SYRIA UPDATES

The HTS-led Syrian Salvation Government has expressed gratitude to Egypt, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Jordan, Bahrain, Oman and Italy for resuming the work of their diplomatic missions in Damascus.

The statement issued on Telegram said the government also received “direct promises” from Qatar and Turkey to reopen their embassies in Syria.

“The Syrian people will not forget these honorable positions, and we are hopeful of building healthy relations with all countries that respect the will of the people, the sovereignty of the Syrian state, and the unity of its territories,” it added.

The crossings have continued every day since Turkiye opened the door for Syrian refugees to voluntarily return home. On a daily basis, we’ve seen 600-700 people crossing from Cilvegozu into Bab al-Hawa towards Idlib.

Of course, compared with the number of refugees living in Turkiye, these figures are very low. We’re not seeing thousands of people flocking to the borders.

People are cautious for a few reasons.

First, when voluntarily returning, Turkiye asks you to sign a paper stating you are not going to come back. People think twice before making this decision. They want to make sure the life they return to is better than [their life] in Turkiye.

Second, refugees have settled and built lives here in Turkiye. Their children go to school here. It is not easy to squeeze [everything back into a suitcase] and walk through Cilvegozu towards Aleppo or Damascus, especially for families.

Finally, the refugees are not sure what is going to happen in Syria. While [the fall of al-Assad] was joyful for everyone, we are now face to face with reality: who is going to govern and how are they going to govern?

Tens of thousands of people are expected to attend the funeral of prominent activist Mazen al-Hamada which is scheduled to be held later today in Damascus.

Al-Hamada has become a public symbol of Bashar al-Assad’s oppressive regime and human rights abuses. The activist had toured cities around the world to testify about the torture he had endured in Syria after escaping the country’s civil war in 2014.

He returned to Syria in 2020 after the Syrian regime announced a general amnesty, but was arrested upon arrival at the Damascus airport.

There has been no news of him since then before Monday when his body wrapped in bloodied sheets was identified among others at the Harasta Military Hospital morgue near the capital, Damascus.

Mouaz Moustafa, executive director of the Syrian Emergency Task Force who had worked with the activist, reportedly said that the state of his body suggested that al-Hamada had been killed shortly before it was found.

We are just in front of the morgue of the Al Mujtahid Hospital in Damascus where tens of prisoners’ bodies have been taken to. There are just unbelievable, painful scenes here.

There is a family that has just collected the body of one of its missing members. He had been missing for years. Now, they have found his body with signs of torture.

There are several rooms inside with a large number of prisoners’ bodies who appear to have been killed in the last hours of the Syrian regime, just before it fell.

A lot of bodies just lined up next to each other. We can see bodies of people who were starved to death, and tortured, some so dramatically that parts of their bodies were completely cut, with families unable to recognise them.

They do not have any identities, ID cards or any information about them, just decayed bodies. Families are just hoping that one of them could be a family member, because in Syria, having even the body of your missing family member is still a luxury.

There are almost 200,000 missing people, and families here are saying that they have not received a single word from them for years.

Syria’s incoming government has invited citizens to apply to join the police force.

In a Telegram post, the Interior Ministry announced that applicants can enrol in police academies located in Idlib or Aleppo, directing them to a Facebook questionnaire to begin the process.

Since seizing power in Damascus, the HTS-led government has made a point of trying to preserve state institutions.

Interim Prime Minister Mohammed al-Bashir said one of his first tasks would be getting such institutions back up and running.

Early in Syria’s civil war, the Kurds carved out self-ruled territory in the country’s east, setting themselves apart from al-Assad’s government and the rebels opposing it.

The Kurds defended this territory by forming the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which also includes Arab fighters. The US-backed force drove ISIL (ISIS) out of large areas of Syria, including Raqqa, the capital of their self-declared caliphate.

But Turkey, which opposes an independent Kurdish state near its borders, views the SDF’s main Kurdish faction as a “terrorist” group and has funded Syrian rebel fighters – known as the Syrian National Army (SNA) – to battle them.

