English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For December 10/2024
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news

The Bulletin's Link on the lccc Site
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/aaaanewsfor2024/english.December10.24.htm

News Bulletin Achieves Since 2006
Click Here to enter the LCCC Arabic/English news bulletins Achieves since 2006 

Click On The Below Link To Join Eliasbejjaninews whatsapp group
https://chat.whatsapp.com/FPF0N7lE5S484LNaSm0MjW
اضغط على الرابط في أعلى للإنضمام لكروب Eliasbejjaninews whatsapp group

Elias Bejjani/Click on the below link to subscribe to my youtube channel
الياس بجاني/اضغط على الرابط في أسفل للإشتراك في موقعي ع اليوتيوب
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAOOSioLh1GE3C1hp63Camw

Bible Quotations For today
Among those who are born of women there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptizer; yet he who is least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than he
Matthew 11/11-15: Most certainly I tell you, among those who are born of women there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptizer; yet he who is least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than he. From the days of John the Baptizer until now, the Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force. For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. If you are willing to receive it, this is Elijah, who is to come. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on December 09-10/2024
Elias Bejjani/Text & Video: The Fall of Assad’s Regime: A Faith Certainty and a Foreshadowing for the Iranian Mullahs' Dictatorship
And the Tyrant Has Fallen/Etienne Sakr - (Abu Arz)/December 09, 2024
After 33 Years in Assad’s Prison, Suhail al-Hamwi from Chekka Returns Home
Lebanese released from Assad jail after 33 years given hero’s welcome
Ceasefire Implementation Committee Holds Its First Meeting in Lebanon
Lebanese Celebrate Syrian Regime’s Downfall
Qusayr: Hezbollah’s Syrian ‘Fortress’ Collapses without Resistance
Hezbollah condemns Israeli strikes on Syria, says stands by its people
Independent Parliamentary Bloc in Meerab Shares 'Main Concern' on Electing a President
Security Forces Take Action at Lebanese-Syrian Border
S. Gemayel Gives Government 15 Days to Act on Lebanese Detainees in Syria
The Lebanese Killed by the Assad Regime for Their Sovereigntist Beliefs/Shirine Abdallah/This is Beirut/December 09/2024
Lebanon and Syria: Seizing a Historic Moment/Michel Touma/This is Beirut/December 09/2024
Hezbollah Shifts Tactics, Targeting Media and Opinion Leaders Instead of Military/
Michael al-Andary/This is Beirut/December 09/2024
A ‘Second’ Hezbollah?/Hazem Saghieh/Asharq Al Awsat/December 09/2024

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on December 09-10/2024
UN Rights Chief Urges Accountability in Syria, Sees Huge Chance for Fair Transition
Global Chemical Arms Watchdog Warns Syria about Unaccounted Weapons
Syria rebel leader discusses ‘transfer of power’ after Assad’s fall
Israeli PM says won’t stop Gaza war ‘now’
Syrians Search for Loved Ones While Rejoicing in Assad's Fall
HTS, overthrown Syrian PM task Mohammed al-Bashir with forming transitional government
US charges two former Syrian officials under Assad charged with war crimes
US says terror designation doesn’t bar talks with Syrian rebel group
Syria rebels say found dozens of tortured bodies in hospital near Damascus
Rebels take north Syria town from US-backed group, Turkish source says
IDF Paratroopers secure northern border as Syrian revolution escalates
With Assad Ousted, a New Era Starts in Syria as the World Watches
Opposition Forces in Syria Announce a General Amnesty for All Conscripted SoldiersHow Syria Opposition’s Stars Aligned for Assad’s Ouster
Kremlin Says to Discuss Russian Bases with Syria’s New Rulers
Collapse of Syria’s Assad Is a Blow to Iran’s ‘Axis of Resistance’
Israel says it will destroy Syria's heavy strategic weaponry
Israel 'more optimistic' on prospects of Gaza hostage deal
How the loss of its Mediterranean naval base in Syria would weaken Russia as a global power
Drone fired from Yemen explodes in Yavne, no sirens sound
Hamas submits names of hostages who would be included in hostage deal - report
Northern resident was in contact with Iranian agents, carried out operations – Shin Bet, police
'The time is now!': Smotrich calls for seizure of Gaza Strip, action in West Bank
Tragedy in Gaza: Three Givati Brigade soldiers killed by anti-tank fire in northern Gaza
Court rejects ministers’ request to delay Netanyahu trial

Titles For The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources on December 09-10/2024
Why Islam Is Inherently Genocidal/Raymond Ibrahim/The Stream/December 09/2024
Syria After The Revolution, Now Comes The Hard Part/Amb. Alberto M. Fernandez/MEMRI Daily Brief No. 684/December 09/2024
Why Arabs and Muslims 'Betrayed' Hamas/Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone Institute/December 09/2024
What’s at stake for America in Syria after Bashar al-Assad/David Adesnik/ New York Post/December 09/2024
Reporter's Notebook: Rebuilding North will take five years/Yonah Jeremy Bob/Jerusalem Post/December 09/2024
Why Israel must recognize Turkey as powerbroker in Syria/Dean Shmuel Elmas/Globes/TNT/December 09/2024
Assad’s downfall and fate decided in Damascus/Ghassan Charbel/Asharq Al-Awsat/December 09, 2024
Syrians must be allowed to shape their own future/Lara Setrakian/Arab News/December 09, 2024

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on December 09-10/2024
Elias Bejjani/Text & Video: The Fall of Assad’s Regime: A Faith Certainty and a Foreshadowing for the Iranian Mullahs' Dictatorship
Elias Bejjani/December 08/ 2024
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2024/12/137796/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNrwroj6KuY&t=861s
The fall of the tyrannical Baathist Assad regime in Syria, after 55 years of oppressive rule, marks the definitive end of an era rooted in serving the forces of evil, represented symbolically by Lucifer, the prince of darkness. This regime’s collapse is a testament to divine justice and a vivid reminder of the biblical principle that all oppressive and malevolent systems inevitably meet their demise. The same fate undoubtedly awaits the Iranian Mullahs' dictatorship, another regime entrenched in terrorism and injustice.
Assad's downfall is not just a political event but a divine reckoning, foreseen in scripture and faith. The Bible reminds us repeatedly that God, in His infinite wisdom and justice, allows time for repentance but never neglects to bring judgment upon evil. As it is written, "Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God" (1 Corinthians 6:19). Assad's regime, like all oppressive systems, desecrated this sacred principle by violating the dignity and humanity of countless individuals in Syria, Lebanon, and beyond.
Biblical Parallels and Divine Justice
The fate of the Assad regime is mirrored in biblical prophecies:
"Woe to you, destroyer, you who have not been destroyed; woe to you, betrayer, you who have not been betrayed! When you stop destroying, you will be destroyed; when you stop betraying, you will be betrayed" (Isaiah 33:1). These words echo the inevitable justice that awaits all oppressors. Assad's crimes against humanity, his betrayal of his people, and his relentless destruction could only lead to his shameful fall.
"Whatever you ask the Father in My name, He will give you" (John 16:23). The prayers of the oppressed, the cries of the tortured, and the faith of the just have been answered. This is a divine intervention, not merely a human effort, ensuring that no injustice remains hidden, and no tyrant escapes judgment.
A Message to the Iranian Mullahs
The collapse of Assad's regime serves as a harbinger for the Iranian Mullahs. Just as the Baathist dictatorship fell despite decades of ruthless control, the Mullahs' regime, founded on oppression, terrorism, and the distortion of religion, will face a similar destiny. History and faith assure us that regimes built on lies and injustice are doomed to fail. The same divine justice that dismantled Assad's regime will undoubtedly dismantle the Mullahs’ grip on Iran and their regional proxies.
The Iranian regime has brought untold suffering, not only to its people but to nations across the Middle East through its sponsorship of terrorism and its hegemonic ambitions. The Bible's teachings emphasize that "there is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known" (Luke 12:2). This assurance reinforces our belief that the Mullahs' crimes will not go unpunished.
Faith in Action
The fall of Assad's regime is a call to action for all who value justice and human dignity. It is a moment to reaffirm faith in divine justice and to actively oppose oppressive regimes that violate human rights. With faith, prayer, and perseverance, the downfall of the Iranian Mullahs will follow. As Christians and believers in the principles of justice, we are called to stand firm in the truth, saying, "Yes, yes, or no, no," and rejecting all forms of complicity or apathy in the face of evil.
The Road Ahead
We pray and work for a Middle East free of tyranny and terror. Assad’s fall is a milestone, but it is not the end of the journey. The next chapter begins with the dismantling of the Iranian regime, whose policies have perpetuated suffering in Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, and beyond. Let us remain steadfast, united in faith and purpose, until the forces of darkness are vanquished and the light of justice prevails.
In the words of scripture: "The righteous will rejoice when they see vengeance done; they will wash their feet in the blood of the wicked" (Psalm 58:10). This is not a call for violence but a prophetic assurance that justice, both divine and earthly, will prevail.

