Syrians in Damascus dismiss Assad’s comments
In Damascus, residents dismissed Assad’s comments and some told the Associated Press that he had abandoned Syria’s people long ago.
“Is he going to run away from us? He still won’t be able to run away from God,” said one resident, Moataz al-Ahmed, as children stepped on a fallen statue of Assad’s father, Hafez, who had begun the family’s half-century rule.
The spokesperson for the transitional government’s political department said in an interview Monday that “the Assad regime is finished with no return” and Russia “should reconsider its presence on Syrian territory as well as its interests”.
The spokesperson, Obeida Arnaout, said Syria has entered a new phase that will be open to the world, and the new government is looking to build good relations with its neighbours and beyond.
He also called on the US and other countries to reconsider the designation of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the main rebel group and a former al-Qaida affiliate, as a terrorist organisation, calling it “not right and not accurate”.
Key events
Extremism, Russia and Iran should not have a place in Syria’s future, EU’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas told reporters on Monday after meeting with European foreign ministers.
“Many foreign ministers emphasised that it should be a condition for the new leadership to eliminate Russian influence (in Syria),” Kallas said.
Four Syrian official told Reuters on Saturday that while Russia is pulling back its military from the frontlines in northern Syria and from posts in the Alawite Mountains, Moscow is not leaving its two main bases in the country after the fall of president Bashar al-Assad.
The Israeli ambassador to Ireland said closing its embassy in Dublin was “the correct diplomatic decision”, and claimed there was “a hostile atmosphere” in the country.
The Israeli government announced the closure in a statement on Sunday, saying it was because of the “extreme anti-Israel policies of the Irish government”, and accusing Ireland of “crossing every red line”.
Ambassador Dana Erlich accused Ireland of taking a more “extreme stance” than any other country.
She called Ireland “an extreme voice in the international arena” when asked about its intervention in South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
It comes as Irish premier Simon Harris said that Ireland will not be silenced about its views on Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.
Lisa O’Carroll
Ireland’s position on the war in Gaza “should not be seen as a hostile act”, the Irish deputy prime minister, Micheál Martin, has saidafter Israel decided to close its embassy in Dublin.
Israel ordered the closure on Sunday, citing Ireland’s decision last week to support a petition at the international court of justice accusing Israel of genocide. The Israeli foreign minister, Gideon Sa’ar, said the move was prompted by the Irish government’s “extreme anti-Israeli policies”.
Speaking to reporters in Brussels, Martin renewed Irish criticism of the scale of Israel’s response to the 7 October Hamas attacks, and defended his country’s decision to support the ICJ petition.
Any action taken by the Irish government had “not been motivated by anything other than respect for international humanitarian law”, said Martin, who is also Ireland’s foreign minister. “The utilisation of the international courts by Ireland … where there can be international accountability for war crimes in any part of the world, including in Gaza, should not be seen as a hostile act.
“Ireland stands by the approach it has taken, which has been motivated, as I have said, towards full accountability for what is happening in Gaza.”
Martin, who is expected to be made prime minister in January, said there was “huge anger” at the “level of killing of innocent men, women and children in Gaza”, and that what was happening in the north of the Palestinian territory “defies explanation”.
On Sunday, Sa’ar said “the antisemitic actions and rhetoric that Ireland is taking against Israel are based on delegitimisation and demonisation of the Jewish state and on double standards” and that “Ireland has crossed all red lines in its relationship with Israel”.
Caretaker prime minister Najib Mikati has ordered the reopening of Lebanon’s embassy in Damascus, his office said in a post on X on Monday.
European Union nations on Monday set out conditions for lifting sanctions on Syria and kick-starting aid to the conflict-ravaged country amid uncertainty about its new leaders’ intentions just over a week after they seized power, AP reports.
At a meeting in Brussels, the EU’s top diplomats said they want guarantees from members of Syria’s interim government that they are preparing for a peaceful political future involving all minority groups, one in which extremism and former allies Russia and Iran have no place.
The EU’s high representative for foreign policy Kaja Kallas said the bloc wants a “stable, peaceful and all-comprising government in place,” but that it will probably take weeks, if not months, for Syria’s new path to be clear.
