DAMASCUS: Syrians strolled through the palaces of President Bashar Assad on Sunday following his sudden ouster, wandering from room to room, posing for photographs, and with some taking away items of furniture or ornaments.
Video obtained by Reuters showed people entering the Al-Rawda Presidential Palace, as children ran through the grand, formal rooms and men slid a large trunk across the ornate patterned floor.
Several men marched out of the building carrying chairs over their shoulders. In a storeroom, cupboards had been ransacked and objects strewn across the floor.
Video of another palace, the older-style Muhajjreen Palace, verified by Reuters, showed groups of men and women walking across a white marble floor and through sets of tall wooden doors. A man carried a vase in his hand, and a large cabinet stood empty with its doors ajar. Chandeliers hung from the ceiling.
The scenes were reminiscent of the fall of Saddam Hussein’s Baathist regime in Iraq two decades ago. Then, Iraqis saw the extravagant luxury of his palaces where the bathrooms were famously fitted with gold taps.
Syrian militants seized control of Damascus on Sunday, forcing Assad to flee and ending his family’s decades of rule after more than 13 years of civil war in a seismic moment for the Middle East.
Another video verified by Reuters showed militants firing celebratory shots at the entrance gate to the New Shaab Palace (Peoples’ Palace), a vast complex on the western edge of Damascus that sits atop Mount Mazzeh.
“The army of Islam (the militants) is in the presidential palace. God is great, we have seized control of it,” said one of the militants. The group then filmed their walk through the deserted grounds and the stark, monumentalist architecture of the palace.
Assad, who had not spoken in public since the sudden militant advance a week ago, flew out of Damascus for an unknown destination earlier on Sunday, two senior army officers told Reuters, as militants said they had entered the capital with no sign of army deployments.
Russia, one of Assad’s closest allies, confirmed that Assad had left Syria but did not say where he was, including whether Moscow had given him refuge.
Syrians stroll through Assad’s palaces, take furniture and ornaments
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Syrians stroll through Assad’s palaces, take furniture and ornaments
- The scenes were reminiscent of the fall of Saddam Hussein’s Baathist regime in Iraq two decades ago
- Video obtained by Reuters showed people entering the Al-Rawda Presidential Palace
Eight killed, 50 injured in explosion of gas station, gas storage tank in Yemen’s Al-Bayda, sources say
CAIRO: Eight people were killed and 50 others injured in an explosion of a gas station and a gas storage tank in Yemen’s Al-Bayda province, a medical source and a local official said.
Russia eyes Libya to replace Syria as Africa launchpad
- On December 18 the Wall Street Journal, citing Libyan and American officials, said there had been a transfer of Russian radars and defense systems from Syria to Libya, including S-300 and S-400 anti-aircraft batteries
PARIS: The fall of Russian ally Bashar Assad in Syria has disrupted the Kremlin’s strategy not only for the Mediterranean but also for Africa, pushing it to focus on Libya as a potential foothold, experts say.
Russia runs a military port and an air base on the Syrian coast, designed to facilitate its operations in the Mediterranean, the Middle East, and sub-Saharan Africa, especially the Sahel, Sudan, and the Central African Republic.
However, this model is in jeopardy with the abrupt departure of the Syrian ruler.
Although Syria’s new leader, Ahmed Al-Sharaa, has called Russia an “important country,” saying “we do not want Russia to leave Syria in the way that some wish,” the reshuffling of cards in Syria is pushing Russia to seek a strategic retreat toward Libya.
In Libya, Russian mercenaries already support Khalifa Haftar, a field marshal controlling the east of the country, against the Tripoli-based Government of National Unity (GNU) which has UN recognition and is supported by Turkiye.
“The goal is notably to preserve the ongoing Russian missions in Africa,” said Jalel Harchaoui at the RUSI think tank in the UK.
“It’s a self-preservation reflex” for Russia which is anxious “to mitigate the deterioration of its position in Syria,” he told AFP.
In May 2024, Swiss investigative consortium “All Eyes On Wagner” identified Russian activities at around 10 Libyan sites, including the port of Tobruk, where military equipment was delivered in February and April of last year.
There were around 800 Russian troops present in February 2024, and 1,800 in May.
On December 18 the Wall Street Journal, citing Libyan and American officials, said there had been a transfer of Russian radars and defense systems from Syria to Libya, including S-300 and S-400 anti-aircraft batteries.
Since Assad’s fall on December 8, “a notable volume of Russian military resources has been shipped to Libya from Belarus and Russia,” said Harchaoui, adding there had been troop transfers as well.