And the Tyrant Has Fallen
Etienne Sakr - (Abu Arz)/December 09, 2024
(Free translation & summary from Arabic by Elias Bejjani, editor & Publisher of the LCCC website)
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2024/12/137832/
The oppressive edifice constructed by the Assad regime through decades of tyranny, fear, and despotism has finally collapsed. The tyrant who ruled with iron and fire, subjecting his people to fear, hunger, and subjugation while believing in the immortality of his throne, has fallen. He failed to grasp a fundamental truth: the will of the people cannot be crushed, and the justice of history spares no oppressor.
Today, we witness the fall of Bashar al-Assad and his disgraceful flight from the palace where he orchestrated countless acts of murder, displacement, and destruction. This marks the definitive end of a regime that suffocated the dreams of Syrians, tore apart their national fabric, and displaced millions of their children. The determination of the Syrian people proved mightier than his warplanes, and the resilience of the revolutionaries outlasted his relentless barrage of explosive barrels.
A Legacy of Crime in Syria and Lebanon
The fall of Assad is not merely the collapse of a tyrant but the obliteration of an empire of terror inherited from his father. This empire was built on the bodies of thousands of Syrian and Lebanese victims. The regime became infamous for its brutality, employing death prisons like Tadmur, Saydnaya, and Mezze, which overflowed with tens of thousands of innocent detainees.
Furthermore, the regime turned Syria into a hub for narcotics, such as Captagon, and a launchpad for terrorism in alliance with the Axis of Evil led by Iran's mullahs. Its cruelty extended beyond borders, orchestrating the assassination of numerous prominent Lebanese figures in a futile bid to silence every voice of freedom.
Guardianship Over Lebanon
Assad’s reign of terror did not stop at Syria's borders. For decades, the regime imposed its suffocating guardianship over Lebanon, dismantling its sovereignty, plundering its resources, and sowing sectarian strife to secure its dominance. For thirty years, Lebanon endured Assad's oppression, its people suffering under the weight of imposed pain and humiliation. Yet, their will remained unbroken. In 2005, the Lebanese rose in unity, expelling the Syrian occupiers in a historic uprising for independence.
A New Journey for the Two Peoples
Today, the Syrian revolutionaries have completed what the Lebanese began by overthrowing the tyrant who manipulated the destinies of both nations. Syrians now stand at the dawn of a new era, one cleansed of tyranny's filth. Sovereignty has returned to its rightful owners, and the dignity of a proud nation has been restored. The Syrian people are preparing to rebuild their homeland, guided by justice, freedom, and human dignity, putting an end to decades of despotism and reclaiming Syria's rightful place among the community of nations.
Long live the Syrian revolution!
Long live Lebanon!

After 33 Years in Assad’s Prison, Suhail al-Hamwi from Chekka Returns Home
This is Beirut/December 09/2024
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2024/12/137825/
With cheers, roses and music, Chekka, a small town in northern Lebanon, welcomed its liberated son Suhail al-Hamwi after 33 years of imprisonment in one of the monstrous Syrian prisons, in Latakia. “Thirty-three years… I paid a lot, my wife paid a lot, and my son, who was 10 months old when I was arrested, paid a lot too,” Hamwi said in an interview with LBC. Speaking to another media outlet, he revealed that he learned of his charge 20 years after his arrest: “belonging to the Lebanese Forces.”He was arrested in 1992 in front of his house. In another moving story, Lebanese citizen Claude Hanna Leishaa Khoury, from the town of Deir al-Ahmar, was identified in a Syrian hospital after being detained in the prisons of the Syrian regime for nearly 40 years. Another case that took Lebanese by surprise was that of Ali Hassan Ali, whose photo was widely circulated on social media. His brother confirmed that the man in the image “looked like him” and that he had been detained for 40 years in Hama Prison. Ali may soon return to his family and to life once again. Under growing pressure from opposition groups and families of the disappeared and detained in Syrian prisons, caretaker Justice Minister Henri Khoury, tasked by Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, convened a meeting at the Justice Palace with members of the Committee of Detainees in Syrian Prisons, chaired by Beirut Public Prosecutor Judge Ziad Abu Haidar. Attendees included Judge George Rizk and Brigadier General Ali Taha, who discussed the evolving situation in Syria and potential paths to justice. They decided that “the security forces, including the Army Command, Internal Security Forces, General Security and State Security, will coordinate moving forward to gather any relevant information that could contribute to the file on detainees in Syrian prisons.” This includes verifying the names of those released from various prisons over the past two days and investigating the presence of other Lebanese in Assad’s prisons. During the meeting, Brigadier General Taha was tasked with investigating the circumstances surrounding the detainees’ release to ensure proper follow-up and handling in accordance with procedures. The issue of detainees is being closely monitoring by the prime minister and the minister of justice, who is set to hold additional meetings in the coming days with members of the Missing Persons Committee.

Lebanese released from Assad jail after 33 years given hero’s welcome
AFP/December 10, 2024
BEIRUT, Lebanon: In the northern Lebanon town of Chekka, Suheil Hamawi received a heartfelt welcome as he returned home Monday after languishing for 33 years in deposed Syrian president Bashar Assad’s jails. A day earlier, as Assad fled the country, Islamist-led rebels captured the Syrian capital and released thousands of prisoners from his notorious jail system. “Today I feel like I can breathe again. The best thing in this world is freedom,” Hamawi, 61, told AFP, visibly tearing up from joy. Hamawi’s release gave renewed hope to hundreds of families in Lebanon who have demanded to know of the fate of thousands of prisoners believed to have disappeared at the hands of Syrian troops who entered Lebanon shortly after the outbreak of the 1975-1990 civil war. Hamawi said he was moved from one prison to another, even spending time in the notorious Saydnaya facility where he wrote poetry, before ending up in a jail in the coastal Latakia region. His love for his wife Josephine Homsi and for his son fueled him during his time in prison. “I was far away but she was my source of strength, the other was my son,” he said. Homsi was overjoyed to be reunited with her husband.“Thirty-three years ago, they came to this house, knocked on our door one evening and told my husband: we need to talk to you. Then he disappeared for 11 years,” Homsi said. After she managed to track him down, she spent more than a decade visiting him in Syrian prisons, she said, hoping they would one day be reunited. Rights groups say thousands of men, women and children disappeared at the hands of Hafez Assad, Bashar’s late father, during Lebanon’s civil war. Hamawi’s twin Nicolas told AFP seeing his long lost brother had given him a new sense of purpose. “Today, we’ve been reborn,” he said, adding the pair now felt “truly like twins” again. “My brother is more than a hero. He endured life in prison, and today he has returned to live in freedom like he has been longing to for 33 years,” he said. For three decades, Syria was a dominant military and political force in Lebanon, before withdrawing its troops in 2005 under international pressure after the assassination of Lebanese ex-prime minister Rafic Hariri. “I waited a lot, I suffered a lot, but I achieved freedom,” Hamawi said.

