Closing summary
Hundreds of Syrians marched through central Damascus in a funeral procession for Mazen al-Hamada, the prominent anti-Assad activist whose body was found at Sednaya prison after the fall of regime. Mourners turned the funeral into a call for justice, with marchers carrying posters of other missing detainees and chanting for Assad to be put on trial.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken said that he is working to bring Travis Timmerman, the US citizen who was found in Syria, back to the United States, Reuters reports. Timmerman was found in the suburbs of Damascus on Thursday and said he was detained after crossing into Syria on foot on a Christian pilgrimage earler this year.
Some EU countries have doubled down on their decision to rapidly halt asylum procedures for Syrian migrants in Europe, but said it is too early to consider sending home any of the hundreds of thousands of people who have fled since 2011. Austria, Belgium, Germany, Greece, Finland, Ireland, Sweden and non-EU country Norway have suspended asylum applications from Syrians in the wake of Bashar Assad’s fall.
UN secretary general Antonio Guterres is deeply concerned by “the recent and extensive violations of Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” a spokesperson said on Thursday. “The secretary general is particularly concerned over the hundreds of Israeli air strikes on several locations in Syria, stressing the need the urgent need to deescalate violence on all fronts throughout the country,” Stéphane Dujarric told reporters.
The UN World Food Programme (WFP) is increasing its programmes to reach 2.8 million displaced and food-insecure people across Syria, saying the recent hostilities have displaced hundreds of thousands across the country, worsening an already dire food security situation. “Right now, commercial supply routes are compromised, food prices are soaring, and the Syrian currency is depreciating,” said WFP’s country director in Syria, Kenn Crossley.
Israel says it will “continue to act to defend itself” after France urged it to withdraw from the UN-patrolled buffer zone separating Israeli and Syrian forces in the Golan Heights. Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, announced on Sunday he had ordered the army to “seize” the demilitarised zone in the Syrian-controlled part of the Golan Heights after rebels swept Syrian president Bashar al-Assad from power.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken said that the role of the Kurdish-led SDF fighters was “critical” to prevent an insurgence of the Islamic State, Agence France-Presse reports. Blinken, who is currently on a visit to Jordan to discuss the situation in Syria with King Abdullah, said: “At a time when we want to see this transition... to a better way forward for Syria, part of that also has to be ensuring that ISIS doesn’t rear its ugly head again. And critical to making sure that doesn’t happen are the so-called SDF - the Syrian Democratic Forces.”
We’re now closing this blog. Thanks for following along.
The streets of Damascus have been filled with celebrations since Bashar al-Assad fled to Russia last Sunday in the face of an unexpected rebel offensive, ending more than 50 years of his family’s brutal rule over Syria.
But at a public funeral for Mazen al-Hamadah – before his disappearance in 2020 one of the most vocal survivors of torture in the regime’s prisons system – the joy gave way to sorrow, as the country begins to grapple with the fact that many of the estimated 130,000 people missing may be lost forever.
Thousands of people flooded the streets on Thursday, following Hamadah’s body, wrapped in a traditional white shroud, as it was driven slowly from a hospital to the Abdulrahman Abu al Ouf mosque for funeral prayers. At a vigil afterwards in nearby al-Hijaz square, thousands of men, women and children cried and hugged each other, many carrying pictures of their own disappeared loved ones.
The initial euphoria of finding missing people alive after rebels broke down prison cell doors on their astonishing advance to the capital has faded; many anxious families have searched prisons and morgues, and combed through ransacked regime documents and records, and have found nothing. But even so, such a public outpouring of grief would have been unthinkable less than a week ago, when Syria was still a repressive police state.
Donald Trump has left open the possibility of a war with Iran, saying “anything can happen” when asked about the chances of a conflict.
The US president-elect spoke to Time magazine, which named him “person of the year” for the second time.
“Anything can happen. Anything can happen. It’s a very volatile situation,” Trump said, before going on to say he thinks the most dangerous thing happening now is Ukraine shooting missiles into Russia, which he said was a major escalation.
Trump has previously threatened Iran, whose elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps have sought to assassinate him, according to the US government. Iran has denied the claim.
Updated
UN chief Antonio Guterres concerned by Israeli strikes in Syria
UN secretary general Antonio Guterres is deeply concerned by “the recent and extensive violations of Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” his spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said on Thursday.
