DAMASCUS: Syrians awakened to a hopeful if uncertain future, after rebels seized the capital Damascus and President Bashar al-Assad fled to Russia, following 13 years of civil war and more than 50 years of his family’s brutal rule.
The lightning advance of a militia alliance spearheaded by Hayat al-Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a former al-Qaeda affiliate, marked one of the biggest turning points for the Middle East in generations. Assad’s fall wiped out a bastion from which Iran and Russia exercised influence across the Arab world.
Moscow gave asylum to Assad and his family, Russian media reported and Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia’s ambassador to international organizations in Vienna, said.
International governments welcomed the end of the Assads’ autocratic government, as they sought to take stock of a new-look Middle East.
US President Joe Biden said Syria is in a period of risk and uncertainty, and it is the first time in years that neither Russia, Iran nor the Hezbollah militant organisation held an influential role there.
HTS is still designated as a terrorist group by the U.S., Turkey and the United Nations, although it has spent years trying to soften its image to reassure international governments and minority groups within Syria.
Assad’s overthrow limits Iran’s ability to spread weapons to its allies and could cost Russia its Mediterranean naval base. It could also allow millions of refugees scattered for more than a decade in camps across Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan to finally return home.
The rebels face a monumental task of rebuilding and running a country after a war that left hundreds of thousands dead, cities pounded to dust and an economy hollowed by global sanctions. Syria will need billions of dollars in aid.
“A new history, my brothers, is being written in the entire region after this great victory,” said Ahmed al-Sharaa, better known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani, the head of HTS.
Speaking to a huge crowd on Sunday at Damascus’ Umayyad Mosque, a place of enormous religious significance, Golani said with hard work Syria would be “a beacon for the Islamic nation.”
Assad’s prime minister, Mohammed Jalali, told media that he would be willing to meet with Golani and was ready to provide documents and assistance for the transfer of power. He said he had no answer to the fate of the Syrian army.
“It is a question left to the brothers who will take over the management of the country’s affairs, what concerns us today is the continuation of services for Syrians,” he said.
The Assad police state was known as one of the harshest in the Middle East with hundreds of thousands of political prisoners held in horrifying conditions.
On Sunday, elated but often confused inmates poured out of jails. Reunited families wept in joy. Newly freed prisoners were filmed running through the Damascus streets holding up their hands to show how many years they had been in prison.
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