Ceasefire Implementation Committee Holds Its First Meeting in Lebanon
Asharq Al Awsat/December 09/2024
Representatives from a five-member committee tasked with enforcing a ceasefire that stopped the war between Hezbollah and Israel on Monday held their first meeting in Naqoura, southern Lebanon. The group, comprising the United States, France, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), the Lebanese army and the Israeli army met to coordinate efforts supporting the Nov. 27 ceasefire, the US Embassy in Beirut said. Hosted by UNIFIL and chaired by the US with France assisting, the meeting focused on advancing the implementation of the US-brokered ceasefire and UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which aims to maintain stability along the Lebanon-Israel border, the embassy said. “This mechanism will meet regularly and coordinate closely to advance implementation of the ceasefire agreement and UNSCR 1701,” the US Embassy said. The US military announced in late November that Maj. Gen. Jasper Jeffers and envoy Amos Hochstein would co-chair the committee temporarily, with Hochstein serving until a permanent civilian co-chair is appointed.

Lebanese Celebrate Syrian Regime’s Downfall
Asharq Al Awsat/December 09/2024
Lebanese and Syrian people in Lebanon rejoiced on Sunday at the news of the ouster of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad with celebrations sweeping the majority of the country, most notably in Sunni regions. Jubilant people took to the streets of the predominantly Sunni neighborhood of Tarik al-Jdide in Beirut and northern city of Tripoli. Similar scenes of joy erupted in the northern region of Akkar and Beirut’s Hamra district. Songs of the Syrian revolution were played and people rushed to buy sweets to celebrate and handing them out in the streets. In Tripoli’s Al-Nour Square, locals flocked to chant revolution slogans and hoisted Syrian revolution flags. Gunshots were also fired in the air in celebration. Similar scenes were reported in the Khaldeh region south of Beirut.
Christian regions also erupted in celebration.
“We have been awaiting this moment of joy. We never thought we were so close to it,” said Miriam Majed Jubeili, describing her happiness at Assad’s ouster. Miriam’s father was imprisoned for six years in Syria’s notorious Sednaya prison.
She told Asharq Al-Awsat that she shared the jubilation of all of the detainees who were freed by the opposition from Syrian prisons on Sunday. “Every image of a released detainee reminded me of when I was a child who awaited the release of her father from captivity. I felt that I avenged my father who experienced the oppression of this regime like so many others,” she added. She wished that her father, who passed away three years ago, could have been alive to witness the downfall of the regime. The demise of regime revived hopes of Lebanese families whose loved ones have been held in Syrian jails for several years with no news throughout that time of whether they were still alive or not. Hassan said his father was jailed when he was just five years old. “He has been held in regime jails for 40 years. I will head to Damascus to search for him. Perhaps some of the detainees met him and know something about him,” he said. Nadim Gemayel, MP and son of the assassinated president-elect Bashir Gemayel, hugs a man, as they celebrate after Syrian opposition fighters announced that they have ousted Syria's Bashar al-Assad, in Beirut, Lebanon December 8, 2024. (Reuters)
In Akkar, people rejoiced by storming the office of the Baath Party. Videos circulated on social media showed youths tearing down a poster of Assad. Political parties joined in the celebrations. Parties opposed to the regime in Lebanon held a small gathering in Downtown Beirut to remember the Lebanese figures who are widely believed to have been assassinated by Damascus. In the Chouf region, the Druze heartland in Lebanon, people flocked to slain Druze leader Kamal Jumblatt’s grave to pay their respects. The regime is widely accused of assassinating him.
The Kataeb party called for a gathering in Bikfaya where a march will be held towards the graves of its founder Pierre Gemayel and slain President Bashir Gemayel and minister Pierre Gemayel, both believed to be assassinated by the regime.

Qusayr: Hezbollah’s Syrian ‘Fortress’ Collapses without Resistance
Beirut: Youssef Diab/Asharq Al Awsat/December 09/2024
As the Syrian opposition swept through the Homs province last week, hours before they ousted President Bashar al-Assad, focus shifted to the Qusayr region, the Lebanese Hezbollah party’s stronghold in Syria. Observers expected a fierce battle between the opposition and Hezbollah over the region, but instead the regime forces abandoned their posts, leaving the party fighters to fend off the advancing forces on their own. Instead of putting up a fight, the fighters retreated to Lebanon and Qusayr was seized by the opposition. The residents of Qusayr have waited 11 years to learn what happened to their homes from which they were forced out of by Hezbollah and the regime. Entire villages in the region have been razed to the ground. A source from the Syrian opposition told Asharq Al-Awsat that the regime and Hezbollah effectively surrendered Qusayr. “The fighters who advanced on the region hail from Qusayr. The operation to seize the region didn’t take more than two hours,” it added, saying no one put up a fight because the majority of the Hezbollah fighters who were deployed there either fled to Lebanon or surrendered to the revolutionaries. Little news has emerged about the thousands of Hezbollah fighters who had taken up base in Qusayr and its countryside. The region was the backbone for Hezbollah’s weapons’ smuggling to Lebanon. In recordings circulated on social media, Hezbollah fighters could be heard saying that the Damascus regime has “betrayed and abandoned them on the field.”Hezbollah leader Sheikh Naim Qassem had declared on Friday that the party “would not allow the fall of Syria in the hands of armed factions again,” adding that it was ready to support and defend it. The opposition source revealed that hundreds of Hezbollah fighters had indeed headed to Qusayr to defend it as the anti-regime fighters advanced in Homs, but they were forced to flee. “The influence of Hezbollah and all of Iran’s militias in Syria is over,” declared the source. After Assad’s downfall, thousands of Syrians from Homs and Qusayr who were displaced to Lebanon, headed back to their hometowns to check on their properties. A source close to Hezbollah told Asharq Al-Awsat that the party “had fought alongside the Syrian state and people.”“If what happened falls in the favor the Syrian people, then so be it, that is their choice. The party was never at war with or the enemy of the Syrian people. Rather, it was fighting terrorist and takfiri groups that were terrorizing the Syrians,” it charged.

Hezbollah condemns Israeli strikes on Syria, says stands by its people
AFP/December 10, 2024
BEIRUT, Lebanon: Lebanon’s Hezbollah group condemned on Monday increased Israeli strikes on Syria and said it stood by the country’s people, in its first comment since rebels overthrew the group’s ally former President Bashar Assad.
Hezbollah lambasted Israel for “occupying more land in the Golan Heights” where it moved troops into a buffer zone after Assad fell, and for “striking and destroying the defensive capabilities of the Syrian state.” “While we affirm our support for Syria and its people, we stress the necessity to preserve Syria’s unity,” it added.

