Jordan will host US, EU, Turkish and Arab diplomats on Saturday for high-level talks on Syria, a day after celebrations in Damascus and nationwide rejoicing on the ouster of president Bashar al-Assad.
Syrians celebrated the day they referred to as the “Friday of victory” with fireworks heralding the autumn of the Assad dynasty.
Greater than half a century of brutal rule by his clan got here to a sudden finish on Sunday, after a lightning insurgent offensive swept throughout the nation and took the capital.
Assad’s fall has additionally led to fast-moving diplomatic developments, with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken amongst envoys set to debate Syria on Saturday within the Jordanian metropolis of Aqaba.
Turkey, in the meantime, will reopen its embassy in Damascus, closed since 2012 amid calls by Ankara for Assad to step down.
A Qatari diplomat stated a delegation from the Gulf emirate would go to Syria on Sunday to satisfy transitional authorities officers and focus on assist and the reopening of their embassy.
In contrast to different Arab states, Qatar by no means restored diplomatic ties with Assad after a rupture in 2011.
Assad has fled Syria, closing an period wherein suspected dissidents had been jailed or killed, and capping practically 14 years of conflict that killed greater than 500,000 individuals and displaced tens of millions.
– ‘Tears of pleasure’ –
Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, head of the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) which spearheaded the offensive, had referred to as on Syrians “to go to the streets to precise their pleasure”.
Celebrations continued into the evening on the primary Friday — the Muslim day of relaxation and prayer — since Assad took flight.
Umayyad Sq. in Damascus was jammed with autos, individuals and waving flags as fireworks shot into the air, AFPTV reside photos confirmed.
Hundreds flocked to the capital’s landmark Umayyad Mosque, some elevating the three-star Syrian independence flag that none dared wave within the capital throughout Assad’s repressive rule.
Crowds additionally gathered within the squares and streets of different Syrian cities, together with Homs, Hama and Idlib.
There was a festive and relaxed environment as tons of rallied in the primary sq. of Syria’s second metropolis Aleppo, a scene of fierce preventing in the course of the nation’s civil conflict, AFP correspondents stated.
An enormous billboard depicting Assad and his father Hafez was set on hearth.
Ahmad Abd al-Majed, 39, an engineer who returned to Aleppo from Turkey, stated that many shed “tears of pleasure and happiness”.
“Syrians should be joyful,” he stated.
Within the southern metropolis of Sweida, the heartland of Syria’s Druze minority, Bayan al-Hinnawi, 77, by no means believed he would reside to see such a day.
“It is a fantastic sight. No person might have imagined this might occur”, stated Hinnawi, who spent 17 years in jail.
– Tens of 1000’s lacking –
Sunni Muslim HTS is rooted in Syria’s department of Al-Qaeda and designated a terrorist organisation by many Western governments.
The group has sought to average its rhetoric, and the interim authorities insists the rights of all Syrians will probably be protected — as will the rule of regulation.
The European Union was in search of “to ascertain contacts” with the brand new rulers quickly, an EU official instructed AFP on situation of anonymity.
The UN refugee company stated the brand new authorities had despatched “constructive” preliminary alerts, together with asking the organisation to remain within the nation.
Leaders of the Group of Seven (G7) democratic international locations, who met nearly on Friday, expressed hope for “a peaceable and orderly transition by the definition of an inclusive political course of” in Syria.
Inside a lot of Syria, the main target is popping in direction of unravelling the secrets and techniques of Assad’s rule, notably the community of detention centres and suspected torture websites.
Syrians have descended upon prisons, hospitals and morgues looking for long-disappeared family members.
“I turned the world the other way up wanting,” Abu Mohammed instructed AFP as he looked for information of three lacking kinfolk on the Mazzeh airbase in Damascus.
“We simply desire a trace of the place they had been.”
The Worldwide Committee of the Purple Cross stated it documented greater than 35,000 disappearances throughout Assad’s rule, with the precise quantity probably far increased.
Whereas Syrians rejoice the top of Assad’s brutal rule, they face a wrestle for requirements in a rustic ravaged by conflict, sanctions and runaway inflation.
On Friday, the EU introduced the launch of an “air bridge” operation to ship an preliminary 50 tonnes of well being provides by way of neighbouring Turkey.
– Israel prepared to remain in buffer zone –
Assad was propped up by Russia — the place a senior Russian official instructed US media he has fled — in addition to Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group.
Turkish Overseas Minister Hakan Fidan instructed personal NTV tv that his nation had urged Russia and Iran to not intervene militarily “to make sure minimal lack of life”.
The rebels launched their offensive on November 27, the identical day a ceasefire took impact within the Israel-Hezbollah conflict, which noticed Israel inflict staggering losses on Assad’s Lebanese ally.
Each Israel and Turkey, which backs a number of the rebels who ousted Assad, have since carried out strikes inside Syria.
Israel’s newest strikes hit navy websites within the Jap Qalamun area, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights conflict monitor stated Saturday.
Israel has additionally despatched troops right into a UN-patrolled buffer zone that separated Israeli and Syrian forces on the Golan Heights, in a transfer the UN stated violated a 1974 armistice.
The military has been ordered to “put together to stay” there all through the winter, Defence Minister Israel Katz’s workplace stated Friday.
