The UN called on Wednesday for “free and fair elections” in Syria after the transition period opened by the fall of Bashar al-Assad and pleaded for the rapid sending of massive humanitarian aid to the country, devastated by more 13 years of civil war.
«We must support the Syrian people and seize this moment of hope. And if we don’t do it soon, I fear that window will close“, declared the head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha), Tom Fletcher, in a telephone interview with AFP.
«I want to massively increase international aid, but it now depends on donors. The Syria fund has been historically, shamefully underfunded, and now there is this opportunity” said Tom Fletcher.
Syria remains subject to international sanctions which HTS leader Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, who now goes by his real name, Ahmad al-Chareh, has called for to be lifted. The new power has set up a transitional government until March 1 and is working to reassure foreign capitals of its ability to pacify the country.
The military leader of HTS, Mourhaf Abou Qasra announced to AFP on Tuesday that “the next step» would be the dissolution of the armed factions to merge them into the future army. He called on the UN, the United States and relevant European countries to remove HTS from their lists of terrorist organizations.
“A lot of hope”
«I think (…) that there is a lot of hope, that today we are witnessing the beginnings of the new Syria“, said the UN special envoy to Syria, Geir Pedersen, in Damascus on Wednesday. “A new Syria (…) which will adopt a new Constitution guaranteeing a new social contract for all Syrians and which will organize fair and free elections» after the transition period, he added.
Geir Pedersen acknowledged that there were “stability in Damascus», more than «challenges persist in other areas», particularly in the North-East, where the Kurdish community is losing the limited autonomy that it has acquired through a hard struggle.
Also in this region, fighting pits Kurdish forces against groups supported by Turkey. Despite Wednesday’s announcement of the extension of a truce between these groups, 21 pro-Turkish fighters were killed on Wednesday after attacking a Kurdish position in the Manbij sector, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH).
Turkey believes the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which control semi-autonomous areas in the northeast, are an offshoot of its arch-enemy, the separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). .
A major player in Syria during the civil war, Turkey supports the new power. His Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hakan Fidan, however affirmed on Wednesday that the victory of the rebels “is not a takeover by Ankara“. He thus rejected comments from US President-elect Donald Trump, who described this victory as “unfriendly takeover» at Ankara.
Promise of amnesty
Early Wednesday, hundreds of men in civilian clothes waited in the port city of Latakia in front of a center opened by the new authorities to register former soldiers and police officers, to whom a “amnesty” was promised if they were not “perpetrators of crimes or torture». «I came to regularize my situation. For my safety first and to be able to move around“, declared to AFP Zein, a 33-year-old soldier who must “come back in two days» to obtain a three-month pass.
Other Syrians continued to search for loved ones who were victims of the former power’s security services, imprisoned or missing. The White Helmets announced Wednesday the discovery of bodies and bones in a warehouse in the suburbs of Damascus, where such discoveries are increasing.
Par Le360 (with AFP)
12/19/2024 at 6:58 a.m.