Independent Parliamentary Bloc in Meerab Shares 'Main Concern' on Electing a President
This is Beirut/December 09/2024
The Independent Parliamentary Bloc (the former Aounist deputies) MPs, Elias Bou Saab, Simon Abi Ramia, Ibrahim Kanaan and Alain Aoun, met in Meerab with the leader of the Lebanese Forces, Samir Geagea, as well as other LF MPs, Melhem Riachi, Fadi Karam and Ziad Hawat. After the meeting, Kanaan emphasized that the meeting with the Strong Republic Bloc, “which is one of the most prominent blocs in terms of size and role within the Parliament, comes at a time of cooperation to try and find a way out of the presidential deadlock.” He underlined the importance of having a president after two years of vacancy, adding, “the process of institutional decay in Lebanon is very dangerous, and Lebanon’s absence from the international stage is even more dangerous.”

Security Forces Take Action at Lebanese-Syrian Border
This is Beirut/December 09/2024
Caretaker Interior Minister Judge Bassam Mawlawi instructed the General Directorate of General Security to take immediate measures at the Syrian-Lebanese border to prevent Syrians from attempting to enter Lebanon illegally and to promptly increase the number of personnel. Following up on the situation at the Masnaa border crossing, he also tasked on Monday the General Directorate of Internal Security Forces with intervening, dispatching reinforcements from the Mobile Forces Unit to secure the crossing, establish checkpoints and maintain control.
For its part, the General Directorate of General Security explained that “due to the absence of Syrian General Security personnel at the Jdeidet Yabous border center, a large number of Syrians moved toward the Masnaa border crossing.”
“Some attempted to forcibly enter without complying with Lebanese General Security procedures,” they added in a statement. To that effect, the statement affirmed that “General Security, in coordination with the Army and Internal Security Forces, managed to control the situation, returning them to Syrian territory and allowing entry only to those meeting the required conditions.”On Sunday, the Lebanese Army highlighted its ongoing efforts to maintain security and stability at the border, announcing “heightened surveillance measures” and “reinforcement of units tasked with monitoring and securing the northern and eastern borders.”“Amid rapidly evolving developments and the sensitive circumstances the region is experiencing, the Army Command is monitoring the situation along the borders and internally to prevent any threat to civil peace. Simultaneously, units deployed across Lebanon are implementing exceptional measures to maintain security and safeguard civil peace,” it affirmed. Later on Sunday evening, retired General Khalil Helou raised concerns about possible Syrian military movements into Lebanon. Speaking on Sar al-Waet show on MTV, he questioned, “Did Syrian army personnel flee to Lebanon?”, holding the state “accountable” if so. Helou pointed out that “The Fourth Division was at the border in al-Qussayr, but it has completely disappeared,” expressing fears that they might have come to Lebanon,” adding, “Do we know where they are?”

S. Gemayel Gives Government 15 Days to Act on Lebanese Detainees in Syria
This is Beirut/December 09/2024
Samy Gemayel, leader of the Kataeb Party, called on the Lebanese government on Monday to take immediate action to address the fate of Lebanese citizens detained and forcibly disappeared in Syria, describing it as a pressing humanitarian issue. In a letter to Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, Gemayel posed several critical questions about the matter and urged the government to provide answers within 15 days. He highlighted the urgency of resolving the issue, noting that 622 Lebanese citizens remain imprisoned in Syrian jails, many of whom have been detained for over three decades under the regime of Bashar al-Assad. “This is a humanitarian priority that cannot be delayed,” Gemayel stressed, urging the cabinet to act quickly to ensure justice and accountability. The issue has taken on renewed significance following the announcement on December 5 regarding the release of hundreds of prisoners from Syrian jails, which reportedly included Lebanese citizens. Gemayel called on the government to investigate the identities of these individuals and work to facilitate their safe return to Lebanon. He also emphasized the importance of collaborating with international organizations, including the International Committee of the Red Cross, to expedite the process. “The government must not remain passive. It must take every possible step to uncover the truth about these detainees and reunite them with their families,” Gemayel stated.

The Lebanese Killed by the Assad Regime for Their Sovereigntist Beliefs
Shirine Abdallah/This is Beirut/December 09/2024
With the fall of Bashar al-Assad, marking the end of 54 years of the brutal dictatorship of the Assad family, driven by a thirst for blood, money and power, let us remember the Lebanese who were murdered for their sovereigntist beliefs and patriotism since 1970 by the Syrian regime. During that year, Hafez al-Assad took power. He never stopped eyeing Lebanon, which he viewed with contempt as an extension of Syria, falsely using his famous slogan, "one people in two countries."
Kamal Joumblatt
On March 16, 1977, the Druze leader and founder of the Progressive Socialist Party (PSP), Kamal Joumblatt, was shot dead at the age of 60 in his car near the village of Baakline, in the Shouf mountains. The main suspects are members of the Baath Party and the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP).
Salim Lawzi
A well-known Lebanese journalist and editor, a free-spirited writer, and the founder and editor-in-chief of the weekly magazine Al-Hawadeth, Lawzi, 58, was kidnapped on February 25, 1980. Brutally tortured, his body was found on March 4, 1980. His right hand had been burned with acid. Syrian intelligence services are suspected of having ordered the assassination.
Riad Taha
Taha was an editor and the president of the Lebanese Publishers Association for 13 years. He was shot dead at the age of 53 on July 23, 1980, by a machine gun in front of the Continental Hotel in Beirut after being pursued through the city. His attackers fled the scene. The assassination was not investigated. Riad Taha was a critic of the Syrian occupation.
Bashir Gemayel
The elected president of Lebanon, Bashir Gemayel, 34, commander of the Lebanese Forces, the armed wing of the Kataeb Party, was elected president of Lebanon in 1982. He was assassinated while holding a meeting with his staff by a bomb that destroyed the building housing the party’s headquarters. The attack was planned and carried out by the SSNP. The perpetrator, Habib Chartouni, a member of this pro-Syrian party, was released from prison when the Syrian forces entered Lebanon in 1990.
Sheikh Sobhi el-Saleh
The 60-year-old cleric had received numerous threats due to his sovereigntist positions and his support for a unified Lebanon with all its communities. He was assassinated on the morning of October 7, 1986.
Hassan Khaled
The Mufti of the Republic, 68, was assassinated on May 16, 1989, in a car bomb attack while driving through the western part of Beirut. The bomb was planted in his vehicle. Sheikh Hassan Khaled was a moderate Muslim, advocating for coexistence and harmony among Lebanon's diverse communities.
Nazem el-Qadri
A Sunni MP for 38 years, Nazem el-Qadri was assassinated on September 22, 1989. At the time of his assassination, Lebanese MPs were preparing for negotiations in Taif, Saudi Arabia, aimed at reaching an agreement to end the war in Lebanon and set a deadline for the withdrawal of Syrian forces. Qadri had just criticized the Syrian presence. His assassination was a message from Syria to other Lebanese MPs, warning them not to push for a Syrian withdrawal.
René Moawad
President René Moawad, 64, who had been in office for just 17 days, was assassinated in a car bomb attack while heading back from the Independence Day celebrations in West Beirut on November 22, 1989. Moawad had sought to establish a national unity government to end the Lebanese Civil War, which was then in its 14th year.
Dany Chamoun
The son of former president Camille Chamoun, 56-year-old Dany Chamoun was assassinated at his home in Baabda on October 21, 1989, by armed men who disguised themselves as Lebanese Army soldiers. His wife and two sons were also killed. Chamoun was a staunch opponent of the government of President Elias Hraoui, who was backed by Syria.
Rafic Hariri
Prime Minister Rafic Hariri, 60, was assassinated on February 14, 2005, when a ton of explosives placed in a parked truck detonated as his convoy passed by. Hariri had become a fierce critic of the Syrian occupation of Lebanon. His assassination triggered the Cedar Revolution, which led to the withdrawal of Syrian troops after 29 years of occupation.
Samir Kassir
A columnist for the daily Al-Nahar and an influential writer, Samir Kassir, 45, was a staunch critic of Syria. He was assassinated on June 2, 2005, in a bomb explosion placed under his seat in his car.
Georges Haoui
Former leader of the Lebanese Communist Party and once a supporter of Palestinian causes, Georges Haoui, 67, was killed on June 21, 2005, by a one-kilogram bomb that exploded under the passenger seat of his car. Haoui had become a fierce critic of Syria and its intelligence services.
Gebran Tueni
A member of Parliament and the publisher of the Lebanese daily newspaper Al-Nahar, Gebran Tueni, 48, was a staunch critic of Syria. He gained international attention in March 2000 when he published an open letter on the front page of his newspaper, addressed to Bashar al-Assad, calling for the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon. Tueni was killed on December 12, 2005, in a car bomb attack in Mkalles.
Pierre Gemayel
Minister of Industry and opponent of Syrian influence in Lebanon, Pierre Gemayel, 34, was shot dead in his car on October 21, 2006. Gemayel was the son of former President Amine Gemayel (whose brother, Bashir, was assassinated in 1982 just days before becoming president) and the grandson of Pierre Gemayel, founder of the Kataeb Party.
Walid Eido
A member of Parliament and of the Future Movement led by Saad Hariri, Walid Eido, 65, was assassinated in a car bomb attack in Raouche on June 13, 2007. Three days earlier, the United Nations Security Council had passed a resolution calling for the creation of an international tribunal to prosecute those responsible for the assassination of Rafic Hariri. Eido was a vocal critic of Syria.
Antoine Ghanem
A Christian MP and member of the anti-Syrian March 14 coalition, 64-year-old Antoine Ghanem was assassinated in a car bomb attack on September 19, 2007. A member of the Kataeb party, Ghanem had fled Lebanon due to fears for his life and had returned for just two days when he was killed.
François el-Hage
François el-Hage, 54, director of operations at the army command and one of the key commanders in the Battle of Nahr el-Bared against the Fateh el-Islam Islamist group, was killed in a car bomb attack on December 12, 2007, in Baabda. His name had been circulating as a candidate for the position of army commander-in-chief.
Wissam Eid
At 32 years old, this officer of the Internal Security Forces was responsible for the technical aspects of investigations into attacks since 2004, including that of former Prime Minister Rafic Hariri. His work greatly contributed to the progress of the investigation by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, which was handling the Hariri case. On January 25, 2008, at 10 AM, he was killed in a car bomb attack in Furn el-Chebbak.
Wissam el-Hassan
The head of the Internal Security Forces Intelligence Branch and an opponent of the Damascus regime, 47-year-old Wissam el-Hassan was killed in a car bomb attack on October 19, 2012, due to his role in the investigation into the assassination of Rafic Hariri, attributed to Hezbollah.
Mohammad Chatah
Appointed Minister of Finance in July 2008 and foreign policy adviser to Prime Minister Saad Hariri from November 2009 to January 2011, 62-year-old Mohammad Chatah was killed in a bombing on December 27 in downtown Beirut. Just moments before his death, Chatah had accused Hezbollah of "pressuring for powers similar to those Syria held in Lebanon for 15 years over security and foreign policy."

