While schools and universities in Syria reopened on Sunday and Syrian Christians under the new Islamic rulers went to church without any problems, the situation there after the fall of President Assad is the subject of intensive diplomatic consultations.
At a conference on Saturday in Jordan, Jordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Qatar jointly called for a “peaceful transfer of power.” Syria must not “decline into chaos,” they wrote afterwards. They expressed concern about Israel’s continued military actions and called for free elections supervised by the United Nations.
No representation from Syria itself was present at the consultation. Russia and Iran, allies of the fallen regime of President Bashar al-Assad, were not invited. However, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, the UN envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen, and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken joined.
Pedersen flew to Damascus on Sunday and called for an end to international sanctions that are crippling the economy. We must quickly achieve “cooperation on the construction of Syria,” he said.
Pedersen will talk to the new interim government in Damascus. It would rule until March, but has not yet made it clear what process a new permanent government will use to replace it. “We must launch the political process that includes all Syrians,” Pedersen said. “That process must of course be led by the Syrians themselves.”
‘False pretenses’
Israel, meanwhile, continued its attacks on Syrian territory last weekend. Airports, ports and military ships are targeted. Israel wants to prevent weapons from falling into the hands of the new Syrian rulers. Shortly after Assad was deposed, Israel had already entered the buffer zone between the Golan Heights and Syria. The zone annexed by Israel was established in 1974 after the Yom Kippur War.
Ahmed al-Sharaa, the leader of the Islamist group that has taken power, said in a TV interview that Syria is “not interested” in new conflicts and that Israel is “using false pretexts” to justify the attacks.
He said Israeli operations in Syria pose a risk of “unwanted escalation in the region.” According to him, Syria is “exhausted” and does not want to get involved in conflicts that could “lead to further destruction”, but wants to focus on reconstruction.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz expressed skepticism about the “mild tone” that rebel leaders have taken since the ouster of Assad.
The Israeli government on Sunday approved a plan to expand the number of settlements in the illegally annexed Golan. The aim is to double the number of Israelis in the area. About 31,000 currently live there. “Strengthening the Golan is a strengthening of the State of Israel,” Prime Minister Netanyahu said. According to him, “Syrian threats” have increased with the fall of Assad.
Schools and churches
The leaders of HTS (Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the Islamist rebel group that has taken power) had ordered that schools should reopen on Sunday, the start of a new working week. This happened in most places, although some parents kept their children at home, news agencies report, because they found the situation too uncertain.
Universities also opened on Sundays. Images show hundreds of students celebrating during the opening of universities in Damascus and Aleppo.
The Islamist HTS has vowed to religious minority groups in Syria that their practice of faith will not be endangered. In several places, Syrian Christians attended mass without incident on Sunday. But churchgoers told reporters it is too early to feel completely safe under the new rulers.
Since the fall of the Assad regime, 7,500 Syrian refugees living in Turkey have returned to Syria, Ali Yerlikaya, the Turkish Minister of the Interior, wrote on Saturday on X. (NRC)