023, the Gaza health ministry said on Monday.
Updated
Israel seeking to 'expand borders' through Golan plan - Turkey foreign ministry
Turkey on Monday denounced an Israeli plan to double the population living in the occupied and annexed Golan Heights as a bid to “expand its borders”, AFP reports.
“This decision is a new stage in Israel’s goal of expanding its borders through occupation,” the foreign ministry said in a statement, warning the plan would “seriously undermine” efforts to bring stability to neighbouring Syria after the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
The EU is sending a senior diplomat to Damascus to make contacts with Syria’s new Islamist-led leaders, in a further sign of western engagement after the fall of the brutal dictator Bashar al-Assad.
The EU’s high representative for foreign policy Kaja Kallas said she had tasked a top diplomat to go to Damascus on Monday “ to make the contacts with the new government and people there”.
She was speaking ahead of a meeting of the EU’s 27 foreign ministers, who she said would discuss how to engage with Syria’s new leadership.
Syria, Kallas said, faced an “optimistic, positive, but rather uncertain future” and outside actors had to ensure it went in the right direction.
At the weekend the EU foreign policy chief took part in talks in Jordan with Arab leaders, Turkey and the US. Writing on X, she said they had agreed Syria’s future should be based on “stability, sovereignty, territorial integrity, but also respect for minorities, institution build-up and unity of government that includes all the groups in Syria”.
UN Syria envoy says Syrian people can expect help
The United Nations intends to offer all kinds of help to the Syrian people, UN Syria envoy Geir Pedersen told Syrian rebel leader Ahmed al-Sharaa and caretaker prime minister Mohammad al-Bashir during a meeting in Damascus, according to a statement released by the UN envoy’s office on Monday.
Updated
Last week, time collapsed. Bashar al-Assad’s fall recalled scenes across the region from the start of the Arab spring almost 14 years ago. Suddenly history felt vivid, its memories sharpened. In fact it no longer felt like history. Scenes that it seemed we would never see again – of crowds thronging the squares; the obscene riches of despots exposed, their fortresses stormed, their iconography desecrated – unlocked a familiar, almost sickening sense of possibility. Of giddiness, of horror at what fleeing dictators had left in their wake, and of hope. Syria’s long revolution – the death, torture, imprisonment and exile that Assad’s crushing of it unleashed – makes its successful end bittersweet. The price was so high, which makes its spoils even more dear.
The moment is also different in another way. In those 14 years, other revolutions across the region either unravelled or resulted in the retrenchment of dictatorial regimes under new management. And so that sense of untrammelled optimism that followed the fall of that first crop of dictators is tempered by some wariness of what comes next. But it can and should be a productive wariness rather than a reason for despair. Because what Syria benefits from now is an understanding of the fragility of this period. To those of us who experienced it before in other countries, it felt like a time when the momentum of revolution was unstoppable and cleansing. It had a kinetic energy that swept away the old systems to be replaced by new administrations, armed with good intentions and popular support, that would simply figure it out.
Read the full piece here.
Here are some images coming to us over the wires:
Updated
Israel hits Syrian coastal region with 'heaviest strikes' in a decade; at least 12 Palestinians killed in Gaza strike
A war monitor group said early on Monday that Israeli strikes had targeted military sites in Syria’s coastal Tartus region, calling them “the heaviest strikes” in the area in more than a decade.
“Israeli warplanes launched strikes’ targeting a series of sites including air defence units and ‘surface-to-surface missile depots’”, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, in what it said were “the heaviest strikes in Syria’s coastal region since the start of strikes in 2012”.
In other news:
Benjamin Netanyahu has said he had a “very friendly, warm and important discussion” with Donald Trump over the weekend about his plans in Syria and efforts to secure the release of hostages in Gaza. In an address on Sunday night the prime minister said he spoke to Trump on Saturday adding: “We discussed the need to complete Israel’s victory and we spoke at length about the efforts we are making to free our hostages. “We will continue to act relentlessly to return home all of our hostages, the living and the deceased.” A Trump spokesperson on Sunday declined to give further details about the call.
At least 12 Palestinians were killed, including children, in an Israeli airstrike on a shelter for the displaced in Gaza’s Khan Younis school turned shelter for displaced Palestinians on Sunday, the Hamas-run Civil Defence agency said.
Syria’s de facto leader Ahmad al-Sharaa discussed with the United Nations envoy for Syria the need to reconsider a roadmap outlined by the Security Council for the country in 2015, the Syrian ruling General Command said on Sunday.
Israel’s government approved a plan on Sunday to expand Israeli settlements on the Golan Heights it occupies, saying it had acted “in light of the war and the new front facing Syria” and out of a desire to double the Israeli population on the Golan. “Strengthening the Golan is strengthening the State of Israel, and it is especially important at this time. We will continue to hold onto it, cause it to blossom, and settle in it,” Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement reported by Reuters.
Schools have reopened in Damascus as celebrations over Bashar al-Assad fleeing Syria continue.
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