Lebanon and Syria: Seizing a Historic Moment
Michel Touma/This is Beirut/December 09/2024
A chapter of bloodshed and tyranny in Lebanon’s modern history has drawn to a close — a chapter defined by half a century of occupation and killing tyranny. However, today heralds a beacon of hope: an opportunity to seize this historic juncture and flip another equally somber page — the nearly century-long narrative of tumultuous and conflicted relations between Lebanon and Syria. Since the proclamation of Greater Lebanon in 1920, bilateral relations quickly became fraught, driven by the repeated attempts of successive regimes in Damascus to absorb the emerging Lebanese state. These efforts sought to impose political hegemony, pressuring Lebanon to align with their dirigiste economic policies and adopt their societal vision.
Georges Naccashe captured this existential struggle with striking clarity in an editorial dated March 9, 1950. Addressing Syrian Prime Minister Khaled al-Azem during a period of heightened economic discord between the two nations, he wrote: “Where you envision ‘walls,’ ‘barriers,’ and ‘moats,’ our history proclaims ‘open spaces,’ ‘free horizons,’ ‘exchange, and movement’ (…). If not for liberty first and foremost, Lebanon would be nothing (…). We embody a universal coalition of ideas and riches from various peoples (…). Do not ask us to wall ourselves in with you.”
The divide that Georges Naccashe denounced seventy-five years ago must now be definitively overcome, spurred by the irresistible popular revolution that, in just ten days, ended over fifty years of bloody dictatorship and the relentless dominance the Assad family sought to impose on Lebanon. In this context, the Syrian rebel leadership sent a message to the Lebanese, just forty-eight hours before the fall of Damascus, advocating for bilateral relations based on “mutual respect for the rights of peoples, free from any interference in each other’s affairs.” The message noted that the Lebanese had “suffered as much as the Syrian people from the misdeeds of the Assad regime” and called for amicable relations between “the two peoples and the two states.” This final point carries symbolic weight, as it starkly contrasts with the Assad regime’s insistence on the idea of “one people in two states.”
Until proven otherwise, this Syrian revolution demonstrates a commitment to respecting the particularities and sovereignty of each country. If this principle holds, it could usher in a new chapter in bilateral relations, dispelling the fears expressed by Georges Naccashe in his editorial. With the dramatic fall of the Assad regime and the emergence of a new political class in Damascus, the Lebanese population should finally be freed from the belligerent behaviors similar to those that, for half a century, were manifested through murderous, destabilizing and destructive actions.
More importantly, in the wake of the recent popular revolution, there should be no room for outdated policies and practices, such as: serial political assassinations, as in 2005 during the Cedar Revolution; the imposition of repressive, lawless security powers; continued support for militias acting as mini-states defying the national government; stockpiling vast quantities of explosives in residential neighborhoods for suppression; witch hunts similar to those in the 1990s and 2000s targeting dissenting voices; unjust political trials orchestrated by the Lebanese-Syrian security apparatus to neutralize the Lebanese Forces; prolonged imprisonment of political opponents like Samir Geagea, who refused to yield to Assad’s dictates; and large-scale smuggling operations that siphoned off public funds and undermined the sectarian banking system.
With the fall of the Assad regime, the Lebanese — like the Syrians — should finally be able to move past the legacy of over fifty years of Ba'athist rule. This turning point could pave the way for establishing, for the first time, balanced, rational and healthy relations between Beirut and Damascus, built on mutual interests and genuine understanding. In this way, Lebanon could reap significant benefits from the historic impact of the current Syrian revolution.

