Syria’s new rulers call for victory celebrations in streets

People celebrate the collapse of Bashar Assad’s rule while gathering on a street in Sweida on Dec. 13, 2024. (AFP)
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Updated 13 December 2024
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Syria’s new rulers call for victory celebrations in streets

  • Militant leader Abu Mohammed Al-Golani is now using his real name Ahmed Al-Sharaa
  • His call comes ahead of the first Friday prayers since Syria’s new leadership took control

DAMASCUS: Syria’s militant chief called on people across the country to celebrate “the victory of the revolution” on Friday, as G7 leaders looked to forge a common approach to the new government.

More than half a century of brutal rule by the Assad clan came to a sudden end on Sunday, after a lightning militant offensive led by Abu Mohammed Al-Golani’s Islamist group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) swept across the country and took the capital.

Ousted president Bashar Assad fled Syria, closing an era in which suspected dissidents were jailed or killed, and capping nearly 14 years of war that killed more than 500,000 people and displaced millions.

 

“I would like to congratulate the great Syrian people on the victory of the blessed revolution and I call on them to go to the streets to express their joy,” Golani said on Telegram.

Golani, who is now using his real name Ahmed Al-Sharaa, is set to attend Friday prayers at Damascus’s landmark Umayyad Mosque.

During the early days of Syria’s uprising in 2011, protesters would often gather after noon prayers on Fridays, the Muslim day of prayer and rest.

Assad’s overthrow has allowed Syrians to flood to prisons, hospitals and morgues in search of long-disappeared loved ones, hoping for a miracle, or at least closure.

“I turned the world upside down looking,” Abu Mohammed said as he searched for news of three missing relatives at the Mazzeh air base in Damascus.

“But I didn’t find anything at all. We just want a hint of where they were, one percent.”

Sunni Muslim HTS is rooted in Syria’s branch of Al-Qaeda and designated a terrorist organization by many Western governments, who now face the challenge of how to approach the country’s new transitional leadership.

The group has sought to moderate its rhetoric, and the interim government insists the rights of all Syrians will be protected.

The spokesman for the newly installed government, Obaida Arnaout, said that the country’s constitution and parliament would be suspended during a three-month transition.

“A judicial and human rights committee will be established to examine the constitution and then introduce amendments,” he said, pledging that the “rule of law” would be instituted.

Leaders of the Group of Seven countries, who will meet virtually at 1430 GMT on Friday, said they were ready to support the transition to an “inclusive and non-sectarian” government in Syria.

They called for the protection of human rights, including those of women and minorities, while emphasizing “the importance of holding the Assad regime accountable for its crimes.”

Inside much of Syria, the focus for now is on unraveling the secrets of Assad’s rule, and particularly the network of detention centers and suspected torture sites scattered across areas previously under government control.

Syria’s leadership said it is willing to cooperate with Washington in the search for US citizens who disappeared under Assad’s rule, including US journalist Austin Tice, who was abducted in 2012.

Another American, Travis Timmerman, has already been located alive and Blinken said Washington was working to bring him home.

The search for other missing detainees has ended more painfully, with hundreds of Syrians gathering Thursday to bury outspoken activist Mazen Al-Hamada.

In exile in the Netherlands, he publicly testified on the torture he was subjected to in Syrian prison.

He later returned to Syria and was detained. His body was among more than 30 found in a Damascus hospital morgue this week.

Assad was propped up by Russia — where a senior Russian official told US media he has fled — as well as Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group.

The militants launched their offensive on November 27, the same day a ceasefire took effect in the Israel-Hezbollah war, which saw Israel inflict staggering losses on Assad’s Lebanese ally.

Both Israel and Turkiye, which backs some of the militants who ousted Assad, have since carried out strikes inside Syria.

The fall of Assad has prompted some of the millions of Syrians who fled abroad to return home.

On Friday morning, around 60 people were waiting at Turkiye’s Oncupinar border crossing, anxious to reach Syria.

In the southern city of Sweida, the heartland of Syria’s Druze minority where anti-government demonstrations have been held for more than a year, hundreds took to the streets on Friday, singing and clapping in jubiliation.

“Our joy is indescribable,” said Haitham Hudeifa, 54. “Every province is celebrating this great victory.”


Lebanon’s new president stresses urgency of Israeli withdrawal from south under truce deal

Updated 12 sec ago
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Lebanon’s new president stresses urgency of Israeli withdrawal from south under truce deal

  • The ceasefire requires Israeli forces to withdraw from southern Lebanon within 60 days
  • UN to exert utmost efforts to secure an Israeli withdrawal within the set deadline under the ceasefire terms
CAIRO: Lebanon’s new president Joseph Aoun stressed to United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Saturday the urgency of an Israeli military withdrawal as stipulated by a ceasefire deal that ended the Israel-Hezbollah war in November.
According to a statement by the Lebanese presidency on X, Aoun told Guterres during a meeting in Beirut that continued Israeli breaches were a violation of Lebanese sovereignty and the agreed ceasefire deal.
The ceasefire, which took effect on Nov. 27 and was brokered by the United States and France, requires Israeli forces to withdraw from southern Lebanon within 60 days, and for Hezbollah to remove all its fighters and weapons from the south.
Guterres said the UN would exert utmost efforts to secure an Israeli withdrawal within the set deadline under the ceasefire terms, according to the statement.
He had said on Friday the Israeli military’s continued occupation of territory in south Lebanon and the conduct of military operations in Lebanese territory were violations of a UN resolution upon which the ceasefire is based.
Despite the deal, Israeli forces have continued strikes on what they say are Hezbollah fighters ignoring the accord under which they must halt attacks and withdraw beyond the Litani River, about 30km from the border with Israel.