With new leadership in Damascus, which the SNA has allied with, the Kurds are facing new threats to their territory.

Already, the SNA has pushed the Kurds out of the city of Manbij. Other rebel fighters claim to have captured the city of Deir Az Zor, which the Kurds briefly held after al-Assad’s forces fled, and say they will push further east.

While the rebels could still seek some kind of agreement with the Kurds to incorporate them into the new political order, that would likely require accepting a degree of Kurdish autonomy in the east. It would also risk angering Turkey, which now appears to be the chief power broker in Syria.

With all eyes on the Syrian capital, Damascus, Israeli forces this week have struck several locations across Syria, destroying most of the country’s strategic weapons stockpiles.

Israel hit nearly 500 targets, including anti-aircraft batteries, military airfields, weapons production sites, combat aircraft and missiles.

In addition, missile vessels struck the Syrian naval facilities of Bayda and Latakia ports, where 15 Syrian naval vessels were docked.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he authorised the bombing campaign so that weapons would not fall into the hands of rebel fighters.

Israeli ground forces have also moved deeper into the occupied Golan Heights, effectively expanding its illegal occupation. Troops have seized what was previously a demilitarised buffer zone in what the UN said is a violation of the 1974 disengagement agreement between Israel and Syria.

Mohammad Bagher Ghaliba, Iran’s parliament speaker, has acknowledged that the fall of Syria’s al-Assad has “disrupted the momentum” of the Iran-backed “axis of resistance”.

Iran’s IRNA state news agency quoted him as saying that al-Assad’s government ignored Iranian warnings before the rebel advances that ousted him.

If those warnings had been heeded, he said, “today the Syrian nation would not be on the verge of internal chaos, sectarian settlements, and damage to national assets”.

Nevertheless, Ghaliba pledged that the “resistance axis”, including Lebanon’s Hezbollah armed group, will emerge “alive and stronger than before” and that Syria will instil “national dignity”.

“We are confident that … the Syrian people will come to their senses upon seeing the deplorable situation that has befallen their country, and the patriotic Syrian youth will be able to find a path to restoring their national dignity,” he concluded.

Antonio Guterres says “the UN is fully committed to supporting a smooth transition of power in Syria, with an inclusive political process in which the rights of all minorities will be fully respected, and paving the way towards a united country with its territorial integrity fully reestablished”.

He also said in a statement on X that UN Special Envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen “is engaging all key actors to contribute to these objectives”.

“I fully trust the Syrian people to be able to choose their own destiny,” Guterres added.

Doctors Without Borders, known by its French acronym, MSF, has more details on the situation in northeast Syria, where the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) is seeking to seize territory from the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, who are supported by the US.

The relief group said more than 80,000 people have been displaced in the areas of Tabqa, Raqqa and Hasakah.

“The situation faced by people who have been displaced is overwhelming,” said Allen Murphy, MSF’s head of programmes in northeastern Syria. “People urgently need access to essential services, including healthcare, clean water and shelter, as the temperature is dropping considerably. In the current situation, there is also a risk of additional waves of displacement.”

In Tabqa, for instance, people are taking shelter in a stadium and schools. But the “situation in these facilities is dire”, Murphy explained.

“They are not designed to house people. Temperatures have dropped below freezing and people do not have blankets or heating. Latrines, clean water and food are all insufficient, as authorities have not had enough time or resources to prepare for people’s arrival. Existing medical services in some of the areas receiving displaced people have quickly become overwhelmed.”

MSF said “the sheer scale of the needs are outpacing the available capacity and resources of responders” in northeast Syria.

Earlier, HRW also issued a statement expressing concern over worsening conditions in northeast Syria, saying more than 100,000 people have been displaced in the region since November 27.

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) warns that “the situation inside Syria remains truly dire”.

This comes after several European nations have rushed to suspend asylum applications of thousands of Syrians with leaders in some countries calling for them to be sent back home.