Hezbollah Shifts Tactics, Targeting Media and Opinion Leaders Instead of Military
Michael al-Andary/This is Beirut/December 09/2024
Hezbollah appears to be pivoting its strategy from direct military confrontation with Israel to targeting journalists and opinion leaders in Lebanon. This shift was highlighted recently by the assault on journalist Daoud Rammal, who was attacked by suspected Hezbollah members while visiting his parent's grave in Doueir, located in the Nabatiyeh region. In the aftermath of this incident, Rammal declared the attack a fundamental issue of “freedom and the protection of dissenting opinion,” firmly stating his rejection of the imposed Wilayat al-Faqih system. “I will not tolerate anyone trying to enforce this ideology on us,” he asserted. Charles Jabbour, head of the Lebanese Forces Media and Communications Department, emphasized this worrying trend in an interview with This is Beirut, comparing Hezbollah's tactics to those employed by oppressive regimes, such as Syria. “Hezbollah seeks to intimidate intellectuals and opinion leaders,” he claimed, warning that the fear generated by such methods leads to self-censorship among the public.
Jabbour underscored that this was not a new strategy for Hezbollah, hinting at a pattern that is likely to continue as the group navigates its political landscape. The role of media in conflict is multifaceted and crucial, serving as a powerful tool for shaping public perception and advancing political agendas. Historical examples reveal how media coverage can influence public sentiment during wars, such as the Vietnam War, where extensive reporting swayed public opinion against the conflict, while the Gulf War saw a focus on military advancements that garnered support for military actions.
In Lebanon, the recent escalation in tensions with Israel has led to warfare that has devastated parts of the country. Warnings from Israel that Lebanon could become “the second Gaza” in response to Hezbollah's rocket attacks have unfolded into significant violence, resulting in widespread displacement among Shiite communities in southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley. Public sentiment has shifted dramatically, with increasing opposition to Hezbollah's actions amid Lebanon's ongoing crises. Prominent figures in civil society have condemned the group's military tactics, advocating for unity rather than conflict.
Despite suffering substantial casualties—over 4,000 according to Reuters—more than ten times the losses sustained during the month-long July 2006 war, Hezbollah's support from previously sympathetic journalists appears to be waning. This deterioration comes at a time when the Moumanaa axis, ideologically aligned with Iran, is facing considerable challenges. The fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria could further jeopardize Hezbollah's logistical support, as the Islamic Republic's access to weapon supply routes has been hindered. As Syrian rebels have effectively blocked pathways to Damascus, Hezbollah's attention seems to have shifted away from engaging Israeli military targets, focusing instead on silencing dissent among Lebanese intellectuals.

A ‘Second’ Hezbollah?
Hazem Saghieh/Asharq Al Awsat/December 09/2024
The future of Hezbollah is unclear, as the divergent signals suggest that the direction it will take has yet to be decided.
Secretary-General Sheikh Naeem Qassem and Hezbollah parliamentary deputies have begun to place greater emphasis on national political issues in their statements, stressing the need to elect a president and the party’s commitment to the Taif Agreement.
We all know that after having long rejected the idea, the party agreed to separate Lebanon from Gaza and to support Palestine "through other means" - a concession without which there would have been no ceasefire. Hezbollah also agreed to disarm, though it is publicly claiming to interpret the disarmament to encompass only the region south of the Litani River and no parts of the country to its north. The fact is that these concessions deprive Hezbollah of its raison d'etre as a "resistance" force, or at the very least, they oblige it to reinvent its raison d'etre theoretically and in practice.
In betting on Hezbollah’s transformation from a militant party to a political party, it is difficult to ignore the grave hardships that the Shiite community, the party's immediate base, has endured because of the "support war" and the destruction left by Israel’s crimes. Although signs to this effect have yet to emerge, that suffering could pressure Hezbollah to give up its destructive military role.
Such pressure could be compounded by the limited financial capabilities of both the party and Iran, which were evident from the modest compensations that Sheikh Qassem announced. Moreover, this issue also creates the need for a faction that speaks to social and economic pains that has hit the party’s community particularly hard though they are also felt by all the Lebanese. There are now opportunities - albeit born of tragedy, as is often the case in our region - that allow for envisioning a shift through which the party comes to represent an immense segment of the country’s population and advocates for its interests. Besides the war itself, with the experiences it encompassed and the political repercussions it will probably give rise to, there could be a shift in Iran itself. It too may be compelled to reconsider and perhaps abandon its old policies in favor of greater focus on domestic issues. We have just seen the war in Syria cut off Tehran's land route to Lebanon, as the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) took control of the Syrian-Iraqi border.
Another reason to expect a serious change is its new leadership. The man who is now at the head of the party does not have the previous leader’s charisma, which is not needed in a country seeking normalcy and to avoid being associated with disaster and mass pledges of allegiance.
On the other hand, however, there are also factors pulling in the opposite direction. The setbacks Iran has suffered in Syria, after those of Lebanon, will not necessarily push the country to abandon its regional role. In Qassem’s latest speech, he stressed that the party was still "standing by Syria," which has been interpreted to mean that it is ready to support the regime militarily once again, though the actual military impact of its intervention this time is another matter.
On top of that, in that same speech, Qassem insisted that the party’s disarmament would be confined to the regions south of the Litani River, as did all of the statements on the matter by those who speak for Hezbollah and the Resistance Axis. This highly contentious issue could lead to domestic strife and even spark clashes beyond Lebanon. The party also continues to withhold the truth from its audience and espouse the same old boastful rhetoric about victories. This might be partly explained as an effort to improve its negotiating position and enlarge its share of the sectarian regime in the future, but it surely contributes to aggravating tensions and hindering the transition to social stability. If it takes the worst choices available to it, the party will exploit the gaps, deficiencies, and funding issues complicating the deployment of the army and multinational peacekeeping forces in the south, and the obstacles those issues could engender. After all, the shift that is hoped for will not be easy. A change in substance, not just form, is required, as is a transformation of the party’s culture. In 1992, the party took a step that was seen to reflect "Lebanonization" and "change," accepting to take part in the electoral process. However, Qassem, when he was deputy secretary-general, later explained that this stance was taken because of a Fatwa issued by Iran’s Supreme Leader Khamenei. The party did not take long to prove that talk of its "Lebanonization" was a farce. In addition to continuing to build its arsenal, it embroiled the country in two brief wars with the Israelis in the second half of the 1990s. These conflicts were followed by the crimes committed in 2005, the 2006 war, its 2008 incursion, and then its intervention in Syria. That was before many other tragedies that include the "support war," the worst and most violent of them all. For these reasons, "change" will not be serious if it mirrors the party’s so-called "Lebanonization" in the 90s, which saw party members enter parliament with legislation the last thing on their minds. Genuine change entrails transforming into a political party and disbanding its militia.
Overall, this "second Hezbollah" remains largely obscure, and it is made more obscure by the likelihood that the next phase will also be very obscure, not just in Lebanon but throughout the Levant.

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on December 09-10/2024
UN Rights Chief Urges Accountability in Syria, Sees Huge Chance for Fair Transition
Asharq Al Awsat/December 09/2024
The UN human rights chief called on Monday for accountability for perpetrators of abuse under toppled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, but said there was a "huge chance" for an inclusive political transition, and early signs were promising. Syrians woke on Monday to a hopeful if uncertain future, after opposition forces seized the capital Damascus and Assad fled to Russia, following 13 years of civil war and more than 50 years of brutal Assad family rule. "Any political transition must ensure accountability for perpetrators of serious violations, and guarantee that those responsible are held to account," UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk told a Geneva press briefing, calling for meticulous preservation of evidence. Asked specifically whether that included the ousted president, he said: "What needs to happen in Syria itself is to build up a domestic legal system that allows for fair trials, in relation to all those where there are serious grounds to believe that they have committed atrocity crimes. And that goes also for the former president of Syria and whoever was in senior leadership positions."Turk said there was a "huge chance" for inclusive dialogue on the political transition in Syria's new era. "I hope that within this current environment ... there will be this inclusive, very inclusive dialogue," he said. "There is a huge chance for this to happen. And what we have seen initially is indeed cooperation."