At a meeting of EU foreign ministers, she told reporters:
Syria faces an optimistic, positive, but rather uncertain future, and we have to make sure that this goes to the right direction.
For us, it’s not only the words, but we want to see the deeds.
Oliver Holmes
The United Nations envoy to Syria has told Islamist militants who toppled Bashar al-Assad that they need to oversee a “credible and inclusive” transition, as world powers sought to engage with the country’s new rulers.
Geir Pedersen, a Norwegian diplomat, met the Syrian rebel leader. Ahmed al-Sharaa, formerly known by his nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, in Damascus on Monday. He also met the interim prime minister, Mohammed al-Bashir.
A statement released by Pedersen’s office said the envoy had offered UN support and stressed “the need for a credible and inclusive Syrian-owned and led political transition”.
Diplomats have been scrambling for influence over whatever government replaces the Assad regime. Assad fled to Moscow a week ago after a bloody 13-year civil war that descended into a proxy conflict for multiple regional powers – principally Iran, Turkey and Russia.
Read the full story here.
The dramatic collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria has thrown light on the country’s industrial-scale export of a banned amphetamine-type stimulant called Captagon.
Victorious Islamist-led fighters have seized military bases and distribution hubs for the drug, which has flooded the hidden market across the Middle East, with Saudi Arabia one of the top importers of the substance.
William Christou reports for the Guardian from a Captagon factory outside Damascus
You can also read Wiliam’s report here.
An uncle of the recently ousted Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad used an adviser in Guernsey to secretly manage his wealth, which included a vast European property empire worth hundreds of millions of euros that prosecutors claim was acquired with funds looted from the wartorn state.
Rifaat al-Assad, known as the “Butcher of Hama” for overseeing the violent suppression of a rebellion in the 1980s, has been accused of war crimes by Swiss prosecutors. In 2020, he was convicted by a French court of embezzling Syrian state funds and pouring the money into luxury properties, with the French state seizing assets worth €90m.
In a joint investigation, the Guardian and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism have now identified him as a client of a Guernsey consultant who was fined by regulators earlier this year. Ginette Louise Blondel, 40, was banned from working as a director for nine years and fined £210,000 by the Guernsey Financial Services Commission in March.
Originally employed as a personal assistant for the son of her client, then as a consultant, Blondel went on to manage a complex trust structure on the family’s behalf, according to a notice published by the regulator. In one instance, her personal bank account was used to distribute €1m to third parties on her client’s behalf.
Read the full story here.
Lisa O’Carroll
Ireland’s position on the war in Gaza “should not be seen as a hostile act”, the Irish deputy prime minister, Micheál Martin, has said after Israel decided to close its embassy in Dublin.
Israel ordered the closure on Sunday, citing Ireland’s decision last week to support a petition at the international court of justice accusing Israel of genocide. The Israeli foreign minister, Gideon Sa’ar, said the move was prompted by the Irish government’s “extreme anti-Israeli policies”.
Speaking to reporters in Brussels, Martin renewed Irish criticism of the scale of Israel’s response to the 7 October Hamas attacks, and defended his country’s decision to support the ICJ petition.
Any action taken by the Irish government had “not been motivated by anything other than respect for international humanitarian law”, said Martin, who is also Ireland’s foreign minister. “The utilisation of the international courts by Ireland … where there can be international accountability for war crimes in any part of the world, including in Gaza, should not be seen as a hostile act.
Read the full story here
Assad claims departure from Syria ‘was neither planned nor occurred in final hours of battles’
More details are coming to us regarding Assad’s statement posted on his Telegram channel:
“My departure from Syria was neither planned nor did it occur during the final hours of the battles,” it read.
“Moscow requested … an immediate evacuation to Russia on the evening of Sunday 8 December” after he moved to Latakia early that day.
The statement added:
At no point during these events did I consider stepping down or seeking refuge, nor was such a proposal made by any individual or party.
When the state falls into the hands of terrorism and the ability to make a meaningful contribution is lost, any position becomes void of purpose.
Assad claims he wished to keep fighting
Assad also said in a statement on his Facebook page that he had planned to keep fighting but the Russians evacuated him.
He said that “at no time during the events that have taken place in Syria” had he considered leaving the country, according to the TASS news agency.
