It was exactly a week ago: on December 8, a coalition of rebel factions led by the radical Islamist group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTC) entered Damascus and announced the overthrow of power, after a surprise and dazzling offensive which allowed him to seize most of the country in 11 days. On Saturday, December 14, the United States announced that it had established “direct contact” with HTC, while Turkey reopened its embassy in Damascus.
Information to remember:
⇒ The UN envoy in favor of lifting sanctions against the HTC group
⇒ Turkey “ready” to provide military aid to the new authorities in Syria
⇒ Berlin warns members of deposed Syrian regime that they will be hunted down in Germany
The UN envoy says he is in favor of lifting sanctions against the HTC group
Arriving this Sunday morning in Damascus, the UN envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, said he was in favor of lifting sanctions against the HTC group. The establishment of “credible” justice in Syria is necessary to avoid acts of “revenge”, he also affirmed. “We need to see that there is justice and accountability for the crimes committed. And we need to make sure that this happens through a credible justice system, and that there is no retribution,” he said. -he said, according to his statements sent to journalists.
While the United Nations estimates that more than a million people have been displaced since the rebel offensive that ousted Bashar al-Assad, Geir Pedersen also judged that Syria needed “increased immediate humanitarian aid”.
Geir Pedersen has called in recent days for the establishment of an “inclusive” transition to avoid a “new civil war” in Syria. In Jordan, a country neighboring Syria, he participated on Saturday in discussions bringing together American, Arab, European and Turkish diplomats, who agreed that the transition process must “be led […] by the Syrians themselves and result in an inclusive, non-sectarian and representative government,” according to a joint statement.
Turkey ‘ready’ to provide military aid to new authorities in Syria
Turkey is “ready” to provide military aid if the new Syrian government led by Islamist rebels requests it, Turkish Defense Minister Yasar Güler said on Sunday. “We already have training and military cooperation agreements with many countries. We are ready to provide the necessary assistance if the new government requests it,” he said in comments relayed by the Turkish press.
“We have to wait and see what the new administration will do. We think it is necessary to give them a chance,” he said of the Islamist rebels of the Hayat Tahrir Al-Cham (HTC) group, formerly Syrian branch of Al-Qaeda and considered terrorist by many Western countries. But HTC now takes a moderate stance and its interim government has repeatedly insisted on protecting the rights of all Syrians, including ethnic and religious minorities.
The new government, Yasar Güler also said, is committed to “respecting all government institutions, the Nations Unions and other international organizations”, and promised to report any traces of chemical weapons to the Organization for prohibition of chemical weapons (OPCW).
Berlin’s warning to members of the fallen Syrian regime
German government ministers said on Sunday that supporters of Bashar al-Assad’s ousted regime would be brought to justice in Germany if they fled to that country after the fall of the Syrian dictator. “We will hold all the regime’s henchmen accountable for their terrible crimes to the fullest extent of the law,” Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock told the weekly. Bild am Sonntag. “If henchmen of the Assad terror regime try to flee to Germany, they should know that practically no other state pursues their crimes as harshly as Germany,” the Minister of Foreign Affairs said in the same newspaper. Interior Nancy Faeser. “Anyone who participated in atrocities is not immune from prosecution here,” she added.
Germany has already convicted several Assad government officials under the principle of universal jurisdiction, which allows trials to be held regardless of where the offenses were committed.
Nearly 8,000 Syrians returned to Syria via the Turkish border in five days
Some 7,600 Syrian refugees crossed the Turkish border to return to their country during the five days following the fall of President Bashar al-Assad a week ago, the Turkish Interior Minister said on Sunday. The total number of Syrians “who returned voluntarily from Turkey” to their country amounted to 7,621 between December 9 and 13, Ali Yerlikaya wrote in a statement published on the social network X.
Turkey hosts nearly three million Syrians who fled after the start of the civil war in 2011, of whom 1.24 million, or around 42%, are from the region of Aleppo, Syria’s second city (north). west). With the change in regime, many of them hope to return home.
Turkey shares a 900-kilometre border with Syria, with five operational crossing points, and the opening of a sixth is planned to “facilitate movement”. With Turkish public opinion increasingly hostile towards Syrians, Ankara is determined to encourage as many refugees as possible to return to their country.
More than 60 Israeli strikes in a few hours across Syria
More than 60 Israeli strikes targeted military sites in a few hours across Syria, almost a week after the capture of Damascus by an armed coalition which overthrew Bashar al-Assad, an NGO said on Saturday evening. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH) recorded “61 strikes in less than five hours” on Saturday evening by Israel, which has intensified its strikes on its neighbor since the fall of Assad, bringing to “446 the total number of air raids since December 8,” according to the NGO.
In addition to these strikes, Israeli troops entered the buffer zone located on the edge of the part of the Syrian Golan occupied by the Jewish state. The UN has denounced a “violation” of the 1974 disengagement agreement between Syria and Israel.
On Saturday, Abu Mohammed al-Joulani, the leader of the Islamist-dominated coalition that took power in Syria and now calls himself by his real name, Ahmad al-Chareh, denounced the incursion. He nevertheless affirmed that his country was too “exhausted” by the war to engage in a new conflict. “The Israelis have clearly crossed the lines of engagement in Syria, which threatens an unjustified escalation in the region,” he said in comments reported by the Telegram channel of the coalition led by the radical Sunni group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTC). “Syria’s state of exhaustion after years of war and conflicts does not allow us to enter into new conflicts,” he added.