#hayat tahrir al sham

[destielmemenews]

"Russia requested an emergency session of the U.N. Security Council to discuss Syria, according to Dmitry Polyansky, its deputy ambassador to the U.N., in a post on Telegram.

The arrival of Assad and his family in Moscow was reported by Russian agencies Tass and RIA, citing an unidentified source at the Kremlin. A spokesman there didn’t immediately respond to questions. RIA also said Syrian insurgents had guaranteed the security of Russian military bases and diplomatic posts in Syria."

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[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

by Melanie Phillips

The eagerness to assume that Islamists have reformed themselves accompanies the West’s suicidal refusal to see what is so plainly the case—that whether it involves Shia or Sunni Muslims, Hezbollah or the Houthis, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham or the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamists are waging world war against unbelievers wherever they are.

The Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, set in train a series of events that have shaken the geopolitical kaleidoscope. Tiny Israel is now well on the way to smashing the Shia axis and—in the words of a member of the Iranian regime—becoming the foremost power in the region.

This also represents a shattering defeat for the strategy of former President Barack Obama, which has been continued by the Biden administration. This strategy was—remarkably—to empower the Islamic Republic of Iran.

To this end, the Obama and Biden administrations spared no effort to appease and protect the Tehran regime. In the war that followed the Oct. 7 pogrom, Washington refused to respond appropriately to repeated Iranian attacks while putting Israel under enormous pressure also not to do so.

And, after Donald Trump won the presidential election last month, the United States renewed a controversial sanctions waiver that will allow Iran access to some $10 billion in payments from Iraq.

The stupendous developments in the Middle East are a cause for unprecedented optimism. With the likely destruction of the Shia axis, the way will be set for Saudi Arabia finally to make its peace with Israel and thus end, once and for all, the Arab war against the Jewish state. The cause of the Palestinian Arabs, who never were the issue until the West chose to make them so, would simply evaporate.

To envisage this is not to fall into the trap of wishful thinking. The dangers for Israel and the free world remain acute and unresolved. Iran is poised to get the nuclear bomb, and there are fears that with its back to the wall, it will now do just that.

But Iran now has no military defenses or proxy shields. This is therefore the moment to destroy totally its nuclear program and maybe finish off this evil regime altogether.

To do this, however, Israel needs America to be involved. Will Trump be willing to do this? Or will he believe that he alone can make a deal that will tame the Iranian regime?

Any such deal would be illusory. Iran has lied about its activities for more than four decades and won’t stop now.

The old order has been shattered. Bad actors have been weakened; others are now empowered. It will take wise heads indeed to turn this extraordinarily complex set of developments into a real leap for peace in the world. It can be done. Are there the leaders to do it?

[head-post]

British officials meet new Syrian leader al-Sharaa in Damascus

UK officials held a meeting with Ahmed al-Sharaa, the new Syrian leader and former head of the Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), according to Arab media.

Al-Sharaa, formerly known as Abu Mohammad al-Julani, met with delegates from the British Foreign Office. He emphasised the need to rebuild shattered state institutions, which must be based on law and security. The new state leader called for the lifting of international sanctions to allow Syrian refugees around the world to return home.

Earlier, British Foreign Secretary David Lammy confirmed that the UK government had established “diplomatic contact” with the HTS. The militant group has been considered a prohibited terrorist organisation in the UK since 2017.

We will judge them on their actions. We want to see a representative government, an inclusive government in Syria.

The UK also committed £50m (€60.5m) in humanitarian aid to Syria and Syrian refugees. The package included £30 million for food, shelter and emergency medical care. Lebanon and Jordan would receive £10 million each through the World Food Programme and UNHCR.

US President Joe Biden’s administration is also reassessing the status of HTS, with Biden stating that the US would evaluate “not just their words, but their actions.”

Read more HERE

[generallemarc]

Current state of Syria.

Red is what the government controls. Pale red is areas they pulled out of to desperately try and reinforce the western population centers. There's fighting inside Homs and some of those green rifles representing skirmishes are less than 30km away from Damascus. I really wish I hadn't taken sleeping pills, because by the time I wake up it may already be over.

[onbreakreadlastpost]

Women are at risk under Syria’s new government, and the international community must push for women’s rights

The torture, sexual violence and social stigma faced by Syria's women prisoners

Dealing with immense trauma, women survivors of Assad's prisoners are struggling to return to a sometimes unwelcome society

I GREATLY ENCOURAGE EVERYONE to please consider donating to one or more groups that support women in Syria and/or fundraisers that support women in Syria. Links to find them below!

Please share and reblog this post and/or one or more group/fundraiser!

Charities/NGOs

https://greatnonprofits.org/

Fundraisers

[tomorrowusa]

The speed with which Syrian rebels have overrun areas recently under control of the al-Assad dictatorship is amazing. If you had asked a week ago what HTS was, I probably would have replied that it was a K-Pop group. But Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and its allies have apparently just captured Daraa and are now in the center of Homs.