“It remains to be seen whether the new reality in Syria will allow people to start rebuilding their lives, or whether an even graver crisis lies ahead,” said Marta Welander, the IRC’s EU advocacy director.

While recent fighting in the northwest appears to have largely subsided, Welander said, conflict persists in the northeast, affecting IRC’s ability to access populations in need.

“More than 13 years since the crisis in Syria began, humanitarian needs across the country are now the highest they have ever been,” she added.

Applications from Syria were among the most frequently filed in September, with Syrians lodging 14,000 applications, or 17 percent of the total, according to the EU’s Agency for Asylum.

As China hosted the 19th Asian Games in September last year, President Xi Jinping welcomed al-Assad at a picturesque lakeside guesthouse in the eastern city of Hangzhou.

By the time Xi and al-Assad emerged from their meeting, China and Syria had struck what they called a “strategic partnership”.

Fifteen months later, that partnership lies in tatters, after opposition groups, led by HTS, took hold of the Syrian capital on Sunday, overthrowing al-Assad, who fled to Russia.

Since then, China has been cautious in its response to the rapid shifts in Syria. On Monday, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said a “political solution” must be found in Syria as soon as possible to restore stability.

But while that caution also captures how China has approached its relationship with Syria more broadly, al-Assad’s sudden ouster affects the world’s second-largest economy just as it is increasingly trying to expand its footprint in the Middle East, say analysts.

So how has China’s relationship with Syria been, and how will it change with the new leadership in Damascus?

Find out here.

Let’s bring you up to speed:

• Israeli forces continue to pound Syria, attacking the port of Latakia and a missile warehouse in Tartous, causing the weapons to explode, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
• The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons is set to convene an emergency meeting to discuss the events in Syria, as its new leaders pledge to seek international help to secure potential chemical weapons there.
• Millions of psychostimulant Captagon (fenethylline) pills have been found at an airbase and a warehouse in Damascus.
• Human Rights Watch has raised the alarm over worsening humanitarian conditions in northern Syria as an offensive by the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army forces more than 100,000 people to flee their shelters.
• As Syrians around the world continue to celebrate al-Assad’s fall, residents of Damascus say they are struggling to make ends meet amid worsening economic conditions.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) says more than 100,000 people have fled the ongoing offensive led by the Syrian National Army (SNA) in Aleppo and are seeking safety in Kurdish-controlled areas of northeastern Syria.

But the displaced are “facing dire conditions due to the lack of adequate shelter, water, food, and healthcare,” it said.

“The situation is exacerbating an acute and longstanding crisis, with overcrowded camps and severely damaged infrastructure and a lack of water, power, healthcare, food, and weather-appropriate shelter,” it said.

The rights group called on “all parties to the conflict in Syria” to ensure the “unimpeded flow of aid, safe passage to fleeing civilians, and protection for those who stay”.

Mazloum Abdi says the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) is ready to work with international partners to protect historic sites in Syria from ISIL, or ISIS.

“During the ISIS threat in 2015, we helped protect the remains of Suleyman Shah by facilitating their transfer to the Ashma region,” he said in a post on X. “Today, we reaffirm our firm commitment to preserving historic sites, and our readiness to coordinate with all concerned parties to facilitate the return of [Shah’s] remains to the original shrine site, in line with previous international agreements and with full respect for cultural heritage,” he added.

ISIL destroyed several ancient and medieval sites across Syria and Iraq when it controlled large swathes of territory in both countries between 2014 and 2017.

The volunteer organisation, officially known as the Syrian Civil Defence, said its teams are “working to open the roads” in the town of Khan Sheikhoun, south of Idlib, where the “criminal former al-Assad regime left behind great destruction”.

The White Helmets posted on X that they are removing rubble from roads “to restore life and facilitate movement and the return of the displaced”.

