The essentials
- Resumption of diplomatic relations. Visiting Damascus, the UN special envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, met Abu Mouhammad al-Jolani, leader of the radical Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). Turkey reopened its embassy in Syria on Saturday, and Qatar is preparing to do the same. France announced the sending of a diplomatic mission to Damascus, the first in 12 years.
• Israel wants to double the population of the Golan. The Israeli government on Sunday approved a project aimed at doubling the population in the part of the Syrian Golan occupied and annexed by Israel. But the country has “no interest in confronting” Syria, said Benjamin Netanyahu, a week after ordering his troops to seize the UN-controlled buffer zone separating the two countries on the plateau. of the Golan.
• Israeli strikes in Syria. Intense Israeli strikes targeted military sites in the coastal region of Tartous in Syria overnight from Sunday to Monday, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, in what the NGO describes as “the most heavy since 2012” in this coastal region.