There are unconfirmed reports that rebels have now reached the suburbs of Damascus. The government has felt it necessary to issue a statement saying President al-Assad hasn't fled the capital.

Bashar al-Assad and his father Hafez have ruled Syria since 1971. Both father and son have been ruthless violators of human rights with the blood of tens of thousands of Syrians on their hands.

Unless al-Assad wants to end up like Muammar Gaddafi or Saddam Hussein, he should get his ass out of the country ASAP. Perhaps his pal Vladimir Putin could find a place for him to stay in Russia.

[euginemicah]

Fears grow over sectarian tensions in Syria  

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, the rebel group now in control of Damascus, has bolstered its military presence in the Syrian cities of Homs, Tartus and Latakia following recent protests against the burning of a holy Alawite shrine in Aleppo. Experts warn that tensions could deepen sectarian and ethnic divisions in the country, causing further fragmentation of Syria’s diverse population. Click here…

[radioshiga]

Síria nomeia novos ministros das Relações Exteriores e Defesa

Damasco, Síria, 23 de dezembro de 2024 (Reuters) – Os novos líderes da Síria anunciaram no sábado (21) a nomeação de ministros das Relações Exteriores e da Defesa, ambos com vínculos ao grupo rebelde Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), responsável por derrubar o governo de Bashar al-Assad. Assad Hassan al-Shibani, de 37 anos, foi nomeado ministro das Relações Exteriores. Ele possui experiência no…

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

by Lyn Julius

The burning of a Christmas tree by gunmen in the Syrian city of Hama is a sinister portent of what minorities might expect under the evolving situation in the country.

The dominant group in charge, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, has sent out messages reassuring religious and ethnic groups that they will be protected. It blamed “foreign fighters” for the tree burning, but can HTS be trusted? Its leader, Abu Mohammad al-Julani, has jettisoned his nom de guerre and his Kalashnikov rifle, preferring to be known by his real name of Ahmed al-Sharaa. Projecting his new image of moderation and respectability, he has donned a suit to receive visiting diplomats. The United States has recently scrapped a $10 million bounty on his head.

Is it being too hasty?  HTS is an Islamist group with roots in Al-Qaeda and has been designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the United States, United Kingdom, United Nations and European Union.

A BBC reporter asked al-Julani if Syria would become another Afghanistan for women, and he said there was no reason to ban women’s education. He did not specify if they would be segregated. When asked if he would ban alcohol, however, al-Julani hedged, saying it would not be up to him but to a committee of legal advisers. He was not asked about his jihadi past.

To understand what the future might lay in store for minorities, look no further than the treatment of Christians in Idlib province, which slipped into HTS’s control about 10 years ago. Properties were confiscated and religious rituals restricted, although there was more freedom in recent times, one Christian told the BBC.

The system has been plagued by corruption, nepotism and arbitrary rule and is policed by militias who are only answerable to themselves.

According to a report by the Atlantic Council published in 2016, the judicial system in Idlib “is akin to jungle law, in which the powerful use it to impose their rule on the others. The military factions use the judiciary to encroach on civilian affairs. Traditional Islamic concepts like sharia and ijtihad (freedom for judges to make new rulings not based on precedence) are exploited to eliminate armed groups’ enemies and reinforce the control of militants and their associates.”

Judgment in a case depends on whether you can influence the judge. “The law has turned into a weapon to settle scores, imposing the rule of military factions, and undermine civil institutions,” said the article. “The situation under Bashar al-Assad’s reign was not much better, the only difference is that extremist groups rely, at least theoretically, on Islam and sharia law to justify their arbitrary rule.”

So, what might happen to the minorities now? The Alawites, the ethnic group to which the Assad family belonged, are the most vulnerable to revenge attacks.

The Kurds are already in HTS’s sights, as their aspirations to self-determination are diametrically opposed to those of HTS’s Turkish patron.

Syria’s Christian community has dwindled from 11% to 2% of the population in the last 15 years. They could find themselves as subjugated dhimmis under sharia law.

Indeed, their fate could mirror that of the Jewish minority, whose tragic story has barely been told—until now.

A Jewish population of 30,000 in 1948 has declined to just three people. A new report by Justice for Jews from Arab Countries charts the extinction of this millennial-old Jewish community, which suffered decades of human-rights abuses, torture and dispossession. It puts a figure on their material losses at $10 billion in today’s prices. If taken together with the losses of Jews in nine other Arab countries, the total could run to hundreds of billions of dollars.

Not only have the Jews lost their property, they have lost their roots and their history. The region is the poorer for having lost its Jews.

