Top diplomats from U.S., Arab League and Turkey discuss Syria’s transition

Syrian children play next to a destroyed residential building at Hanano neighbourhood in the city of Aleppo, Syria.
| Photo Credit: AP

Top diplomats from the United States, the Arab League and Turkey met in Jordan on Saturday to discuss how to assist Syria ’s transition after the fall of Bashar Assad’s government a week ago. No Syrian representatives attended.

The collapse of the Assad family’s more than half-century of rule has sparked new fears of instability in a region already shaken by the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and hostilities between Israel and the Lebanon-based Hezbollah despite a tenuous ceasefire.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said American officials have been in direct contact with the Syrian insurgent group that led the overthrow of Assad’s government, but the group continues to be designated a foreign terrorist organization by the United States and others.

The insurgent leader in an interview with Syrian TV didn’t mention contact with the U.S., but he warned Israel about the hundreds of airstrikes it has carried out in Syria in the past week.

The U.S. is also making a renewed push for a ceasefire in Gaza, where the war has plunged more than 2 million Palestinians into a severe humanitarian crisis.

Gunmen attacks Syrian insurgent group members

A Syrian war monitor and a citizen journalist say gunmen attacked members of a Syrian insurgent group in the country’s coastal region, killing or wounding 15 of them Saturday.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said loyalists to former President Bashar Assad killed and wounded members of the Failaq al-Sham group, which took part in the attacks that led to the overthrow of Assad a week ago.

The coastal region is home to many members of Assad’s minority Alawite sect.

Citizen journalist Taher al-Omar said Failaq al-Sham members were ambushed near the town of Jableh by “sectarian gunmen.” He said several were killed, without giving details.

Hezbollah leader says main supply line via Syria has been cut

The leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah militants says the fall of Bashar Assad in Syria has cut a main supply line for the group but it can find other ways to bring in weapons.

Hezbollah was a main backer of Assad and sent thousands of fighters to Syria over the past decade. And for decades, Hezbollah relied on Syria as a channel for weapons from the militant group’s main backer, Iran.

In his first public comments in the week since Assad’s fall, Hezbollah leader Naim Kassem in a televised speech on Saturday said Hezbollah has lost the military supply line through Syria but the new authority there might reinstate the route. Otherwise, he said, “we might find other ways.”

Kassem also said Hezbollah hopes the new authority in Syria will consider Israel an enemy.

U.S. officials have been in direct contact with the Syrian rebel group that ousted Assad, Blinken says

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken says American officials have been in direct contact with the Syrian rebel group that led the overthrow of President Bashar Assad’s government a week ago, but the group continues to be designated a foreign terrorist organization by the United States and others.

Blinken is the first U.S. official to publicly confirm contacts between the Biden administration and Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, which ousted Assad. Speaking at a news conference in Jordan, Blinken would not discuss details of the contacts but said it was important for the U.S. to convey messages to the group about its conduct and how it intends to govern in a transition period.

Turkey reopens its embassy in Syria

Turkey reopened its embassy in Syria on Saturday, becoming the first country to do so since the end of Bashar Assad’s rule last weekend. The Syrian insurgents who overthrew Assad had received vital help from Turkey.

The Turkish flag was raised above the compound in Damascus for the first time since diplomatic ties were cut in 2012. The embassy suspended operations 12 years ago due to insecurity during the Syrian civil war.

Several countries maintained diplomatic ties with Assad’s government during the 13-year conflict, while others reopened their diplomatic missions in recent years as they sought to normalize relations.