Events in Syria after the fall of Bashar Assad's regime continue to be the focus of Western media, writes BTA.
Syrian rebels will disband their military wings and form an army, their leader said, the British newspaper “Financial Times“ wrote in the headline.
The leader of the most powerful rebel faction “Hayat Tahrir al-Sham“ (HTS) Abu Mohammed al-Jawlani said that the fighters will join an army that will be subordinate to the Ministry of Defense. “We must adopt a state mentality, not an opposition mentality”, said Jawlani, who recently began using his real name Ahmed al-Sharaa.
Speaking at a meeting with leaders of the country's Druze minority, he stressed the need for a unified Syria. “There must be a social contract between the state and all religious communities to ensure social justice”, al-Sharaa was quoted as saying by the "Financial Times".
The disbanding of the military wings is a strategic move, partly aimed at easing restrictions on HTS - an Islamist group once linked to al-Qaeda and which remains on US and European Union lists of terrorist organisations, the British publication said.
However, in recent days, Western countries have tried to establish contacts with HTS. Officials from France, Germany and Britain traveled to Damascus the other day and yesterday to meet with the country's new rulers, the Financial Times notes, adding that the United States has also established direct contact with HTS.
The EU will reopen its representation in Damascus, European diplomacy chief Kaya Kallas told the European Parliament yesterday, the British newspaper reports.
Turkey and Qatar have also taken steps to reopen their embassies more than a decade after they were closed under Bashar al-Assad. Ankara, which is linked to HTS, has long been the rebels' main backer.
Joulani said Syria was abandoning conscription and would work to disarm the population to ensure that only the official army carries weapons. Security has been a major concern since the fall of Assad, who had promoted the idea that his regime was the only one capable of preserving fragile stability and protecting minorities, the newspaper said.
HTS faces a huge task. Although the group has long controlled a small part of the country, it will need to quickly build up its capabilities to ensure the security of highways and communities outside the major cities, the Financial Times also noted.
To meet the urgent security needs in the capital, the new interior ministry announced on Monday that it had opened a recruitment process for jobs in the Damascus police department.
Damascus police have had a very thin presence in the past week, as the previous police force disappeared after the fall of the Assad regime. All the officers that the Financial Times seen on the streets, were sent from the northern stronghold of HTS - Idlib, as can be seen from the patches on their uniforms.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israeli troops will occupy the buffer zone in Syria in the foreseeable future, the publication „Politico“ headlines.
Netanyahu said yesterday that Israeli forces will remain in the buffer zone on the Syrian border, seized after the overthrow of Syrian President Bashar Assad, until another agreement is reached „that guarantees Israel's security“, Politico points out.
The Israeli prime minister made the comment from the top of Mount Hermon - the highest peak in the area - in Syrian territory, about 10 km from the border with the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights.
It seems that for the first time It is the first time a sitting Israeli leader has set foot so far into Syria. Netanyahu said he was on the same peak 53 years ago as a soldier, but the summit's importance to Israel's security has only increased in light of recent events, Politico reported. Israel seized part of southern Syria along the border with the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights days after Assad was ousted by rebels last week.
The Israeli incursion into the buffer zone - a demilitarized zone of about 400 square kilometers of Syrian territory - has drawn criticism, with Israel accused of violating a 1974 ceasefire and possibly taking advantage of the chaos in Syria since Assad's overthrow to seize land.
“We will stay... until another agreement is reached that guarantees Israel's security,“ Netanyahu said, as quoted by "Politico". He visited the buffer zone yesterday with Defense Minister Israel Katz.
Katz said he had instructed the Israeli military to quickly establish a presence, including fortifications, in anticipation of what could be a prolonged stay in the area. "Mount Hermon is the eyes of the State of Israel to identify our enemies, near and far," he said.
An Israeli military official, speaking on condition of anonymity in accordance with military regulations, told Politico that there is no plan to evacuate Syrians living in villages in the buffer zone.
The buffer zone between Syria and the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights was established by the United Nations after the 1973 Middle East war. Since then, a UN force of about 1,100 troops has been patrolling the area, Politico notes.
A UN spokesman said yesterday that the Israeli offensive, no matter how long it lasts, is in violation of the agreement that created the buffer zone.
That agreement "must be respected, and an occupation is an occupation, whether it lasts a week, a month or a year, it remains an occupation," spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
There was no immediate comment from HTS, the rebel group that led to Assad's overthrow, or from Arab states.
Israel still controls the Golan Heights, which it captured from Syria during the 1967 Middle East war. and later annexed it - a move not recognized by most of the international community. The peak of Mount Hermon is divided between the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, Lebanon, and Syria. Only the United States recognizes Israel's control of the Golan Heights.
