Key events
No political comeback for Assad: expert claims the ousted Syrian leader will live the rest of his days comfortably dull somewhere in Russia.
“Bashar and his family are avowedly secular, even though they identify with the Alawite sect, so Russia always had more appeal than Iran in that sense,” said David Lesch, a Syria expert at Trinity University in Texas who has met with Assad on multiple occasions.
“In Assad’s mind, Russia and Vladimir Putin can better protect his family from extradition or any other attempts by the international community to bring him to justice,” Lesch added.
Meanwhile, the leader of Syrian Civil Defence, also known as the White Helmets, Raed al-Saleh, has addressed the families of the victims and survivors of the former Syrian regime in front of the Palace of Justice in Damascus.
On a video posted on X, Al-Saleh promised to hold Assad accountable for his “violations”.
“Today, I promise you from in front of the Palace of Justice, not from anywhere else, to work with all legal institutions to hold the head of the regime accountable after all these violations,” he said.
Bethan McKernan
Tens of thousands of Syrians have taken to the streets across Syria to celebrate their newfound freedoms five days after rebels toppled the 54-year long Bashar al-Assad regime.
In the Umayyad mosque in the heart of the old city of Damascus, one of the holiest religious sites in the Islamic world, thousands of people gathered for the first Friday prayers since Assad fled the country on Sunday, which has been named the country’s “freedom day.”…
William Christou
One month ago, during a meeting in Beirut, a senior western diplomat was venting his frustration: when would international sanctions be lifted from the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad? Though the dictator had few friends, it seemed that the brutal killing and torture of hundreds of thousands of protesters had succeeded in finally crushing Syria’s 13-year revolution.
It was time to face facts, the diplomat said. Assad had won the war, and the world needed to move on.
As diplomats in Beirut talked, rebels in Syria were planning. A year earlier, figures in the Islamist opposition group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) in north-west Syria had sent a message to rebels in the south: get ready…
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says Israel’s most recent strikes targeted military sites in Damascus and its countryside.
On Friday Israel air strikes targeted “a missile base at the top of Damascus’s Mount Qasyun”, the war monitoring group said, and an airport in southern Sweida province and “defence and research labs in Masyaf”, in Hama province.
“Israeli strikes destroyed a scientific institute” military facilities in Barzeh, in northern Damascus, and targeted a “military airport” in the capital’s countryside, it said.
The group added that strikes also targeted “Scud ballistic missile warehouses” and launchers in the Qalamun area, as well as “rockets, depots and tunnels under the mountain.”
Since Assad’s defeat, Israel has repeatedly attacked Syrian military sites.
Jordan to host Syria talks after Damascus erupts in celebration
Hello, we are restarting our live coverage of the ongoing crises in the Middle East.
Today, Jordan will welcome diplomats from the US, EU, and Turkey and Arab nations to discuss the developing situation in Syria, 24 hours after swathes of the nation’s population celebrated the ousting of president Bashar al-Assad.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken will be among envoys set to discuss Syria in the Jordanian city of Aqaba.
Syrians called the day the “Friday of victory” as fireworks illuminated the sky over Damascus. Assad had ruled the country with an iron fist for over fifty years when his dictatorship came to an end after rebels stormed the capital, bringing 14 years of war that claimed over 500,000 lives and displaced millions.
A Qatari diplomat said a delegation from the Gulf emirate would visit Syria on Sunday to meet transitional government officials and discuss aid and the reopening of their embassy.
Qatar, Unlike other Arab states, never restored diplomatic ties with Assad after a rupture in 2011.
We’ll bring you updates from those talks in Jordan, plus all the latest developments from around the Middle East