“[There is] a great tragedy facing civilians displaced to camps with the destruction of their cities and villages in many Syrian regions, deepening the gap in humanitarian needs and their wounds in rebuilding what was destroyed by the war of the regime and Russia for nearly 14 years,” the post said.

Translation: Continuous efforts by our teams during the asphalt project of the road connecting the town of Tal al-Karamah and the village of Kafr Karmin in the northern Idlib countryside, to facilitate the movement of civilians on the vital road that connects the areas of Aleppo and its countryside with the areas of the Idlib countryside.

The Syrian rebels who deposed al-Assad received drones and other support from Ukrainian operatives who sought to undermine Russia and its Syrian allies, The Washington Post reports.

Citing “knowledgeable” sources familiar with Ukrainian military activities abroad, The Post says that Ukrainian intelligence sent about 20 experienced drone operators and 150 first-person-view drones to the Idlib headquarters of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham four to five weeks ago.

The Post described these efforts as playing a “modest role” in the overthrow of al-Assad, but said they form “part of a broader Ukrainian effort to strike covertly at Russian operations in the Middle East, Africa and inside Russia itself”.

The AFP news agency said its reporters saw a pile of the psychostimulant drug burning at the Mazzeh airbase near Damascus.

Meanwhile, Levant 24, a Syrian media outlet, posted footage from what it said was a Captagon factory that belonged to al-Assad in the suburb of Douma. The video showed a warehouse containing boxes upon boxes of the substance.

Captagon is the brand name of a psychoactive medicine produced in the 1960s. It contains fenethylline, a synthetic drug.

By the 1980s, it was banned in most countries because of its highly addictive nature and side effects.

It’s estimated that 80 percent of the drug worldwide was produced in Syria under the command of the al-Assad regime.

Last year, the US sanctioned a number of Syrian individuals, including two of al-Assad’s relatives, for their alleged involvement in the Captagon trade.

Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Luis Albares said any talks with Syria’s new leadership must be held with certain preconditions to ensure a peaceful future for the country.

In an interview at the Reuters NEXT conference in New York, Albares said it must be stipulated that opposition forces transform into a political movement, while human rights, the rights of minorities, and Syria’s territorial integrity must be respected.

“We must move very fast because in a month, probably, decisions will have already been taken in Damascus and we will not be able to have the impact that we can have today,” he said.

Albares added that while the rebel forces are currently saying things that “seem fairly reasonable”, he cautioned against removing Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the faction that led the overthrow of al-Assad, from the list of terror groups.

More on the latest Israeli raids in Syria.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) says the attacks targeted the port of Latakia as well as weapons warehouses in the Tartous governorate.

The raid on Tartous caused stored missiles to launch and explode, the UK-based group said.

There were raids elsewhere, too. They include:

• Air defence sites and radars in Tartous
• Radar site in Latakia
• Army camps and the military airport in the city of Deir Az Zor

SOHR says it has documented more than 352 Israeli air attacks in 13 of Syria’s provinces since al-Assad’s fall on Sunday.

The Israeli military earlier said it had launched more than 480 attacks in 48 hours.

• Syria’s new Prime Minister Mohammed al-Bashir says he will announce interim government appointees in the coming days and that schools and universities will reopen next week.
• Ahmed al-Sharaa, leader of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, who is also referred to as Abu Mohammed al-Julani, said he will dissolve al-Assad’s security forces, close its most “notorious prisons” and secure possible chemical weapons sites.
• Israel has carried out nearly 500 air strikes on Syria since al-Assad’s fall, including on military sites belonging to the ousted government in Latakia and Tartus provinces, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reports.
• The Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) is pressing on with its offensive to take control of areas west of the Euphrates River, after capturing the city of Manbij from the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
• SDF commander Mazloum Abdi warned that a resurgent ISIL (ISIS) is seeking to capitalise on the situation following al-Assad’s fall.
• Opposition fighters have set fire to the tomb of Syria’s late president Hafez al-Assad, father of the deposed president, in the family’s ancestral village of Qardaha.