Ukrainian intelligence claimed on January 3 that Moscow planned “to use Sparta and Sparta II cargo ships to transport military equipment and weapons” to Libya.
Beyond simply representing a necessary replacement of “one proxy with another,” the shift is a quest for “continuity,” said expert Emadeddin Badi on the Atlantic Council’s website, underscoring Libya’s role as “a component of a long-standing strategy to expand Moscow’s strategic foothold in the region.”
According to Badi, “Assad offered Moscow a foothold against NATO’s eastern flank and a stage to test military capabilities.”
Haftar, he said, presents a similar opportunity, “a means to disrupt western interests, exploit Libya’s fractured politics, and extend Moscow’s influence into Africa.”
The Tripoli government and Italy, Libya’s former colonial master, have expressed concern over Russian movements, closely observed by the European Union and NATO.
Several sources say the United States has tried to persuade Haftar to deny the Russians a permanent installation at the port of Tobruk that they have coveted since 2023.
It seems already clear the Kremlin will struggle to find the same level of ease in Libya that it had during Assad’s reign.
“Syria was convenient,” said Ulf Laessing, the Bamako-based head of the Sahel program at the Konrad Adenauer Foundation.
“It was this black box with no Western diplomats, no journalists. They could basically do what they wanted,” he told AFP.
“But in Libya, it will be much more complicated. It’s difficult to keep things secret there and Russian presence will be much more visible,” he said.
Moscow will also have to contend with other powers, including Turkiye, which is allied with the GNU, as well as Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, who are patrons of Haftar.
In Libya, torn into two blocs since the ouster of longtime leader Muammar Qaddafi in February 2011, “everybody’s trying to work with both sides,” said Laessing.
Over the past year, even Turkiye has moved closer to Haftar, seeking potential cooperation on economic projects and diplomatic exchanges.
Russia will also be mindful to have a plan B should things go wrong for its Libyan ally.
“We must not repeat the mistake made in Syria, betting on a local dictator without an alternative,” said Vlad Shlepchenko, military correspondent for the pro-Kremlin media Tsargrad.
Haftar, meanwhile, is unlikely to want to turn his back on western countries whose tacit support he has enjoyed.
“There are probably limits to what the Russians can do in Libya,” said Laessing.
Turkiye’s Kurdish leaders meet jailed politician as the two sides inch toward peace
- The armed conflict between the PKK and the Turkish state, which started in August 1984 and has claimed tens of thousands of lives, has seen several failed attempts at peace
ISTANBUL: A delegation from one of Turkiye’s biggest pro-Kurdish political parties met a leading figure of the Kurdish movement in prison Saturday, the latest step in a tentative process to end the country’s 40-year conflict, the party said.
Three senior figures from the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party, or DEM, met the party’s former co-chairperson, Selahattin Demirtas, at Edirne prison near the Greek border.
The meeting with Demirtas — jailed in 2016 on terrorism charges that most observers, including the European Court of Human Rights, have labelled politically motivated — took place two weeks after DEM members met Abdullah Ocalan, the imprisoned head of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK.
While the PKK has led an armed insurgency against the Turkish state since the 1980s, the DEM is the latest party representing left-leaning Kurdish nationalism. Both DEM and its predecessors have faced state measures largely condemned as repression, including the jailing of elected officials and the banned of parties.
In a statement released on social media after the meeting, Demirtas called on all sides to “focus on a common future where everyone, all of us, will win.”
Demirtas credited Ocalan with raising the chance that the PKK could lay down its arms. Ocalan has been jailed on Imrali island in the Sea of Marmara since 1999 for treason over his leadership of the PKK, considered a terrorist organization by Turkiye and most Western states.
Demirtas led the DEM between 2014 and 2018, when it was known as the Peoples’ Democratic Party, or HDP, and he is still widely admired. He said that despite “good intentions,” it was necessary for “concrete steps that inspire confidence … to be taken quickly.”
One of the DEM delegation, Ahmet Turk, said: “I believe that Turks need Kurds and Kurds need Turks. Our wish is for Turkiye to come to a point where it can build democracy in the Middle East.”
The armed conflict between the PKK and the Turkish state, which started in August 1984 and has claimed tens of thousands of lives, has seen several failed attempts at peace.
Despite being imprisoned for a quarter of a century, Ocalan remains central to any chance of success due to his ongoing popularity among many of Turkiye’s Kurds. In a statement released on Dec. 29, he signaled his willingness to “contribute positively” to renewed efforts.
Meanwhile, in an address Saturday to ruling party supporters in Diyarbakir, the largest city in the Kurdish-majority southeast, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called for the disbandment of the PKK and the surrender of its weapons.