“The secretary general is particularly concerned over the hundreds of Israeli air strikes on several locations in Syria, stressing the need the urgent need to deescalate violence on all fronts throughout the country,” Dujarric told reporters.
Updated
Russia has established direct contacts with the political committee of Syria’s Islamist rebel group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, Reuters reports.
Interfax news agency quoted Russian deputy foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov as saying Moscow aims to maintain its military bases in Syria to continue “fighting international terrorism” in the country.
Calls for justice at funeral of Syrian activist who became symbol of regime brutality
Hundreds of Syrians marched through central Damascus in a funeral procession for one of the country’s most prominent anti-government activists, whose body was found at Sednaya prison after the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
Mazen al-Hamada was detained and tortured alongside tens of thousands of people after the 2011 uprising against Assad’s rule. His body was discovered in Damascus earlier this week.
According to AP, mourners turned the funeral into a call for justice, with marchers carrying posters of other missing detainees and chanting for Assad to be put on trial. Al-Hamada returned from exile to Syria in 2020 and immediately disappeared. Family members believe he was killed in the past week, just before insurgents seized the Syrian capital of Damascus.
“We will not forget your blood, Mazen,” the marchers, most of them young people, chanted outside a mosque while family and friends held funeral prayers inside.
Others chanted: “We will get our revenge, Bashar. We will bring you before the law.”
Updated
Summary
Here’s a look at where things stand:
US secretary of state Antony Blinken said that he is working to bring Travis Timmerman, the US citizen who was found in Syria, back to the United States, Reuters reports. Timmerman was found in the suburbs of Damascus on Thursday and said he was detained after crossing into Syria on foot on a Christian pilgrimage earler this year.
Some EU countries have doubled down on their decision to rapidly halt asylum procedures for Syrian migrants in Europe, but said it is too early to consider sending home any of the hundreds of thousands of people who have fled since 2011. Austria, Belgium, Germany, Greece, Finland, Ireland, Sweden and non-EU country Norway have suspended asylum applications from Syrians in the wake of Bashar Assad’s fall.
The UN World Food Programme (WFP) is increasing its programmes to reach 2.8 million displaced and food-insecure people across Syria, saying the recent hostilities have displaced hundreds of thousands across the country, worsening an already dire food security situation. “Right now, commercial supply routes are compromised, food prices are soaring, and the Syrian currency is depreciating,” said WFP’s country director in Syria, Kenn Crossley.
Israel says it will “continue to act to defend itself” after France urged it to withdraw from the UN-patrolled buffer zone separating Israeli and Syrian forces in the Golan Heights. Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, announced on Sunday he had ordered the army to “seize” the demilitarised zone in the Syrian-controlled part of the Golan Heights after rebels swept Syrian president Bashar al-Assad from power.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken said that the role of the Kurdish-led SDF fighters was “critical” to prevent an insurgence of the Islamic State, Agence France-Presse reports. Blinken, who is currently on a visit to Jordan to discuss the situation in Syria with King Abdullah, said: “At a time when we want to see this transition... to a better way forward for Syria, part of that also has to be ensuring that ISIS doesn’t rear its ugly head again. And critical to making sure that doesn’t happen are the so-called SDF - the Syrian Democratic Forces.”
The chemical weapons watchdog Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons is warning of the potential dangers of Israel’s strikes on Syria’s chemical weapons sites, Agence France-Presse reports.
Fernando Arias, OPCW’s director general, said his group was “following closely” the reports of Israel saying it struck “remaining chemical weapons or long-range missiles and rockets in order that they will not fall in the hands of extremists.”
We do not know yet whether these strikes have affected chemical weapons-related sites. Such airstrikes could create a risk of contamination,” Arias said.
“Another real risk would be the destruction of valuable evidence for investigations by different independent international bodies related to past use of chemical weapons,” he added.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken said that the role of the Kurdish-led SDF fighters was “critical” to prevent an insurgence of ISIS, Agence France-Presse reports.
Blinken, who is currently on a visit to Jordan to discuss the situation in Syria with King Abdullah, said:
“At a time when we want to see this transition... to a better way forward for Syria, part of that also has to be ensuring that ISIS doesn’t rear its ugly head again. And critical to making sure that doesn’t happen are the so-called SDF - the Syrian Democratic Forces.”
The US is urging Syrian rebels to form an ‘inclusive’ government, according to the US state department.