The Jews’ plight might seem marginal in the bigger picture, given that 500,000 Syrians have died in the country’s brutal civil war. Now that Assad’s Syria has been revealed as a slaughterhouse, one could argue that minority rights are a luxury that only democracies can afford. But state abuse of its minorities did, and can still, degenerate into the abuse of everybody’s rights. The treatment of minorities is the litmus test of the health of a society.

It is too late to save the Jews, but the Christmas tree burning is a wake-up call. The global community must not just stand by: It should keep a close watch on the treatment of minorities, safeguard the Christians’ right to practice their religion and hold Syria’s new leaders to account for the slightest deviation.

[hicginewsagency]

Assad Flees to Moscow as Rebel Forces Seize Damascus.

Rebel fighters patrol the streets of Damascus on a military truck, marking a new chapter in the city’s turbulent history. Courtesy image. Former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has reportedly fled to Moscow, where he and his family are expected to receive asylum, according to Russian state media. Assad’s dramatic departure comes after the rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) swept into…

[head-post]

Ahmed al-Sharaa appointed transitional president of Syria amid major political overhaul

Ahmed al-Sharaa, the former leader of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), has been named Syria’s transitional president.

The announcement came after a meeting of rebel faction leaders on Wednesday, as confirmed by a military spokesperson. The spokesperson also revealed sweeping changes, including the dissolution of Syria’s parliament, the creation of an appointed legislative council, and the annulment of the 2012 constitution.

Additionally, Syria’s military and security agencies are set to be disbanded, with plans to establish new security institutions and a unified national army.

Al-Sharaa will also oversee a transitional government tasked with stabilising the war-torn nation. He stressed that the transitional government’s priorities included filling the power vacuum, ensuring civil peace, and rebuilding state institutions.

The transitional administration is slated to transfer power to a new government by March, though the specifics of this transition remain unclear. Earlier, al-Sharaa indicated that holding elections could take up to four years, whereas drafting a new constitution may require three.

Al-Sharaa headed the Islamist rebel group that spearheaded the military campaign to oust former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The collapse of the Assad administration has also left vast stockpiles of weapons and military equipment scattered across the country, some of which have been seized by rebel forces.

Meanwhile, negotiations with the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a Kurdish-led military coalition controlling a third of the country, have stalled. The SDF has demanded a degree of autonomy within the new national army, a proposal rejected by the transitional government. Tensions between the SDF and the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army continue to escalate in northern Syria, complicating efforts to unify the country.

Russian issues

The new Syrian government also demanded compensation from Russia during its first talks with the Kremlin delegation. However, the Syrian report on the talks with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov also states that “the dialogue highlighted Russia’s role in rebuilding trust with the Syrian people through concrete measures such as compensation, reconstruction and rehabilitation.”

The Syrian statement did not mention two key Russian military bases in Syria, control over which Moscow seeks to retain. Bogdanov told reporters that there was no progress on the issue and that further negotiations were needed.

Read more HERE

[mounadiloun]

La Syrie, et après?

La chute du régime syrien provisoirement conclue par le départ du président Bachar al-Assad vers une destination pour l’instant inconnue (Moscou semble-t-il), a étonné par sa rapidité. La faiblesse du régime n’est pas une nouveauté puisqu’il n’a dû sa survie dans la guerre intérieure qu’a connu le pays de 2011 à 2017 que grâce à la fidélité de l’essentiel de son armée et à l’intervention de ses…

[latestnews-now]

Discover the controversial journey of Ahmad al-Sharaa, known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani, the leader of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) who toppled Bashar al-Assad in Syria. From his early ties to al-Qaida to his transformation into a political leader, this video unpacks his impact on Syria's future. Stay tuned for more insights into global conflicts and their key players.

[euginemicah]

Syria says 14 interior ministry personnel were killed in ambush by al-Assad supporters

An overnight curfew was imposed by Syria’s ruling Hayat Tahrir al-Sham rebel group after 14 members of the Syria’s interior ministry were killed in what they described as an ambush by supporters of ousted President Bashar al-Assad. ADVERTISEMENTSyria’s new Interior Minister Mohammed Abdel Rahman says 14 “interior ministry personnel” were killed by what he described as the “remnants of the Assad…

[radioshiga]

EUA realizam reunião com líder do governo de transição na Síria

Damasco, Síria, 22 de dezembro de 2024 (Agência Reuters) – Diplomatas dos Estados Unidos se reuniram na última sexta-feira (20) com Abu Mohammed al-Golani, líder do grupo responsável pela transição governamental na Síria. O encontro aconteceu menos de duas semanas após a milícia comandada por Golani depor o regime do presidente Bashar al-Assad. A representante do Departamento de Estado dos EUA…

[sujooon]

Rebel fighters declared on Sunday that they had seized the Syrian capital of Damascus after government forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad were swiftly routed in just days. The claim, made by the militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), marks a potential turning point in Syria’s 13-year-long civil war.