Syria – reside: Mass rallies set to have fun fall of Assad amid fears chemical weapons ‘may be smuggled abroad’ | EUROtoday

Mass rallies are set to happen throughout Syria on Friday to have fun the autumn of Bashar al-Assad’s brutal dictatorship and an finish to the 53-year Assad dynasty.

Syrian insurgent chief Abu Mohammad al-Golani has urged the general public to not hearth celebratory pictures, after celebrations in Raqqa turned lethal on Thursday when a person reportedly misplaced management of his machine gun, CNN reported.

In a video deal with, Mr Golani mentioned: “I invite them to take to the streets to express their joy without firing bullets and scaring people. After that, let’s build the country.”

Watch reside as Damascus residents pray on the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus on the primary Friday (13 December) after rebels ousted Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

Syrians are celebrating the demise of Assad’s authorities after 13 years of civil warfare sparked by the president’s violent crackdown on pro-democracy protesters following the Arab Spring.

A insurgent coalition took management of the capital Damascus in a lightning offensive in a single day on Sunday, 11 days after launching a significant operation.

Sir Keir Starmer has welcomed the tip of Assad’s “barbaric regime.”

Israeli defence minister Israel Katz has ordered troops to stay on Mount Hermon all through the winter, in line with a press release from his workplace on Friday.

“Due to what is happening in Syria – there is enormous security importance to our holding on to the peak of Mount Hermon,” the assertion mentioned.

The summit of Mount Hermon, located wthin the buffer zone between Syria and Israel, is the best permanently-manned UN place on this planet.

Israeli forces seized the buffer zone on Sunday after the autumn of Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

The funeral of Syrian activist Mazen al-Hamada, whose lifeless physique was discovered contained in the infamous Sednaya jail after the autumn of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, came about on Thursday.

Mr Hamada, who escaped Syria after months of torture and abuse – bodily, psychological and sexual – in Syrian prisons, sought Asylum within the Netherlands.

But upon returning to Syria in 2020, Mr Hamada disappeared. One going idea posed that Mr Hamad was lured again to Syria with the promise of different detainees being launched if he did so.

A logo of the brutality of Assad’s dictatorship, Mr Hamada is believed to have been executed days earlier than his physique was found on Monday.

Russia has established direct contact with the political committee of Syria’s Islamist insurgent group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the Interfax information company quoted Russian deputy overseas minister Mikhail Bogdanov as saying.

Mr Mogdanov advised reporters that Moscow aimed to take care of its army bases in Syria.

The minister mentioned contacts with HTS, essentially the most highly effective power within the nation after the overthrow of president Bashar al-Assad, had been “proceeding in constructive fashion”.

Mr Bogdanov mentioned Russia hoped to take care of its two bases in Syria – a naval base in Tartous and the Khmeimim Air Base close to the port metropolis of Latakia – to maintain up efforts towards worldwide terrorism.

“The bases are still there, where they were on Syrian territory. No other decisions have been made for the moment,” he mentioned.

Thousands of Syrians are stranded on the Masnaa border crossing with Lebanon, seeking to flee the nation in concern for his or her futures after Islamist insurgent teams ousted Bashar al-Assad’s brutal regime.

Minority teams in Syria, together with Christians and Alawites, are amongst these involved that the brand new Syria’s future is probably not tolerant of their communities, a lot of whom opposed the revolution in 2011 and the following 13-year civil warfare.

The Masnaa border level – the one operational crossing between Syria and Lebanon – has been inundated with enormous queues of Syrians trying to journey in each instructions, with many hoping to return to a freed homeland after years of displacement in Lebanon.

Secretary of state Antony Blinken throughout his Middle East go to mentioned efforts to find Austin Tice, one other US citizen who was kidnapped in Syria over a decade in the past, had been persevering with.

“No update on Austin Tice, except to say that every single day, we are working to find him and to bring him home, making sure that the word is out to everyone that this is a priority for the United States,” Mr Blinken mentioned.

Tice, a former US Marine and journalist, was 31 when he was kidnapped in August 2012 whereas reporting in Damascus.

Mr Blinken’s assertion comes after an American citizen was present in Syria yesterday.

“In terms of (the) American citizen who was found just today, I can’t give you any details on exactly what’s going to happen, except to say that we’re working to bring him home, to bring him out of Syria,” Mr Blinken advised reporters in Jordan.

Austria’s compelled deportation of Syrian refugees again to their authentic homeland will solely occur when it’s protected, the overseas minister mentioned.

Chancellor Karl Nehammer known as for a reassessment of safety in Syria to allow the return of refugees to their residence nation. Similar to many centre-right events in Europe, the ruling People’s Party (OVP) is underneath strain from the far-right.

Asked when the returns may occur, Alexander Schallenberg advised Reuters that “when it is possible, we will do it immediately”. He added: “I don’t know (when). Can you see into the future?”

Austria was the primary of greater than a dozen European nations to announce a suspension on processing Syrians’ asylum purposes.

Pope Francis presided over his weekly common viewers on Wednesday alongside a Palestinian-crafted Nativity scene that was lacking its eyebrow-raising signature factor: a keffiyeh-draped manger holding the toddler Jesus.

The picket Nativity scene within the Vatican’s principal viewers corridor had generated headlines when it was unveiled December 7 due to the presence of the keffiyeh, the black-and-white checkered scarf that has develop into a potent image of the Palestinian trigger.

Pope Francis had prayed earlier than the creche briefly that day when he greeted the artists and donors accountable for all of the Vatican’s Christmas decorations this 12 months, which embrace varied depictions of the manger in a Bethlehem steady the place Jesus is alleged to have been born.