The Guardian’s international staff reports:
The US is mounting a fresh diplomatic effort in the Middle East, hoping to end the war in Gaza and push rebels who have taken power in Syria to form a “credible, inclusive, and non-sectarian governance”.
Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, met Jordan’s King Abdullah in the Red Sea town of Aqaba on Thursday – the first stop of a short regional tour.
The future of Syria after the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad dominated discussions, as well as issues including the destruction of Syria’s chemical weapons stockpiles, humanitarian aid, and “preventing Syria from being used as a base for terrorism or posing a threat to its neighbours”, a spokesperson said.
For the full story, click here:
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov and his UAE counterpart Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan have discussed the situation in Syria on a phone call, Reuters reports, citing the Russian foreign ministry.
“The foreign ministers of Russia and the United Arab Emirates expressed their support for holding an international meeting as soon as possible in order to launch an inclusive national dialogue with the participation of all political and ethno-confessional forces in the Syrian Arab Republic as soon as possible,” the foreign ministry said.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken said that he is working to bring Travis Timmerman, the US citizen who was found in Syria, back to the United States, Reuters reports.
Timmerman was found in the suburbs of Damascus on Thursday and said he was detained after crossing into Syria on foot on a Christian pilgrimage earler this year.
Speaking from Jordan where he is discussing the situation in Syria with Jordan’s King Abdullah and other officials, Blinken said he had no updated on Austin Tice, an American journalist who was abducted in Syria in 2012.
Blinken added that the US was continuing its efforts to locate Tice, Reuters added.
Updated
Here’s our news story on Travis Pete Timmerman, the US man who was apparently imprisoned for seven months after travelling to Syria on a pilgrimage – and who was initially, and erroneously, believed to be the missing US reporter Austin Tice:
Updated
Some EU countries have doubled down on their decision to rapidly halt asylum procedures for Syrian migrants in Europe, but said it is too early to consider sending home any of the hundreds of thousands of people who have fled since 2011.
Austria, Belgium, Germany, Greece, Finland, Ireland, Sweden and non-EU country Norway have suspended asylum applications from Syrians in the wake of Bashar Assad’s fall. France is weighing whether to take similar action, at least until Syria’s new leadership and security conditions become clearer.
The decisions do not mean that Syrian asylum-seekers will be deported. The EU’s executive branch, the European Commission, has said that currently “the conditions are not met for safe, voluntary, dignified returns to Syria”.
“We need to wait a few more days to see where Syria is heading now,” Germany’s interior minister, Nancy Faeser, said. “What is the situation? What about the protection of minorities? What about the protection of the people? And then, of course, there could be repatriation.”
Asked by reporters whether it would make sense to organize repatriations at an EU level, Faeser said: “It would be very expedient to organise this together.”
But she stressed that Syrians who work in Germany and abide by its laws are welcome to stay. More than 47,000 asylum claims by Syrians are pending in Germany, a main destination in Europe for those who have fled since 2011.
“This is not a long term pause as far as I’m concerned,” Ireland’s justice minister, Helen McEntee, told reporters. “It’s really positive that the Assad regime has come to an end. At the same time, we can all see that it’s not clear what will happen next.”
The arrival in Europe in 2015 of well over 1 million refugees - most fleeing the conflict in Syria – sparked one of the EU’s biggest political crises as nations bickered over who should host them and whether other countries should be forced to help. Those tensions remain even today.
Almost 14,000 Syrians applied for international protection in Europe this year up to September, according to the EU’s asylum agency. Around 183,000 Syrians applied for asylum in all of last year. On average, around one in three applications are accepted. (Via AP)
The United States sees the fall of Bashar al-Assad as an extraordinary chance to rid Syria “once and for all” of chemical weapons used by his regime to kill or injure thousands of people in its civil war, a senior US official said on Thursday.
Washington will strongly back efforts by the global chemical weapons watchdog to eliminate Syria‘s chemical arsenal, Nicole Shampaine, US ambassador to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, told Reuters in an interview ahead of a closed-door OPCW session on Syria in The Hague.
Syria joined the OPCW in 2013 as part of a US-Russian deal and agreed to completely destroy its chemical weaponry. But after more than a decade of inspections, Syria still possesses banned munitions and investigators found they were used repeatedly by Assad’s forces during the 13-year civil war.
“We want to finish the job and it’s really an opportunity for Syria‘s new leadership to work with the international community, work with the OPCW to get the job done once and for all,” Shampaine said.