Foreign minister says Syria looking forward to return to Arab League

Updated 18 min 6 sec ago
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Foreign minister says Syria looking forward to return to Arab League

CAIRO: Syria’s foreign minister said on Saturday he was looking forward to the return of Syria to the Arab League as the country’s new rulers seek a place in the regional political landscape.
Asaad Hassan Al-Shibani made his statements during a joint press conference in Damascus with Arab League Assistant Secretary General Hossam Zaki, who said the Arab League was working with member states to activate Syria’s participation. 


Missile fired from Yemen intercepted over central Israel, military says

Updated 18 January 2025
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Missile fired from Yemen intercepted over central Israel, military says

Explosions were heard over Jerusalem after sirens blared across the city and central Israel on Saturday morning, AFP journalists reported, while the Israeli military said a projectile had been launched from Yemen.
The explosions and sirens came after Qatar, a key mediator between Israel and Hamas, said that the ceasefire in the war in Gaza would take effect from 0630 GMT on Sunday.
Sirens and explosions were heard over Jerusalem at around 10:20 am (08:20 GMT) on Saturday, shortly after sirens sounded across central Israel in response to the projectile launched from Yemen, the military said in a statement.
Minutes later, the military said it had intercepted the projectile launched from Yemen.
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels have repeatedly launched missile and drone attacks on Israel since the war in Gaza broke out in October 2023.
On Friday, the Houthis warned that they would keep up their attacks if Israel did not respect the terms of its ceasefire with Hamas.


Two UAE aid convoys reach Gaza as part of Operation Chivalrous Knight 3

Updated 18 January 2025
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Two UAE aid convoys reach Gaza as part of Operation Chivalrous Knight 3

  • The UAE has sent 155 aid convoys under Operation Chivalrous Knight 3

DUBAI: The more UAE aid convoys crossed into the Gaza Strip this week through Egypt’s Rafah border crossing to bring various humanitarian supplies for Palestinians affected by the devastating Israeli offensive.

The convoys, part of the Operation Chivalrous Knight 3 initiative, comprise 25 trucks laden with over 309.5 tonnes of humanitarian aid, including food supplies, shelter tents and other essential items, state news agency WAM reported on Saturday.

The UAE has sent 155 aid convoys under Operation Chivalrous Knight 3, with approximately 29,584 tonnes of humanitarian supplies delivered so far for the Palestinian people.

A ceasefire early Sunday morning is expected to provide relief to the besieged enclave’s population, and despite an Israeli ban on the UN’s aid agency for Palestinians from operating in the conflict-ridden area.


Gaza ceasefire to start early Sunday morning

Updated 18 January 2025
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Gaza ceasefire to start early Sunday morning

  • Qatar foreign ministry makes announcement on social media
  • Israel to free 737 prisoners during the first phase of the truce deal

JERUSALEM/DOHA: A ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip will take effect at 0630 GMT on Sunday morning, Qatar, which helped mediate the deal, said on Saturday.

“As coordinated by the parties to the agreement and the mediators, the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip will begin at 8:30 am on Sunday, January 19, local time in Gaza,” Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesman Majed Al-Ansari said on X.

“We advise the inhabitants to take precaution, exercise the utmost caution, and wait for directions from official sources.”

The exact time of the ceasefire’s start had been unclear, though Israel, whose cabinet earlier on Saturday approved the hostage and prisoner exchange deal, had said no prisoners would be freed before 1400 GMT.

During the first phase of the truce deal, Israel’s justice ministry said 737 prisoners and detainees will be freed.

It said in a statement on its website that “the government approves” the “release (of) 737 prisoners and detainees” currently in the custody of the prison service.

Palestinian militant group Hamas also said on Saturday that the mechanism of the release of Israeli hostages it holds in Gaza would depend on the number of Palestinian prisoners Israel would free.

In a statement, Hamas said the list of Palestinian prisoners to be released would be published one day before the exchange under terms of its ceasefire deal reached with Israel on Wednesday.

Israel’s cabinet voted to approve the ceasefire deal early Saturday, according to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, ending days of uncertainty about whether the truce would go into effect this weekend.

Those named by the ministry include men, women and children who it said will not be released before Sunday at 4:00 p.m. local time (1400 GMT).

It had previously published a list of 95 Palestinian prisoners, the majority women, to be freed in exchange for Israeli captives in Gaza.

Among those on the expanded list was Zakaria Zubeidi, a chief of the armed wing of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas’s Fatah party.

Zubeidi escaped from Israel’s Gilboa prison with five other Palestinians in 2021, sparking a days-long manhunt, and is lauded by Palestinians as a hero.

Also to be freed is Khalida Jarar, a leftist Palestinian lawmaker whom Israel arrested and imprisoned on several occasions.

Jarar is a prominent member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a group designated a “terrorist organization” by Israel, the United States and the European Union.

Detained in late December in the West Bank, a Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967, the 60-year-old has been held since then without charge.

Two sources close to Hamas said that the first group of hostages to be released consists of three Israeli women soldiers.

However, since the Palestinian Islamist movement considers any Israeli of military age who has completed mandatory service a soldier, the reference could also apply to civilians abducted during the attack that triggered the war.

The first three names on a list obtained by AFP of the 33 hostages set to be released in the first phase are women under 30 who were not in military service on the day of the Hamas attack.

Justice ministry spokeswoman Noga Katz has said the final number of prisoners to be released in the first swap would depend on the number of live hostages released by Hamas.