Assad says he left Hmeimim base in Syria on 8 December for Moscow
Syria’s Bashar al-Assad said on Monday he was evacuated to Russia from the Hmeimim base in Syria on the evening of 8 December as it came under drone attacks, after leaving Damascus that morning with opposition fighters closing in.
The comment, in a statement that was published on the Syrian presidency’s Telegram channel and dated 16 December from Moscow, was Assad’s first in public since he was toppled more than a week ago by a rebel offensive.
The head of Russia’s Chechnya region, Ramzan Kadyrov, on Monday suggested removing Syria’s Hayat Tahrir al-Sham from Russia’s list of “terrorist organisations.”
Kadyrov made the suggestion on his official Telegram channel and said Russia and Syria should organise contact groups once the designation was removed to establish bilateral ties.
Foreign ministers from the United States, UK, France, Germany and Italy will hold talks on Tuesday to discuss developments in Syria, Italy’s Antonio Tajani said.
“We hope that the first positive signals will transform into concrete positive signals,” foreign minister Tajani said at a conference of diplomats at the Italian foreign ministry.
The virtual meeting comes amid Western moves towards the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) rebel group that is in charge following the ousting of president Bashar al-Assad.
The EU’s envoy to Syria headed to Damascus Monday for talks, after the United States and Britain said they had made contact with the new authorities in the Syrian capital.
Italy, which holds the presidency of the G7 group of rich nations in 2024, earlier this year named an ambassador to Damascus for the first time in over a decade.
A team of Turkish rescuers began an in-depth search of Syria’s infamous Sednaya prison on Monday, a spokesperson for Turkey’s AFAD disaster management agency told AFP.
Located just north of Damascus, the prison known locally as locally known as “the human slaughterhouse”, has become a symbol of the rights abuses of the Assad regime, especially since the Syrian civil war erupted in 2011.
Prisoners held inside the complex were freed early last week by the rebels who ousted Bashar al-Assad on 8 December.
AFAD said it had sent a team of nearly 80 people to conduct a search-and-rescue operation.
The complex is thought to descend several levels underground, fuelling suspicion more prisoners could be being held in as yet undiscovered hidden cells.
But the Association of Detainees and Missing Persons of Sednaya Prison (ADMSP), believes the rumours are unfounded.
AFAD said the team would work with “advanced search and rescue devices”, the Anadolu state news agency reported.
ADMSP said the rebels freed more than 4,000 prisoners from Sednaya.
The organisation, which is based in southern Turkey, believes more than 30,000 prisoners died there as a result of execution, torture, starvation or a lack of medical care between 2011 and 2018.
The Syrian Democratic Council has warned that the Tishreen Dam on the Euphrates River in northern Syria is at “serious risk of collapse” and called for an immediate halt to the “shelling by Turkiye and the Syrian National Army”.
Zozan Alosh, spokesperson for the Syrian Democratic Council said:
The collapse of the Tishreen Dam would have terrible consequences for the region and must be averted.
Millions of people would be left without electricity and water, and lives and homes would be lost in the flooding that followed. Turkiye and the Syrian National Army must immediately stop their shelling at the site, and allow engineers to repair the damage urgently.
Germany urges Israel to ‘abandon’ plan for more Golan Heights settlements – AFP
Germany has urged Israel to “abandon” a plan to double the population living in the occupied and annexed Golan Heights at the south-western edge of Syria.
Foreign ministry spokesperson, Christian Wagner, said on Monday :
It is perfectly clear under international law that this area controlled by Israel belongs to Syria and that Israel is therefore an occupying power.
Wagner added that Berlin therefore called on its ally Israel “to abandon this plan” which was announced on Sunday by the Israeli government.
He added:
It is absolutely crucial now, in this phase of political upheaval in Syria, that all actors in the region take into account the territorial integrity of Syria and do not call it into question.
Speaking at a regular press conference, he added that the situation is “complex” and that Israel had an interest to ensure that the Assad regime’s weapons “do not fall into the wrong hands”.
But he stressed that Germany was “now calling on all actors in the region to exercise restraint” and that war-ravaged “Syria has been a plaything of foreign powers for far too long”.
Syria’s Latakia port is working normally and ship are unloading cargo, port official Hassan Jablawi told Reuters.
