Eurasia Press & News
The Syrian rebels who overthrew longtime iron-fisted ruler Bashar al-Assad on Tuesday appointed a transitional head of government to run the country until March 1.
After a cabinet meeting in Damascus of rebel leaders and ousted officials from Assad’s government, Mohammed al-Bashir, a figure little known across most of Syria who previously ran an administration in a small pocket of the northwest controlled by rebels, said he was picked to lead the interim government.
“The meeting was under the headline of transferring the files and institutions to caretake the government,” Bashir said.
He stood in front of two flags: the green, black and white flag flown by opponents of Assad throughout the civil war, and a white flag with the Islamic oath of faith in black writing, typically flown in Syria by Sunni Islamist fighters.
There was some sense of normalcy returning to the Syrian capital, with a notable decrease in the number of armed people on the streets. Sources close to the rebels said commanders had ordered fighters to withdraw from cities and for police and internal security forces affiliated with the main rebel group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, to deploy instead.
Banks and shops reopened for the first time since Assad’s overthrow on Sunday and his flight to asylum in Russia. Traffic returned to the roads, construction workers were back fixing a roundabout in the Damascus city center and street cleaners swept roadways.
The signs of Middle East conflict remained, however. Israel launched airstrikes against Syrian army bases, whose forces had melted away in the face of the lightning rebel advance that ousted Assad over a two-week period.
Israel sent forces across the border into a demilitarized zone inside Syria, saying its airstrikes were aimed at keeping weapons from falling into hostile hands. It denied reports that its forces had advanced beyond the buffer zone into the countryside southwest of Damascus.
Abu Mohammed al-Golani, the Islamist leader who headed the offensive that forced Assad out, vowed to pursue former senior government officials responsible for torture and war crimes.
“Rewards will be offered to those who will provide information about senior army and security officers involved in war crimes,” Golani said in a statement.
The Hayat Tahrir al-Sham he leads is rooted in Syria’s al-Qaida branch and is designated by many Western governments as a terrorist organization, though it has sought to moderate its rhetoric. Geir Pedersen, the United Nations envoy for Syria, said in Geneva that the groups that forced Assad to flee must transform their “good messages” into actions on the ground.
“They have been sending messages of unity, of inclusiveness,” Pedersen said, adding that in Aleppo and Hama, “we have also seen … reassuring things on the ground.”
But “what we need not to see is of course that the good statements and what we are seeing on the ground at the beginning, that this is not followed up in practice in the days and the weeks ahead of us.”
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement, “The United States reaffirms its full support for a Syrian-led and Syrian-owned political transition. This transition process should lead to credible, inclusive, and non-sectarian governance that meets international standards of transparency and accountability.”
“The Syrian people will decide the future of Syria,” the top U.S. diplomat said. “All nations should pledge to support an inclusive and transparent process and refrain from external interference.”
A German government statement late Monday said German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron welcomed the end of the Assad regime, and said they are “prepared to work together with the new rulers on the basis of fundamental human rights and the protection of ethnic and religious minorities.”
Scholz and Macron emphasized the importance of maintaining Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, the statement said. The United Nations has expressed concerns about Israel’s deployment of troops across a demilitarized buffer zone in the Golan Heights, which Israel says is necessary to protect its own security.
U.N. envoy Pederson said Tuesday that the world body is continuing to see Israeli movements and bombardments into Syrian territory.
“This needs to stop,” Pederson said.
Israeli troops were on the Syrian side of the buffer zone Tuesday, about 25 kilometers southwest of Damascus, according to several security sources cited by Reuters and the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Israel Defense Forces spokesman Avichay Adraee said reports that Israeli forces were approaching Damascus were incorrect. He said Israeli troops were located inside the buffer zone and at defensive points close to the border.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said Monday that Israeli forces had struck suspected chemical weapons sites as well as long-range rockets as part of an effort to prevent them from ending up in the possession of hostile actors.
Saudi Arabia condemned Israel’s actions in Syria, saying in a statement Tuesday that they violate international law and “sabotage Syria’s chances of restoring its security, stability and territorial integrity.”
