(December 4,2024)
One has to decide to what extent such notions as reconciliation, appeasement or friendship have any reliable meaning when dealing with Qatar or Turkey.
Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, with its well-known loyalty to both Turkey and Qatar, could not have moved its troops without Qatari instructions.
Funding for the Free Syrian Army is part of a budget allocated by Doha since the Qatari leadership decided to overthrow President Assad at the beginning of the civil war.
Iranian state television reported on the embassy incident, saying they did not believe the gunmen were affiliated with the wider rebel group that took the city. (…)
Russia‘s Foreign Ministry said in a Telegram post Sunday that Assad left Syria following negotiations with rebel groups, and that the long-time Syrian leader had left „instructions“ to „transfer power peacefully.“ The Russian ministry said the Kremlin was not directly involved in those discussions.
The unnamed officer made the remarks to Reuters on Sunday after reports said President Assad had flown out of Damascus for an unknown destination.
Meanwhile, the militants declared that they had captured the capital, announcing the fall of the Assad government.
President Bashar al-Assad’s immediate location was not initially clear after rebels took control of Syria’s capital. Russia’s Foreign Ministry did not provide details on where he had gone, saying only that he had resigned and left the country.
Turkey‘s foreign minister will meet with his Russian and Iranian counterparts in Doha on Saturday to try to find a solution to the renewed fighting in Syria and avoid chaos on its doorstep.
The three countries have been partners since 2017 in the Astana process seeking to end the civil war in Syria. This is despite the fact they have supported opposite sides on the battlefield.
(December 6, 2024)
Bashar al-Assad’s family fled to Russia in the days after rebel forces launched a shock offensive that captured swathes of territory across northern Syria, it has been revealed.
It comes after a source close to the Kremlin told Bloomberg News that Moscow had no plans to rescue the Syrian president, with Vladimir Putin said to be disgusted by reports of regime troops fleeing their positions. (…)
Egyptian and Jordanian officials are understood to have urged the Syrian president to leave the country and form a government-in-exile.
“We do not want escalation to continue in the region,” the Turkish president claimed.
“Idlib, Hama, and Homs are in the hands of the Syrian opposition, and they are continuing towards Damascus. We extended our hand to Bashar al-Assad but he did not respond,” he added.
(November 30, 2024)
Russia appears to be „letting the Syrian rebels overthrow“ President Bashar al-Assad according to Richard Grenell, who served as acting director of National Intelligence for a time during Donald Trump‘s first administration.
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Grenell, who had been tipped as a possible member of Trump‘s incoming administration, commented: „Russia seems to be letting the Syrian rebels overthrow Assad. Big. Time to play chess.“
Baqaei emphasized that the regions around Aleppo and Idlib, designated as de-escalation zones under the Astana Process agreements between Iran, Russia, and Turkey, are at the center of the renewed violence.
He condemned the recent attacks by terrorist groups in these areas, calling them a flagrant violation of the agreements.
5. Examined in details the situation in the Idlib de-escalation area and reaffirmed their determination to fully implement the Memorandum on Stabilization of the Situation in the Idlib De-escalation Area of 17 September 2018. In this regard they expressed their concern with the ongoing violations of the ceasefire regime, and declared that, as guarantors of the ceasefire regime, they would step up their efforts to ensure observance with it, including by enhacing work of the Joint Iranian-Russian-Turkish Coordination Center. They stressed the importance of a lasting ceasefire while underlining the necessity to continue effective fight against terrorism. They also emphasized that under no circumstances the creation of the above-mentioned de-escalation area should undermine the sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity of the Syrian Arab Republic;
The offensive is led by Hayʼat Tahrir ash-Sham (HTS), a Sunni Islamist opposition group backed by Turkey and designated a terrorist organization by the U.S.
On Friday, the rebels entered the old city of Aleppo and took over several key sites, including the historic citadel and the Umayyad Mosque, according to videos posted on social media.