Germany said yesterday that its diplomats had met with rebel leaders to discuss the political transition in Syria and "our expectations regarding the protection of minorities and women's rights."
German officials, who noted that the rebel group had links to al-Qaeda in the past, said they would judge the group and the new government based on its actions.
Also yesterday, the U.S.-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) proposed that the predominantly Kurdish town of Kobani in northern Syria be made a demilitarized zone and that "security forces be redeployed under U.S. supervision and presence."
Turkey, which backs the Syrian rebels who ousted Assad, is battling the Syrian Kurdish militia, considering it a terrorist group allied with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
The Syrian Kurdish forces have been a key US ally in the fight against the extremist group “Islamic State“ (IS).
On Monday, the bodies of more than 30 Syrians who disappeared under Assad's rule were found in a mass grave. Teams of forensic experts and rebels worked together to recover the remains in the village of Izraa, north of the city of Daraa, while families of the missing stood aside.
The relatives said they had initially hoped to find their loved ones in prison.
“We didn't find anyone, and it broke our hearts. "They were burned alive here after being doused with gasoline," said Mohamed Ghazale, who waited at the site of the mass grave.
Some of the bodies found showed signs of being shot in the head or burned, said Musa al-Zuebi, head of the health department in Izraa.
Syria's new authorities have set up a hotline to report missing persons and secret detention centers, Politico reports.
Qatar officially reopened its embassy in the Syrian capital, Damascus, on Wednesday, nearly 13 years after severing diplomatic ties with the Assad government. Earlier, Qatar said in a statement that it "categorically rejects the regime's repressive policies against the Syrian people." Most foreign embassies in Syria have been closed since the outbreak of the country's civil war in 2011, the newspaper said.
The French embassy in Damascus raised its flag yesterday in a "symbolic gesture" to show its support for the Syrian people during the transition. Its reopening is pending an ongoing assessment of political and security conditions, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said. The Turkish embassy in Damascus also recently reopened.
Syria needs international support, the French newspaper Le Monde wrote in an editorial.
It is not in the interests of the United States, the EU, Turkey or Israel for Syria to disintegrate and become a failed state that favors the resurgence of jihadism, the French newspaper said.
A little over a week after the collapse of Bashar al-Assad's dictatorship on December 8, no one can say what will happen to Syria. The contours of the coalition of rebels that brought down a regime that had been in power for more than half a century and exposed its horrific system of repression remain unclear, although the largest militia, made up of former jihadists, HTS, for the time being appears to be in a strong position, as does its leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa.
Syria's fate remains even more uncertain as its sovereignty continues to be trampled on by its neighbors, who are the main beneficiaries of the new situation: Turkey to the north and Israel to the south. Both sides must resist the fall of the Assad regime, whether it is the temptation of the former to establish a security zone on Syrian territory to repel Kurdish forces present in the northeast of the country, or the desire of the Jewish state to break the backbone of the Syrian army for a long time, notes “Monde“.
Acting in this way is short-sighted. No country in the region, and certainly not the two affected, has an interest in Syria disintegrating and becoming a failed state that would favor the resurgence of jihadism. In this regard, the premature announcement of increased Israeli colonization of the occupied and unilaterally annexed Syrian Golan Heights is a senseless provocation, the French publication points out.
The risk of an uncertain transition makes it all the more necessary for many countries to take steps like those of the past few days to play their part. The US, France, the EU and the UK have announced that they will establish contact or send a delegation to meet with the forces that came to power in Damascus, including HTS, which still appears on Western lists of organizations considered terrorist. These initiatives are all the more necessary considering that these countries have not had a diplomatic representation in Damascus for more than a decade.
In just a few days, the initial suspicion of Western countries has given way to pragmatism, and this is welcome. Overall, the warm welcome of the rebels by the civilian population and the efforts that are successfully being made to restore order in Damascus and the main Syrian cities are still very fragile but encouraging signs, notes “Le Monde“.
The benefits of stabilizing Syria will be significant, writes the French publication. It will allow for the reconstruction that the dictatorship has proven incapable of carrying out and which contributed to its fall, as well as the return of hundreds of thousands of Syrians who were driven from their country by the chaos that reigned there for so long, continues “Le Monde”. To achieve this, however, significant resources will have to be mobilized, which implies the lifting of the heavy international sanctions imposed during the civil war and even the removal, if justified, of HTS from the blacklists, the newspaper adds.
The disastrous precedents from Iraq and Afghanistan after the US intervention there could push the West to a wait-and-see attitude. Syria, on the other hand, is in dire need of a sustained commitment to its reconstruction, Le Monde concludes.