She expects “there will be a lot of support in trying to seize this opportunity ... and get Syria to comply with its obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention”.
The OPCW is a treaty-based organisation in the Netherlands tasked with implementing the 1997 chemical nonproliferation treaty. It oversaw the destruction of 1,300 metric tons of Syrian chemical weapons and precursors, a large portion on a U.S. ship equipped with specialised hydrolysis systems.
Assad-ruled Syria and its military ally Russia always denied using chemical weapons in Syria‘s devastating civil war.
Three investigations - a joint UN-OPCW mechanism, the OPCW’s Investigation and Identification team, and a UN war crimes investigation - concluded that Syrian government forces did use the nerve agent sarin and chlorine barrel bombs in the drawn-out conflict with opposition forces.
Updated
The UN World Food Programme (WFP) is increasing its programmes to reach 2.8 million displaced and food-insecure people across Syria, saying the recent hostilities have displaced hundreds of thousands across the country, worsening an already dire food security situation.
“Right now, commercial supply routes are compromised, food prices are soaring, and the Syrian currency is depreciating,” said WFP’s country director in Syria, Kenn Crossley.
“Essential items such as rice, sugar and oil are in short supply and bread prices have spiked, making it critically important that we scale-up our efforts to assist during this winter season.”
The WFP urgently requires $250m (£196.5m) in the next six months to buy and deliver food assistance for up to 2.8 million displaced and vulnerable people.
Almost 14 years of war have left many Syrians in a vulnerable state: some 12.9 million people were food insecure at the start of this year - including 3 million severely food insecure – while humanitarian assistance has declined significantly due to funding shortfalls.
“Food aid is not only a lifeline for ensuring nutritional needs are met during a crisis,” stressed Crossley, “it’s a reassuring presence that lets communities know they are not alone in what can feel like a very vulnerable, and isolating moment in their lives.”
Israel says it will “continue to act to defend itself” after France urged it to withdraw from the UN-patrolled buffer zone separating Israeli and Syrian forces in the Golan Heights.
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, announced on Sunday he had ordered the army to “seize” the demilitarised zone in the Syrian-controlled part of the Golan Heights after rebels swept Syrian president Bashar al-Assad from power.
On Thursday, Israel said the seizure was aimed at defending the country.
It “was necessary for defensive reasons due to threats posed by jihadist groups operating near the border,” foreign ministry spokesman Oren Marmorstein said on X.
“Israel will continue to act to defend itself and ensure the security of its citizens as needed.”
In a separate statement on Thursday, the prime minister’s office said that the collapse of Assad’s rule had created a “vacuum on Israel’s border and in the buffer zone”.
“That is why Israeli forces entered the buffer zone and took control of strategic sites near Israel’s border,” the statement said.
“This deployment is temporary until a force that is committed to the 1974 (armistice) agreement can be established and security on our border can be guaranteed.”
Israel’s latest statements came after France followed the UN and several countries in the region in demanding that Israel withdraw its forces from the buffer zone.
France’s foreign ministry called it “a violation” of the 1974 disengagement agreement that established the UN-patrolled buffer zone.
“France calls on Israel to withdraw from the zone and to respect Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” a ministry spokesman said on Wednesday. (Via AFP)
Ben Saul, the UN’s special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism, has also urged Israel to withdraw:
I urge Israel to withdraw from its unlawful occupation of additional Syrian territory beyond the occupied Golan Heights, on the pretext of countering terrorism, and in the absence of any armed attack on Israel justifying self-defence https://t.co/kNMNJHYpXn
— Prof Ben Saul - UN SR Human Rights & Counterterror (@profbensaul) December 11, 2024
Updated
Summary
It’s almost 3.45pm in Damascus. Here’s a quick summary of today’s developments:
Israeli air strikes are reported to have killed at least 33 people, including 12 guards securing aid trucks in southern parts of the Palestinian territory on Thursday.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, is visiting Jordan and Turkey to try to rally regional countries to help advance efforts to reach an elusive Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal, and ensure a smooth transition in Syria.
Syria’s new government says the country’s constitution and parliament will be suspended for the duration of the three-month transition period following president Bashar al-Assad’s overthrow.
An American who says he crossed into Syria on foot has been released after seven months in detention. Initial reports incorrectly suggested the man was the missing US reporter Austin Tice.
The head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said the country has to live with the new “realities” of Syria after the toppling of Tehran-backed president Bashar al-Assad.
