SYRIANS in Glasgow gathered in the city centre to celebrate the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
A group gathered at Buchanan Street steps, outside of the Royal Concert Hall, on Sunday after rebels led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) took Damascus and Assad fled.
They chanted, waved the flag of Assad’s opponents and lit green flares.
Abu Mohammed al-Golani, the leader of HTS, said the toppling of the Assad regime – which has ruled Syria with an iron fist for more than 50 years – was a “victory to the Islamic nation”.
Golani is a former al-Qaeda commander who cut ties with the group and has recently sought to portray himself as a unifying figure. The US has an outstanding bounty on his head worth $10 million.
Assad’s (above) defeat is a blow to Iran and the so-called “axis of resistance” and experts believe the coalition led by HTS pose a threat to a new state’s stability.
Dr Burcu Ozcelik, a senior research fellow of Middle Eastern security for the Royal United Services Institute (Rusi), said: “The opposition is not a homogenous movement, and there is a risk that internal fractures within the HTS-led umbrella movement – which may become more salient in the weeks and months to come – may lead to discord and threaten Syrian stability.
“A new transitional Syrian administration will soon need to take on the task of state-building, including the rebuilding of a national Syrian security force and a constitution-building process, as the Syrian state has been painfully hallowed out by the Assad regime.”
Prime Minister Keir Starmer welcomed Assad’s downfall and said the UK’s focus was on “ensuring a political solution prevails, and peace and stability is restored”.
HTS is a proscribed group in the UK as the authorities say it should be treated as an alternative name “for the organisation which is already proscribed” under the name al-Qaeda, once led by Osama bin Laden.
A former spy chief said it would be “rather ridiculous” if the UK was unable to engage with HTS because of the ban.
Ex-head of MI6 John Sawers told Sky News HTS was thought of as “too close to al-Qaeda” when he was in post, but added: “I think Abu Mohammed al-Golani, the leader, has made great efforts over the last 10 years to distance himself from those terrorist groups and certainly the actions we’ve seen of Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) over the last two weeks has been those of a liberation movement, not of a terrorist organisation.”
He predicted the Home Secretary will be reconsidering the designation of HTS as a terrorist group and said it would be “rather ridiculous” if the UK did not engage with the new Syrian leadership “because of a proscription dating back 12 years”.
Stephen Gethins (above), the SNP’s foreign affairs spokesperson and a former international relations professor, called for the international community to “work together” to stabilise the country.
He said: “For Syrians this is far from over and Assad leaves behind a divided country with millions of displaced citizens. The international community must now step up and work together in that stabilisation process.
“However as much as the international community has a role to play it is time for Syrians to decide their own future. That must include a future for all groups in this incredibly diverse country.”