Global Chemical Arms Watchdog Warns Syria about Unaccounted Weapons
Asharq Al Awsat/December 09/2024
The global chemical weapons watchdog said Monday that it reminded Syria of its obligations to comply with rules to safeguard certain toxic chemicals after opposition forces entered the capital Damascus over the weekend and overthrew Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said in a statement it has been “monitoring closely the recent developments in Syria, with special attention to the status of its chemical weapons-related sites and other locations of interest.”Syria’s Prime Minister Mohammed Ghazi Jalali said Monday that most cabinet ministers are still working from offices in Damascus but the status of a stockpile of chemical weapons that Assad has been accused of using against civilians is unclear. The OPCW has been in contact with the Syrian embassy in The Hague, where the organization is based. Neighboring Israel has said it is carrying out airstrikes on suspected chemical weapons sites and long-range rockets to keep them from falling into the hands of extremists. Israel has also seized a buffer zone inside Syria after Syrian troops withdrew. Assad’s regime has denied using chemical weapons but the OPCW has found evidence indicating their repeated use by Syria in the country’s grinding civil war. Earlier this year, the organization found the ISIS group had used mustard gas against the town of Marea. The Kremlin said Sunday that Russia had granted political asylum to Assad, a decision made by President Vladimir Putin. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov declined to comment on Assad’s specific whereabouts and said Putin was not planning to meet with him. Streams of refugees crossed back into Syria from neighboring countries, hoping for a more peaceful future. Jalali, who remained in his post after Assad and most of his top officials vanished over the weekend, said the government is coordinating with the opposition, and that he is ready to meet opposition leader Ahmad al-Sharaa, formerly known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani, who made a triumphal appearance at a famed Damascus mosque on Sunday.

Syria rebel leader discusses ‘transfer of power’ after Assad’s fall
AFP/December 10, 2024
DAMASCUS: Syria’s Islamist rebel leader on Monday began discussions on transferring power, a day after his opposition alliance dramatically unseated president Bashar Assad following decades of brutal rule. Assad fled Syria as the Islamist-led rebels swept into the capital, bringing a spectacular end on Sunday to five decades of brutal rule by his clan. He oversaw a crackdown on a democracy movement that erupted in 2011, sparking a war that killed 500,000 people and forced half the country to flee their homes, millions of them finding refuge abroad.
Rebel leader Abu Mohammed Al-Jolani, now using his real name Ahmed Al-Sharaa, met with Prime Minister Mohammed Al-Jalali “to coordinate a transfer of power that guarantees the provision of services” to Syria’s people, said a statement posted on the rebels’ Telegram channels. At the core of the system of rule that Assad inherited from his father Hafez was a brutal complex of prisons and detention centers used to eliminate dissent by those suspected of stepping out of the ruling Baath party’s line.
Thousands of Syrians gathered on Monday outside a jail synonymous with the worst atrocities of Assad’s rule to search for relatives, many of whom have spent years in the Saydnaya facility outside Damascus, AFP correspondents said.
Rescuers from the Syrian White Helmets group had earlier said they were looking for potential secret doors or basements in Saydnaya.
“I ran like crazy” to get to the prison, said Aida Taha, 65, searching for her brother who was arrested in 2012. “But I found out that some of the prisoners were still in the basements. There are three or four floors underground.”
Crowds of freed prisoners wandered the streets of Damascus distinguishable by the marks of their ordeal: maimed by torture, weakened by illness and emaciated by hunger. While Syria had been at war for over 13 years, the government’s collapse came in a matter of days in a lightning offensive led by the Islamist Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS).
In central Damascus on Monday, despite all the uncertainty over the future, the joy was palpable.
“It’s indescribable. We never thought this nightmare would end. We are reborn,” Rim Ramadan, 49, a civil servant at the finance ministry, told AFP. “We were afraid for 55 years of speaking, even at home. We used to say the walls had ears,” Ramadan said, as people honked car horns and rebels fired their guns into the air. Syria’s parliament, formerly pro-Assad like the prime minister, said it supports “the will of the people to build a new Syria toward a better future governed by law and justice.”The Baath party said it will support “a transitional phase in Syria aimed at defending the unity of the country.”Syrian state television’s logo on the Telegram messaging app now displays the rebel flag. During the offensive launched on November 27, rebels met little resistance as they wrested city after city from Assad’s control, opening the gates of prisons along the way and freeing thousands, many of them held on political charges. Some, like Fadwa Mahmoud, whose husband and son are missing, posted calls for help on social media. “Where are you, Maher and Abdel Aziz? it’s time for me to hear your news. Oh God, please come back,” wrote Mahmoud, herself a former detainee. Rooted in Syria’s branch of Al-Qaeda, HTS is proscribed by Western governments as a terrorist group but has sought to soften its image in recent years. Germany and France said in a statement they were ready to cooperate with Syria’s new leadership “on the basis of fundamental human rights and the protection of ethnic and religious minorities.”
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, in Saudi Arabia on Monday, said HTS must reject “terrorism and violence” before Britain can engage with the group designated “terrorist” by Britain. Washington’s top diplomat, Antony Blinken, said the United States — with hundreds of troops in Syria as part of a coalition against Daesh group terrorists — is determined to prevent Daesh re-establishing safe havens there. “We have a clear interest in doing what we can to avoid the fragmentation of Syria, mass migrations from Syria and, of course, the export of terrorism and extremism,” Blinken said.The United Nations said that whoever ends up in power in Syria must hold the Assad regime to account. But how Assad might face justice remains unclear, especially after the Kremlin refused on Monday to confirm reports by Russian news agencies that he had fled to Moscow.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, however, said that if Russia granted asylum to Assad and his family, this would be a decision taken by President Vladimir Putin. The Syrian embassy in Moscow raised the opposition’s flag, and the Kremlin said it would discuss the status of its bases in Syria with the new authorities. Russia played an instrumental role in keeping Assad in power, directly intervening in the war starting in 2015 and providing air cover to the army during the rebellion. Israel, which borders Syria, sent troops into a buffer zone on the east of the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights after Assad’s fall, in what Foreign Minister Gideon Saar described as a “limited and temporary step” for “security reasons.”The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor reported more than 100 Israeli air strikes to “destroy the former regime’s military capabilities.” These were against weapons depots, boats from the Assad government’s navy, and a research center that Western countries suspected of having links to chemical weapons production, the Observatory said. Lebanon’s Hezbollah condemned the strikes late Monday, despite having been allied to Assad, and lambasted Israel for “occupying more land in the Golan Heights.”In northern Syria, a Turkish drone strike on a Kurdish-held area killed 11 civilians, six of them children, according to the Britain-based Observatory.

Israeli PM says won’t stop Gaza war ‘now’
AFP/December 09, 2024
JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday he would not stop the war in Gaza “now,” with renewed efforts toward a ceasefire underway. Speaking at a press conference in Jerusalem 14 months into the war against Hamas, he said “if we end the war now, Hamas will return, recover, rebuild and attack us again — and that is what we do not want to go back to.”Netanyahu reiterated that he had set the goal of “the annihilation of Hamas, the elimination of its military and administrative capabilities” to prevent future attacks but said that the objective was not yet complete. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on October 23 that Israel had “managed to dismantle Hamas’s military capacity” and eliminated its senior leadership. With those successes, he said, it was time to “get the hostages home and bring the war to an end with an understanding of what will follow.”In recent days, there had been signs that months of failed ceasefire and hostage release negotiations might be revived and achieve a breakthrough. Qatar, a main mediator, said on Saturday there was new “momentum” for negotiations created by the election of Donald Trump in the United States. A source close to the Hamas delegation said at the same time that Turkiye as well as Egypt and Qatar had been “making commendable efforts to stop the war,” and a new round of talks could begin soon. On Sunday, the prime minister met with the families of hostages held in Gaza and said that Israel’s wars on Hezbollah and Hamas would facilitate negotiations for their release. Protesters, including relatives of the hostages, have repeatedly called for a deal to free the captives and accused him of prolonging the war. The war in Gaza was sparked by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack which resulted in the deaths of 1,208 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official data. During the attack, militants also kidnapped 251 hostages, 96 of whom remain in Gaza, including 34 who the military says are dead. Israel’s retaliatory offensive in Gaza has killed at least 44,758 people, mostly civilians, according to data from the Hamas-run health ministry that is considered reliable by the UN.