Fifty-four journalists were killed worldwide while carrying out their work or because of their profession in 2024, a third of them by the Israeli army, according to an annual report by Reporters Without Borders.
Updated
Gaza’s civil defence agency says Israeli air strikes on Thursday killed at least 33 people, including 12 guards securing aid trucks in southern parts of the Palestinian territory.
The latest bloodshed came just hours after the UN general assembly called for an immediate ceasefire in the devastated territory.
Seven guards were killed in a strike in Rafah, while another attack left five guards dead in Khan Younis, agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said.
“The occupation once again targeted those securing the aid trucks,” Bassal told AFP, adding that around 30 people, most of them children, were also wounded in the strikes.
“The trucks carrying flour were on their way to UNRWA warehouses,” Bassal noted, referring to the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees.
“The occupation aims to destroy all services for citizens across the Gaza Strip.”
Witnesses later told AFP that residents looted flour from the trucks after the strikes.
The Israeli military said its forces “conducted precise strikes” overnight on armed Hamas militants present in the humanitarian corridor in southern Gaza.
“All of the terrorists that were eliminated were members of Hamas and planned to violently hijack humanitarian aid trucks and transfer them to Hamas in support of continuing terrorist activity, preventing them from reaching Gazan civilians, as was done in previous cases,” the military alleged in a statement.
It insisted it “does not strike humanitarian aid trucks and the humanitarian corridor remains open and active”.
Updated
Syria’s new government says the country’s constitution and parliament will be suspended for the duration of the three-month transition period following president Bashar al-Assad’s overthrow.
“A judicial and human rights committee will be established to examine the constitution and then introduce amendments,” the new government spokesman, Obaida Arnaout, told AFP.
The current constitution dates back to 2012 and does not specify Islam as the state religion.
Arnaout said a meeting would be held on Tuesday “between salvation government' ministers and the former ministers” of Assad’s administration to carry out the transfer of power.
“This transitional period will last three months,” he added. “Our priority is to preserve and protect institutions.”
Speaking at the state television headquarters, now seized by the new rebel authorities, Arnaout pledged that they would institute “the rule of law”.
“All those who committed crimes against the Syrian people will be judged in accordance with the law,” he added.
Asked about religious and personal freedoms, he said “we respect religious and cultural diversity in Syria“, adding that they would remain unchanged.
The Sunni majority country was ruled with an iron fist by Assad, a follower of the Alawite offshoot of Shia Islam who sought to project himself as a protector of minority communities.
American found in Syria named as Travis Timmerman
An update on the news that an American man, initially but mistakenly thought to be the missing journalist Austin Tice, has been found in Syria (via AP).
He’s been identified as Travis Timmerman.
An American who says he crossed into Syria on foot has been released after seven months in detention.
Travis Timmerman told the Al-Arabiya TV network in an interview on Thursday that he had been treated well. He said he had crossed into Syria from Lebanon on a religious pilgrimage.
He appeared in videos circulating online earlier in the day in which rebels said they had located him and were keeping him safe. Some people who saw the videos initially mistook him for Tice, who went missing in Syria in 2012.
Timmerman told Al-Arabiya that he spent a month in the eastern Lebanese city of Zahle, from where he crossed into Syria illegally.
He said he had heard other young men being tortured while he was detained but that he himself had not been mistreated.
“It was OK. I was fed. I was watered. The one difficulty was that I couldn’t go to the bathroom when I wanted to,” he said. He said he was only allowed to go to the bathroom three times a day.
“I was not beaten and the guards treated me decently,” he said.
Updated
Syria’s new government thanks countries that reopened missions
Syria’s new government thanked eight countries on Thursday for swiftly reopening their diplomatic missions after a lightning rebel offensive ousted president Bashar al-Assad at the weekend.
The offensive, which took just 10 days to sweep across Syria and take the capital Damascus, stunned the world and brought an end to more than a half a century of brutal rule by the Assad clan.
The rebels, led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), appointed an interim prime minister on Tuesday to lead the country until March.
The new government’s department of political affairs issued a statement thanking Egypt, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Bahrain, Oman and Italy “for resuming the activities of their diplomatic missions in Damascus”.
After the rebels took Damascus, an “armed group” entered the residence of Italy’s ambassador in Damascus and stole three cars, the Italian government said on Sunday.
Qatar announced on Wednesday it would “soon” reopen its embassy in Damascus.
