Syria updates: G7 leaders to discuss transition period

Syrian dictator Bashar Assad told almost no one of his planned flight from Syria to Moscow  as rebels took over Damascus, according to a report from Reuters that draws on numerous interviews with people close to him.

According to one army commander interviewed by Reuters under condition of anonymity, Assad told a meeting of army and security chiefs hours before he left that Russia was going to provide military support and that Syrian ground forces should continue to fight against the rebel offensive.

He also told his presidential office manager on Saturday he was going home after work but instead went to the airport to take a plane out of the country, an aide told Reuters.

Assad didn't even inform his younger brother, Maher, commander of the Army's elite 4th Armored Division, about his
plan to flee, according to three aides. Maher himself flew by helicopter to Iraq and then to Russia, one of the people said.

The former Syrian leader flew to Russia's Hmeimim air base in the coastal city of Latakia in the early hours of Sunday, December 8, and from there on to the Russian capital, where his wife, Asma, and their three children were waiting for him, said several aides and an official. The plane had its transponder turned off to avoid being located.

Later that day, the rebels declared that Damascus was taken, putting an end to Assad's 24-year rule.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said it was "imperative" to prevent the so-called "Islamic State" group (IS) from exploiting the situation in Syria to regain dominance, in comments echoed by his Turkish counterpart.

"Our country worked very hard and gave a lot over many years to ensure the elimination of the territorial caliphate of ISIS (IS), to ensure that that threat doesn't rear its head again," Blinken said at a joint press conference in Ankara.

"And it's imperative that we keep at those efforts."

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said in response that Turkey's "priorities include ensuring stability in Syria as soon as possible, preventing terrorism from gaining ground, and preventing ISIS and the PKK from dominating there."

PKK is the acronym for the Kurdistan Workers' Party, which has fought a decades-long insurgency against Turkey and is classified a terrorist organization by Ankara, the United States and the European Union, among others.

IS captured large swathes of Syrian and Iraqi territory in a lightning offensive in 2014, calling the areas it controlled a "caliphate."

It however lost the Middle Eastern territories it held by 2019 after years of fighting against American, Iraqi, and Kurdish forces, and has since carried out relatively minor acts of insurgency from remote hideouts.

The leader of the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group behind the ouster of Bashar Assad last week has urged people to celebrate the fact in the streets.

"I would like to congratulate the great Syrian people on the victory of the blessed revolution, and I call on them to go to the streets to express their joy," Abu Mohammed al-Golani, who is now using his real name, Ahmed al-Sharaa, said in a video message.

Rebel forces led by HTS took control of Damascus last week after a surprise lightning offensive lasting less than two weeks. 

On Tuesday, they appointed an interim prime minister to govern the country until March.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz has ordered the military to "prepare to remain" in the UN-patrolled buffer zone near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights during the winter months.

"Due to the situation in Syria, it is of critical security importance to maintain our presence at the summit of Mount Hermon, and everything must be done to ensure the [army's] readiness on-site to enable the fighters to stay there despite the challenging weather conditions," Katz's spokesman said in a statement on Friday.

The Israeli military moved troops into the buffer zone between the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and the rest of Syria on December 8, the day rebels in Syria ousted dictator Bashar Assad.

At the time, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the move as temporary "until a suitable arrangement is found."

The move has been criticized internationally.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has told his Egyptian counterpart that China is "deeply concerned" about current developments in Syria.

"The two sides are deeply concerned about the current situation in Syria and call for respect for Syria's sovereignty," Wang told journalists after talks with Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty.

Wang also said that efforts should be made to prevent "terrorist and extremist forces from taking advantage of the chaos."
    
"We agreed that we should promote peace and negotiations in order to achieve peace and stability in the Middle East," Wang said at the joint press conference with Abdelatty.

Leaders of the Group of Seven (G7) advanced economies said that they are ready to support the transition to an "inclusive and non-sectarian" government in Syria.

In a statement, they called for human rights to be protected, including those of women and minorities. The statement also stressed "the importance of holding the Assad regime accountable for its crimes."

It said the G7 would "work with and fully support" any Syrian government that committed to upholding these principles.

The G7 leaders will meet virtually at 1430 GMT on Friday.

US journalist and historian Anne Applebaum has told DW that the sudden fall of Syrian dictator Bashar Assad "shows to everybody who imagines that dictatorships are somehow stronger and more stable ... how fragile they are."

"The moment that people sense weakness, the moment they feel that it's over, then it falls apart very fast. And I think that we should remember that when we're dealing withIran, dealing with Russia, dealing with North Korea, dealing with any of these regimes all over the world," she said.

Applebaum also pointed out that alliances between autocratic regimes are inherently unstable.

"There is no shared ideology between Russia and Iran and Syria and Venezuela. They're rather linked by a perception of common interest, whether it's a common interest in the narcotics trade, or common interest in disruption, or common interest in maintaining themselves in power, or common interest in laundering money — that's why they work together," she said.

"The moment that one of them perceives that the other is too weak or ineffective or it can't help anymore, that's when these bonds will break."

Applebaum is a staff writer for The Atlantic magazine and has just released the book "Autocrats Inc."   

A federal grand jury in the US city of Los Angeles has filed torture charges against a former Syrian government official who headed the Damascus Central Prison from 2005 to 2008, the US Justice Department said on Thursday.

The official, Samir Ousman al-Sheikh, 72, is alleged to have ordered workers at the prison to inflict both physical and mental pain on prisoners at the jail, commonly known as Adra Prison, sometimes taking part in such incidents himself, the department said.

Al-Sheikh was detained in July at Los Angeles International Airport as he was about to board a flight to Beirut, Lebanon, on charges of immigration fraud.

Those charges relate to allegations that he denied having ever persecuted anyone in Syria while applying for a US visa and citizenship.  

Al-Sheikh is believed to have worked for the Syrian police and the state security apparatus, and was appointed governor of the province of Deir el-Zour by now ousted President Bashar Assad in 2011.

tj/zc (Reuters, AFP, AP, dpa)