Eight days after being overthrown, former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad broke his silence on Monday, saying he had only fled Syria after the fall of Damascus and calling the country’s new leaders of “terrorists”.
Abandoned by his allies — Russia and Iran — Mr. Assad fled to Moscow when a coalition of rebel groups led by radical Islamists seized Damascus on December 8, after a lightning offensive led from the north of Syria.
Syria now needs a “massive flow of aid”, the UN humanitarian aid chief said on Monday, traveling to Damascus.
“Seven out of ten Syrians need help now,” said Tom Fletcher, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), adding that the UN wanted to “go big” to come in aid of Syria.
The fall of Bashar al-Assad was greeted with scenes of jubilation, almost 14 years after the start of the civil war triggered in 2011 by the repression of pro-democracy demonstrations, which left half a million dead and caused people to flee. abroad of six million people.
“My departure from Syria was not planned, nor did it take place during the final hours of the battle, contrary to some allegations,” the former president said in a statement in English.
“Moscow demanded […] an immediate evacuation to Russia on the evening of Sunday, December 8,” added Mr. Assad, who ruled Syria with an iron fist for 24 years, asserting that his country was now “in the hands of terrorists.”
The radical Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTC), the former Syrian branch of al-Qaeda, at the head of the rebel coalition, claims to have broken with jihadism, but remains classified as “terrorist” by several Western capitals , including Washington.
“Credible” transition
After 50 years of unchallenged rule by the Assad clan, the new authorities are working to reassure foreign capitals, who are gradually making contact with their leaders, including Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, the head of HTC, who now calls himself by his real name, Ahmad al-Chareh.
On Monday, the European Union (EU) announced it would send a high representative to Damascus.
The head of European diplomacy, Kaja Kallas, affirmed that Russia and Iran “must have no place” in the Syria of tomorrow, and that the EU would raise the question of the future of Russian military bases in Syria with the new power.
The UN special envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, met Mr. Jolani on Sunday, before whom he stressed the need for a “credible and inclusive” transition, according to his services.
The UK and US have also established contact with HTC, and France will send a diplomatic mission to Damascus on Tuesday, the first in 12 years.
Faced with a flammable regional situation, Western countries remain wary of HTC, but none want to miss the opportunity to renew ties with Syria, aware of the risk of fragmentation and resurgence of the jihadist group Islamic State, which was never completely eradicated from the country.
The US military announced it had killed 12 IS members in airstrikes in Syria on Monday.
Several countries and organizations had welcomed the fall of Assad, but said they were waiting to judge on the facts the attitude of the new authorities, Sunni Muslims, towards the minorities of this multi-ethnic and multi-religious country.
The Prime Minister in charge of the transition until 1is March, Mohammed al-Bashir, promised to “guarantee the rights of all” as Syrians try to return to normal life.
“We want our children”
In a military compound near Damascus, residents, including children, set fire to the houses of officers of the former government, according to AFP journalists. Tables, cabinets and chairs were previously looted.
In Latakia, Syria’s second port on the Mediterranean, hundreds of men and some women members of the former government forces lined up outside offices where the new authorities asked them to come and surrender their weapons.
“We are expecting at least 1,000 today,” the site manager, Mohamad Mustapha, 26, a former soldier from the rebel stronghold of Idlib, in the northwest, told AFP. The new authorities will carry out investigations “into their past” and “in the event of a serious crime, they will be transferred to justice”, he explains.
Ayoush Hassan, from the Aleppo region in the north, has been desperately searching for his son since the fall of Bashar al-Assad, like many Syrians whose loved ones disappeared during the conflict and decades of repression.
“We want our children, alive, dead, burned, in ashes, buried in mass graves,” he implores.
Israel, another neighboring country of Syria, carried out intense strikes overnight from Sunday to Monday on military sites in the coastal region of Tartus, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
According to this NGO, these are the “heaviest” Israeli strikes “since 2012” in this region, which is home to a Russian naval base, while the Israeli army claims to want to prevent Syrian weapons from falling into the hands of extremists. .
Several hours after the strikes, a munitions depot complex was in flames, still shaken by explosions.
“It was like an earthquake. All the windows in my house were blown out,” said Ibrahim Ahmed, a 28-year-old law firm employee.
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