The move aimed to “strengthen the close historical fraternal ties between the two countries,” Qatar’s foreign ministry said.
The Gulf country also sought to “enhance coordination with relevant authorities to facilitate the flow of humanitarian aid currently provided by Qatar to the Syrian people” via an air bridge, it added.
Doha closed its diplomatic mission in Damascus in July 2011 after an uprising against the Assad government turned into a 13-year-long civil war.
The war killed more than 500,000 people and forced half the population to flee their homes, with six million of them seeking refuge abroad. (Via AFP)
Reports that the US journalist Austin Tice – who disappeared 12 years ago near the Syrian capital – has been found appear to be incorrect.
Footage purporting to show Tice has appeared on social media this morning, but has been disputed by some prominent journalists:
This is 100% not Austin Tice. I have no idea who it is but it is not Austin. https://t.co/L75FgkvdOa
— Clarissa Ward (@clarissaward) December 12, 2024
The American who was found in Syria is not Austin Tice.
— Matt Bradley (@MattMcBradley) December 12, 2024
He told me his name is Travis. He refused to give a last name.
He said he was a “pilgrim” and that he crossed into Syria by foot before he was detained.
He was held in prison for seven months and said he was well treated.
On Sunday, Joe Biden said he believed Tice was still alive, and said that Washington was committed to bringing him home after Bashar al-Assad’s ousting from power.
“We think we can get him back,” Biden told reporters at the White House, while acknowledging that “we have no direct evidence” of his status.
Tice, who is from Houston, has had his work published by the Washington Post, McClatchy newspapers and other outlets.
In a statement to the Post on Sunday, his parents, Marc and Debra Tice, said they were “eagerly anticipating seeing Austin walk free”, adding: “We are asking anyone who can do so to please assist Austin so he can safely return home to his family.”
A video released weeks after Tice went missing showed him blindfolded and held by armed men and saying, “Oh, Jesus.” He has not been heard from since. Syria has publicly denied that it was holding him.
Mouaz Moustafa from non-profit Syrian Emergency Task Force told CBS’s Face the Nation on Sunday morning that rebel groups were working to find Tice.
“He’s a hero. He went to cover the plight of the Syrian people from what Assad, Iran and Russia have been doing to them. And God willing, we bring him home alive, but we need to find him and bring him to his mom, no matter what. And the Syrians owe him a debt forever,” Moustafa said.
In the final months of the last Trump administration, two US officials – the government’s top hostage negotiator, Roger Carstens, and Kash Patel, now Trump’s pick to lead the FBI – made a secret visit to Damascus to seek information on Tice and other Americans who had disappeared in Syria.
It was the highest-level talk in years between the US and Assad’s government, though Syrian officials offered no meaningful information on Tice.
Updated
Blinken arrives in Jordan
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has arrived in Jordan, according to AFP.
Blinken will also visit Turkey as he attempts to rally regional countries to help advance efforts to reach an elusive Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal, and ensure a smooth transition in Syria, after the ousting of longtime authoritarian ruler Bashar al-Assad. His national security adviser Jake Sullivan is also scheduled to visit Israel, Qatar and Egypt in the coming days.
The outgoing top US diplomat headed straight to a meeting in the Red Sea city of Aqaba with King Abdullah II and will travel later in the day to Turkey.
Blinken has called for an “inclusive” process to form Syria’s next government that includes protections for minorities after Islamist rebels ended the iron-fisted rule of Assad, a member of the Alawite community.
Announcing his trip, the State Department said he would also call for a Syria that is not “a base of terrorism or posing a threat to its neighbours” - a nod to the concerns of Turkey and Israel, which has ramped up strikes on its historic adversary since Assad’s fall.
It is Blinken’s 12th visit to the Middle East since the 7 October, 2023 attack by Hamas on Israel, which has responded with a relentless military campaign in Gaza.
His previous trips have ended in disappointment as he sought a ceasefire between US ally Israel and Hamas.
President Joe Biden’s administration leaves office on 20 January.
President-elect Donald Trump has described Syria as “a mess” and said that the United States should not get involved, although he has not elaborated on US policy since Assad’s fall.
Updated
Iran must live with 'new realities' of Syria, says head of Revolutionary Guards
The head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said the country has to live with the new “realities” of Syria after the toppling of Tehran-backed president Bashar al-Assad, state media reported on Thursday.
