AQABA (Jordan), Dec 15: Top diplomats from the United States, the Arab League and Turkey met in Jordan on Saturday to discuss how to assist Syria ’s transition after the fall of Bashar Assad’s government a week ago. No Syrian representatives attended.
The collapse of the Assad family’s more than half-century of rule has sparked new fears of instability in a region already shaken by the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and hostilities between Israel and the Lebanon-based Hezbollah despite a tenuous ceasefire.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said American officials have been in direct contact with the Syrian insurgent group that led the overthrow of Assad’s government, but the group continues to be designated a foreign terrorist organization by the United States and others.
The insurgent leader in an interview with Syrian TV didn’t mention contact with the US, but he warned Israel about the hundreds of airstrikes it has carried out in Syria in the past week.
The US is also making a renewed push for a ceasefire in Gaza, where the war has plunged more than 2 million Palestinians into a severe humanitarian crisis.
Assad loyalists attack Syrian insurgent group
A Syrian war monitor and a citizen journalist say gunmen attacked members of a Syrian insurgent group in the country’s coastal region, killing or wounding 15 of them Saturday.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said loyalists to Assad killed and wounded members of the Failaq al-Sham group, which took part in the attacks that led to the overthrow of Assad a week ago.
The coastal region is home to many members of Assad’s minority Alawite sect.
Citizen journalist Taher al-Omar said Failaq al-Sham members were ambushed near the town of Jableh by “sectarian gunmen.” He said several were killed, without giving details.
Calls for peace, supports political transition
A joint statement after a ministerial meeting on Syria’s future is calling for all parties to cease hostilities there and expresses support for a locally led transitional political process.
The statement was issued Saturday after a meeting in Jordan by several Arab nations, the United States, Turkey, the European Union and others.
It called for preventing the reemergence of extremist groups in Syria and ensuring the security and safe destruction of chemical weapons stockpiles. It also expressed full support for Syria’s territorial integrity.
A separate statement issued by Arab foreign ministers called for UN-supervised elections based on a new constitution approved by Syrians.
That statement also condemned Israel’s incursion into the buffer zone with Syria and adjacent sites over the past week as a “heinous occupation” and demands the withdrawal of Israeli forces.
Hezbollah’s main supply line cut
The leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah militants says the fall of Assad in Syria has cut a main supply line for the group but it can find other ways to bring in weapons.
Hezbollah was a main backer of Assad and sent thousands of fighters to Syria over the past decade. And for decades, Hezbollah relied on Syria as a channel for weapons from the militant group’s main backer, Iran.
In his first public comments in the week since Assad’s fall, Hezbollah leader Naim Kassem in a televised speech Saturday said Hezbollah has lost the military supply line through Syria but the new authority there might reinstate the route. Otherwise, he said, “we might find other ways.”
Kassem also said Hezbollah hopes the new authority in Syria will consider Israel an enemy.
HTS chief warns Israel about airstrikes
The head of the Syrian insurgent group that led the overthrow of Bashar Assad’s government says they are not about to enter a conflict with Israel. But Ahmad al-Sharaa in his first public comments on Israel in the week since Assad’s fall said “the pretexts that Israel uses have ended” for its airstrikes inside Syria in recent days.
Al-Sharaa said “the Israelis have crossed the rules of engagement” in his interview with Syrian TV on Saturday. About 400 Israeli airstrikes in the past days have destroyed much of the Syrian army’s assets.
Al-Sharaa leads Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS. The excerpts released from his interview did not address contact with the United States, which on Saturday said had been in direct communication with HTS, which it designated a foreign terrorist organization years ago.
The HTS leader did say the new authorities in Damascus are in contact with Western embassies, and that authorities have a plan to start reconstruction and development in Syria. He did not give details.
He added that the authorities have given Russia — a key backer of Assad — an opportunity to reconsider relations with the Syrian people, and that authorities are not hostile to the people of Iran, another Assad backer.
US direct contact with Syrian rebel group
Blinken says American officials have been in direct contact with the Syrian rebel group that led the overthrow of Assad’s government a week ago, but the group continues to be designated a foreign terrorist organization by the United States and others.
Blinken is the first US official to publicly confirm contacts between the Biden administration and HTS, which ousted Assad. Speaking at a news conference in Jordan, Blinken would not discuss details of the contacts but said it was important for the US to convey messages to the group about its conduct and how it intends to govern in a transition period. (AP)