This would allow DEM “the opportunity to develop itself, strengthening our internal front against the increasing conflicts in our region, in short, closing the half-century-old separatist terror bracket and consigning it to history ... forever,” he said in televised comments.
The latest drive for peace came when Devlet Bahceli, leader of the far-right Nationalist Movement Party and a close ally of Erdogan, surprised everyone in October when he suggested that Ocalan could be granted parole if he renounced violence and disbanded the PKK.
Erdogan offered tacit support for Bahceli’s suggestion a week later, and Ocalan said he was ready to work for peace, in a message conveyed by his nephew.
Four Daesh members, including two leaders, killed in eastern Iraq
- The caliphate collapsed in 2017 in Iraq, where it once had a base just a 30-minute drive from Baghdad, and in Syria in 2019, after a sustained military campaign by a US-led coalition
BAGHDAD: Four members of the Daesh, including two senior leaders, were killed in an airstrike carried out by Iraqi aircraft in the Hamrin Mountains in eastern Iraq, security officials said on Saturday.
The Iraqi Security Media Cell, an official body responsible for disseminating security information, said in a statement four bodies of Daesh militants were found in the area where Iraqi F-16 fighter jets carried out the strike on Friday.
Talib Al-Mousawi, an official at Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) — a grouping of armed factions originally set up to fight Daesh in 2014 that was subsequently recognized as an official security force, told Reuters the dead included two top Daesh leaders in the Diyala province in eastern Iraq.
The identity of another militant will be determined following an examination, the Security Media Cell said.
At the height of its power from 2014-2017, the Daesh “caliphate” imposed death and torture on communities in vast swathes of Iraq and Syria and had influence across the Middle East.
The caliphate collapsed in 2017 in Iraq, where it once had a base just a 30-minute drive from Baghdad, and in Syria in 2019, after a sustained military campaign by a US-led coalition.
Daesh responded by scattering in autonomous cells; its leadership is clandestine and its overall size is hard to quantify. The UN estimates it at 10,000 in its heartlands.
Who is Joseph Aoun, Lebanon’s army chief elected to the presidency?
- After 12 failed attempts, Lebanon finally has a new president, ending two-year power vacuum in crisis-wracked nation
- World and regional leaders, including Saudi Arabia, US, and EU, applaud election of “stabilizing” Aoun
DUBAI: A turning point was reached in Lebanon on Thursday when General Joseph Aoun was elected the country’s 14th president, ending a more than two-year power vacuum and restoring a glimmer of hope in the crisis-wracked nation.
Aoun’s election comes at a critical time as Lebanon grapples with its long political deadlock, economic crisis, and the devastating aftermath of Hezbollah’s 14-month war with Israel, which left vast areas of Lebanon in ruins and killed more than 4,000.
Since late November, Aoun, 61, has been a key player in implementing the fragile ceasefire by overseeing the gradual mobilization of the armed forces in south Lebanon.
Under the terms of the truce, the Lebanese Army has been gradually deployed alongside UN peacekeepers in the south as Israeli forces withdraw — a process they must complete by January 26.
In a decisive second parliamentary session, Aoun secured 99 votes — enough to secure him the presidency. He became the fifth army commander to serve as Lebanon’s president — a post he will hold for the next six years.
His election reflects a critical compromise among Lebanon’s political blocs, which made notable concessions to ensure a resolution to the deadlock, after a failed first session brought Aoun 71 votes.
Over the past 26 months, 12 previous attempts to choose a president failed amid tensions between Hezbollah and its allies on one side and opposition parties on the other, which accused the Iran-backed Shiite militia of seeking to impose its preferred candidate.
Aoun, who like all of his predecessors comes from the Maronite Christian community, as required by Lebanon’s National Pact, replaced Michel Aoun, whose term formally ended in October 2022.
In his inaugural address before the parliament, Aoun vowed to strengthen the position of the armed forces to secure Lebanon’s borders, particularly in the south, fight terrorism, and end Hezbollah’s war with Israel.
He also pledged to lead postwar reconstruction efforts, reaffirming Lebanon’s unity.
Aoun arrives at the presidency having built an impressive military career. He steered the military through one of Lebanon’s most tumultuous periods since taking office as Commander of the Lebanese Armed Forces in 2017, a tenure that was later extended.
Fluent in Arabic, French, and English, Aoun began his military career in 1983 when he volunteered for the army as an officer cadet before enrolling in the Military College.
His leadership was lauded during the army’s “Dawn of the Outskirts” operation that successfully expelled Syrian militants affiliated with Daesh and Jabhat Al-Nusra in Arsal from Lebanon’s borders.