Regarding Syria, Iran “was really trying day and night to help in whatever way it could; we have to live with the realities of Syria; we look at them and act based on them,” Hossein Salami said, quoted by the official IRNA news agency.
He added:
Strategies must change according to the circumstances; we cannot solve numerous global and regional issues with stagnation and employing the same tactics
Iran has been a strong ally of the Assad family, whose decades-long rule of Syria ended on the weekend when a whirlwind rebel offensive took the capital Damascus.
Assad had long played a strategic role in Iran’s anti-Israel “axis of resistance”, particularly in facilitating the supply of weapons to Tehran’s ally Hezbollah in neighbouring Lebanon.
The axis of resistance includes Hezbollah as well as Hamas in Gaza, Huthi rebels in Yemen and some smaller Shia militia groups in Iraq.
Also on Thursday, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps strongly condemned “the abuse of the current instability in Syria by the US and the Zionist regime”, which is Iran’s term for Israel.
“The Resistance Front will not be passive in confronting any plan or scheme that seeks to disrupt the resistance and weaken the power and authority of the countries in the region,” the Revolutionary Guards said in a statement.
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.
Ties between Tehran and Damascus peaked during the Syrian civil war that started in 2011, with the Revolutionary Guards sending what it called “military advisers” to help Assad. (Via Agence France-Presse)
Updated
Fifty-four journalists were killed worldwide while carrying out their work or because of their profession in 2024, a third of them by the Israeli army, according to an annual report by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) published on Thursday.
According to the press freedom NGO, Israeli armed forces were responsible for the deaths of 18 journalists this year – 16 in Gaza and two in Lebanon.
“Palestine is the most dangerous country for journalists, recording a higher death toll than any other country over the past five years,” RSF said in its annual report, which covers data up to 1 December.
The organisation has filed four complaints with the international criminal court (ICC) for “war crimes committed against journalists by the Israeli army”.
It said that in total “more than 145” journalists had been killed by the Israeli army in Gaza since the start of the war there in October 2023, with 35 of them working at the time of their deaths, RSF said.
Updated
The overthrow of Bashar al-Assad’s government by armed opposition groups offers “a momentous opportunity for Syria to break with decades of repression and turn the page on human rights”, according to Human Rights Watch.
“The Syrian people have endured more than a decade of brutal repression and conflict,” said Lama Fakih, Middle East and North Africa director at HRW. “This is a critical moment to reject the horror show of the past, rebuild trust, and lay the groundwork for a society where everyone is treated with dignity.”
But the group also points out that efforts to forge a new future for Syria must include “addressing decades of abuse by the former government and other warring parties during the country’s 13-year conflict, ensuring accountability, and protecting Syrians regardless of their ethnic or sectarian backgrounds or political affiliations”.
More here.
Dozens killed in Gaza airstrike
Palestinian medical officials say Israeli airstrikes have killed at least 28 people in the Gaza Strip, including seven children and a woman, hours after the UN General Assembly overwhelmingly approved a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
One of the strikes overnight and into Thursday flattened a house in the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp, according to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the nearby city of Deir al-Balah, where the casualties were taken.
Two other strikes killed 15 men who were part of local committees established to secure aid convoys. The committees were set up by displaced Palestinians in coordination with the Hamas-run interior ministry.
On Wednesday, the UN general assembly approved resolutions demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and expressing support for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees that Israel has moved to ban. General assembly resolutions are not legally binding, although they reflect world opinion. (Via AP)
Updated
Israelis and Palestinians are signalling new efforts to forge a ceasefire deal – albeit a limited one – that would pause the fighting in Gaza and return to Israel some of the hostages still held in the Palestinian enclave.
In a phone call on Wednesday, Israel’s defence minister, Israel Katz, told his US counterpart, Lloyd Austin, there was now a chance for a new deal that would allow the return of all the hostages – including US citizens – Katz’s office said.
But a western diplomat in the region said that while a deal was taking shape, it was likely be limited in scope, involving the release of only a handful of hostages and a short pause in hostilities.
Such a truce and release would be only the second since the start of the war in October 2023. The guarded optimism emerges as US President Joe Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, heads to Israel for talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday and then to Egypt and Qatar, co-mediators with the US on a deal.
Separately, President-elect Donald Trump has demanded that militants of the Palestinian Hamas group release the hostages held in Gaza before he takes over from Biden on 20 January. Otherwise, Trump has said, there will be “hell to pay”.
(Via Reuters)
Israeli hospital officials say a young boy died after being wounded in a shooting attack in the occupied West Bank that also wounded two adults.
An Israeli bus came under fire from a suspected Palestinian attacker late on Wednesday, the military said, and Israeli forces are searching for the shooter.
The shooting took place just outside Jerusalem in an area near major Israeli settlements.
Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem said the boy was 12 years old, after initial reports said he was 10. A spokesperson for the hospital did not immediately respond to a request for clarification. The hospital said two other people, ages 24 and 55, were also wounded. (Via AP)
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A new study of children living through the war in Gaza has found that 96% of them feel that their death is imminent and almost half want to die as a result of the trauma they have been through.
A needs assessment, carried out by a Gaza-based NGO sponsored by the War Child Alliance charity, also found that 92% of the children in the survey were “not accepting of reality”, 79% suffer from nightmares and 73% exhibit symptoms of aggression.
“This report lays bare that Gaza is one of the most horrifying places in the world to be a child,” Helen Pattinson, chief executive of War Child UK, said. “Alongside the levelling of hospitals, schools and homes, a trail of psychological destruction has caused wounds unseen but no less destructive on children who hold no responsibility for this war.”
Full report here:
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Some of the regional, and international, consequences of recent events in Syria are explored in this piece, which looks at what it all means for more than 60 British Islamic State-linked prisoners – including Shamima Begum – who are currently held in Kurdish-controlled prisons and camps in north-east Syria.
Palestinian medical officials say an Israeli airstrike in central Gaza early on Thursday has killed at least 13 people, including seven children and a woman.
The strike flattened a house in the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp, according to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the nearby city of Deir al-Balah, where the casualties were taken.
An Associated Press reporter saw the bodies at the hospital’s morgue.
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Opening summary
Hello, welcome to our live coverage of events in Syria and around the Middle East. It’s a little after 10am in Damascus and here are the major developments.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, is headed for Jordan and Turkey on Thursday, where he is expected to rally regional countries to help advance efforts to reach an elusive Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal, and ensure a smooth transition in Syria, after the ousting of longtime authoritarian ruler Bashar al-Assad. His national security adviser Jake Sullivan is also scheduled to visit Israel, Qatar and Egypt in the coming days, US officials said.
Syria’s rebel leader Abu Mohammed al-Jolani has signalled he is seeking retribution, saying there will be no pardons for prison torturers. The rebel commander has vowed to dissolve Assad regime security forces, close its prisons and hunt down anyone involved in the torture or killing of detainees. He also said he would ask countries to hand over Assad regime officials who have fled the country.
At the Masnaa border crossing to Lebanon on Wednesday night, thousands of Syrians were trying to leave the country despite assurances from Jolani’s group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) that civil rights and sectarian differences will be respected. Rebel fighters appeared to be searching for members of the regime army and security services trying to get to Lebanon with their families. Syrian refugees residing in countries such as Turkey, have also been lining up at the border to return home.
Mohammed al-Bashir, who has been appointed by the rebels as Syria’s interim leader pledged that the rights or all people and sects in Syria would be guaranteed. The comments come as a mausoleum in Qardaha near Latakia that housed the remains of ousted president, Bashar al-Assad’s father, Hafez, who seized control of Syria in 1970, was burned by armed Islamist rebels.
Israel, which has been fighting both the Palestinian group Hamas in Gaza and the Lebanese militia Hezbollah for over a year, has deployed ground troops into and beyond a demilitarised buffer zone in the disputed Golan Heights, its first foray into Syrian-controlled territory for 50 years.
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has claimed the US and Israel acted as the command centre that engineered the downfall of Syria’s former president, Bashar al-Assad, and the ousting of Iran from the country.
The UN general assembly on Wednesday overwhelmingly adopted a resolution calling for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in Gaza, a symbolic gesture rejected by the United States and Israel. The resolution was adopted by a vote of 158-9, with 13 abstentions and urges “an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire,” and “the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages”.
The UN would consider taking the Syrian rebel group that toppled the regime of Bashar al-Assad off its designated terrorist list if it passes the key test of forming a truly inclusive transitional government, according to a senior official at the world body.
The tomb of ousted Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s father Hafez was torched in his home town of Qardaha, accoding to AFP footage taken on Wednesday. AFP said it showed rebel fighters in fatigues and young men watching it burn. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor told AFP the rebels had set fire to the mausoleum, located in the Latakia heartland of Assad’s Alawite community.
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