By shielding the army from political conflicts, including Hezbollah’s war with Israel, Aoun maintained his forces’ neutrality and ensured its role as a unifying force in a country of political and sectarian divides.
Additionally, he has worked to rid the military of corruption and has collaborated with other states to secure aid for army personnel after their monthly salaries dropped to less than $50.
Even before entering the Lebanese parliament’s main chamber and securing the necessary votes, Aoun was floated as an ideal candidate, garnering broad support on domestic, regional, and international fronts.
Washington is the main financial backer of the Lebanese Army, which also receives support from other countries including Qatar.
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Underlining Arab and international backing for Aoun, Thursday’s parliamentary session saw notable attendees, including the Saudi Ambassador Walid Bukhari, US Ambassador Lisa Johnson, and French envoy Jean-Yves Le Drian.
The push for consensus, marked by successive high-level visits to Lebanon by Saudi, Qatari, French, and US officials before the election, was mirrored domestically, where Lebanese opposition forces and other parliamentary blocs lined up behind Aoun’s candidacy
Lebanon’s Forces of Change was among the factions that supported Aoun, praising his record of restoring order when thousands of Lebanese protesters took to the streets following the country’s economic collapse in 2019.
Notably, the Shiite duo — Hezbollah and the Amal Movement — backed his candidacy, solidifying the support needed to elect Aoun in the second round of voting.
However, the Free Patriotic Movement and other independent MPs opposed Aoun’s nomination, arguing that his election was the result of international and regional dictates over a sovereign Lebanese decision.
Aoun’s presidency was welcomed regionally and internationally.
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Saudi Arabia’s King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman welcomed Aoun’s success, wishing the Lebanese people further progress and prosperity.
Qatar likewise praised Aoun’s election, calling for “stability,” while Gulf Cooperation Council Secretary-General Jasem Al-Budaiwi wished him luck in achieving prosperity for Lebanon and stronger ties with the Gulf bloc.
Al-Budaiwi reiterated the GCC’s support for Lebanon’s sovereignty, security, and stability, as well as its armed forces.
The leaders of Jordan and the UAE pledged to work with the new president to boost ties and support reforms, while Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said Lebanon would overcome the “repercussions of Israeli aggression” under the new leadership.
French President Emmanuel Macron was among the first Western leaders to congratulate Aoun on Thursday.
“(The election) paves the way for reform and the restoration of Lebanon’s sovereignty and prosperity,” Macron posted on X. In a phone call with Aoun later, he said France “will continue to be at the side of Lebanon and its people,” vowing to visit the country soon.
In a statement, US President Joe Biden said Aoun “has my confidence. I strongly believe he is the right leader for this time.”
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for the swift formation of a new government, to preserve the country’s security and stability, strengthen state authority, and advance much-needed reforms.
The UN Security Council also congratulated Aoun and affirmed “strong support for the territorial integrity, sovereignty, and political independence of Lebanon,” while calling for a full implementation of Resolution 1701.
UNSC members also emphasized the importance of the election in ensuring fully functional state institutions to address the “pressing economic political and security challenges” of the country.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen described the election of Aoun as a “moment of hope” for the country. “The way is now open to stability and reforms. Europe supports this path,” she posted on X.
Germany’s Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said Lebanon’s new president was a chance for “reforms and change.”
“After many years of crisis and stagnation, this is a moment of opportunity to bring about reforms and change,” Baerbock posted on X. “Germany stands by the side of the people of Lebanon on the way forward.”
Russia also welcomed the election of a new president of Lebanon, which it hopes will bring political stability to the country.
Aoun’s election “opened up the prospect of strengthening internal political stability in Lebanon and righting the country’s complex social and economic position,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.
The UK welcomed Aoun’s election, saying it was looking forward to working with him to support stability.
“I congratulate General Joseph Aoun on his election as president of Lebanon,” Foreign Secretary David Lammy wrote on X. “I look forward to working with his government to support Lebanon’s stability and prosperity.”
Aoun faces the daunting task of restoring stability and naming a prime minister able to lead reforms demanded by international creditors to save the country from its economic crisis, described by the World Bank as one of the worst in modern history.
The challenge lies in whether Lebanon’s diverse political forces can unite around Aoun’s leadership and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri to form a consensus government.
Even if shaped by the traditional “quota-sharing,” such a government must demonstrate the capacity to address Lebanon’s pressing challenges with a comprehensive and shared national vision.
The success of Aoun’s cabinet hinges on prioritizing the Lebanese people’s interests and leveraging parliamentary cooperation to ensure the nation’s recovery, navigating the nation out of the turmoil that has long overshadowed its potential.