Syrians Search for Loved Ones While Rejoicing in Assad's Fall
Asharq Al Awsat/December 09/2024
Syrian rescuers searched a jail synonymous with the worst atrocities of ousted president Bashar al-Assad's rule, as people in the capital flocked to a central square Monday to celebrate their country's freedom. Assad fled the country as opposition factions swept into the capital, bringing to a spectacular end on Sunday five decades of brutal rule by his clan over a country ravaged by one of the deadliest wars of the century, AFP reported. He oversaw a crackdown on a democracy movement that erupted in 2011, sparking a war that killed 500,000 people and forced half the country to flee their homes. At the core of the system of rule that Assad inherited from his father Hafez was a brutal complex of prisons and detention centres used to eliminate dissent by jailing those suspected of stepping out of the ruling Baath party's line.
On Monday, rescuers from the Syrian White Helmets said they were searching for secret doors or basements in Saydnaya prison, looking for any detainees who might be trapped. "We are working with all our energy to reach a new hope, and we must be prepared for the worst," the organisation said in a statement. While Syria has been at war for 13 years, the government's collapse ended up coming in a matter of days, with a lightning offensive launched by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). Rooted in Syria's branch of Al-Qaeda, HTS is proscribed by Western governments as a terrorist group. While it remains to be seen how HTS operates now that Assad is gone, it has sought to moderate its image and to assure Syria's many religious minorities that they need not fear. In central Damascus on Monday, despite all the uncertainties for the future, the atmosphere was filled with joy. "It's indescribable, we never thought this nightmare would end, we are reborn," 49-year-old Rim Ramadan, a civil servant at the finance ministry, told AFP. "We were afraid for 55 years of speaking, even at home, we used to say the walls had ears," Ramadan said, as people honked their car horns and fighters fired their guns into the air. "We feel like we're living a dream," she added.
'Historic opportunity'
During the offensive launched on November 27, opposition factions wrested city after city from Assad's control, opening the gates of prisons along the way and freeing thousands of people, many of them held on political charges. Social media groups were alight with Syrians sharing images of detainees reportedly brought out from the dungeons, in a collective effort to reunite families with their loved ones, some of whom had been missing for years. Others, like Fadwa Mahmoud, whose husband and son are missing, posted calls for help finding their loved ones.
"Where are you, Maher and Abdel Aziz, it's time for me to hear your news, oh God, please come back, let my joy become complete," wrote Mahmoud, herself a former detainee. US President Joe Biden said Assad should be "held accountable" as he called his downfall "a historic opportunity" for the people of Syria. "The fall of the regime is a fundamental act of justice," he said. But he also cautioned that hardline groups within the victorious opposition alliance would face scrutiny. "Some of the opposition groups that took down Assad have their own grim record of terrorism and human right abuses," Biden said. The United States has taken note of recent statements by the opposition suggesting they were adopting a more moderate posture, but Biden said: "We will assess not just their words, but their actions."Amnesty International also called for perpetrators of rights violations to face justice, with its chief Agnes Callamard urging the forces that ousted Assad to "break free from the violence of the past". "Any political transition must ensure accountability for perpetrators of serious violations and guarantee that those responsible are held to account," UN rights chief Volker Turk said on Monday.
Where is Assad?
How Assad might face justice remains unclear, especially after Russia refused on Monday to confirm reports by Russian news agencies that he had fled to Moscow. The Syrian embassy in Moscow raised the flag of the opposition, and the Kremlin said it would discuss the status of its bases in Syria with the new authorities. Russia played an instrumental role in keeping Assad in power, directly intervening in the war starting in 2015 and providing air cover to the army on the ground as it sought to crush the rebellion. Iran, another key ally of Assad, said it expected its "friendly" ties with Syria to continue, with its foreign minister saying the ousted president "never asked" for Tehran's help against the offensive. Türkiye, historically a backer of the opposition, called for an "inclusive" new government in Syria, as the sheer unpredictability of the situation began to settle in. "It is not just Assad's regime falling, it is also the question of what comes in its place?" said Aron Lund, a specialist at the Century International think tank. While Syria's war began with a crackdown on grassroots democracy protests, it morphed over time and drew in extremists and foreign powers backing opposing sides. Israel, which borders Syria, sent troops into a buffer zone after Assad's fall, in what Foreign Minister Gideon Saar described as a "limited and temporary step". A Syria war monitor said Monday that Israel also carried out overnight strikes on Syrian military positions and depots in several parts of the country. And in northern Syria, a Turkish drone strike on a Kurdish-held area killed 11 civilians, six of them children, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor.

HTS, overthrown Syrian PM task Mohammed al-Bashir with forming transitional government
Jerusalem Post/December 09/2024
Al-Bashir has served as Prime Minister of the Syrian Salvation Government since January 2024, having been elected on a platform of e-government and automation of government services. Syrian Islamist opposition group Hayat Tahrir al-Shams (HTS) and officials from the now-overthrown Assadist government appointed Mohammed al-Bashir to form a transitional government, Arab media sources reported on Monday. Bashir was appointed after a meeting between Ahmad al-Sharaa, whose nom de guerre is Abu Muhammed al-Julani, and former Prime Minister under the Assad regime, Mohammad al-Jalali. So far, only HTS has recognized Bashir's new position. Bashir has been serving as the fifth Prime Minister of the Syrian Salvation Government (SSG) since January, which has been governing the HTS-controlled Idlib province, according to rebel media. HTS was the primary group involved in the blitz offensive, which led to the eventual collapse of the Assad regime. It was one of several groups that seized control of Damascus on Sunday, and Julani has emerged as the primary figure amongst rebel groups.
Who is Mohammad al-Bashir?
Bashir was born in 1983 in the area of Jabal Zawiya in Idlib province, according to his CV published by the SSG.He graduated from Aleppo University in 2007 with a bachelor's in electrical engineering. He graduated from Idlib University with a degree in Sharia and Law in 2021. He has received several other certificates in English and consulting. Assadist troops massacred at least 100 people in Jabal Zawiya in 2011, with rebel groups claiming the number was significantly higher. Bashir has served in various roles throughout the SSG; he was minister of development and humanitarian affairs from 2022 to 2023 before joining the Shura Council, the SSG's parliament, before finally being selected as Prime Minister with absolute majority in the council in January 2024. According to Al Araby Al Jadeed, his campaign focused on e-government and automation of government services. His time in government saw a relaxation in real estate fees, planning regulations, and the expansion of Idlib City's zoning laws. Members of the Shura Council explained to the Syrian opposition paper Enab Baladi the process through which the PM is elected. The council was composed of 77 members who were drawn from "all segments of Syrian society (residents of the north, displaced people, unions, tribes, activists, and media professionals)," according to the member. More than ten council members must nominate a candidate, and if there is more than one candidate, they must win the confidence of two-thirds of the council, after which they have 30 days to form a government approved by the council. The only requirements for nomination and ministerial position were being Syrian, married to a Syrian, not holding any other nationality, and having to have a “revolutionary character” with a revolutionary history before January 1, 2015. They must also possess at least a university degree and live within the Syrian territories.

US charges two former Syrian officials under Assad charged with war crimes
Reuters/December 10, 2024
WASHINGTON: A US indictment unsealed on Monday charged two high-ranking Syrian officials under ousted President Bashar Assad with war crimes, the US Justice Department said in a statement. The indictment, which was unsealed in the Northern District of Illinois, charged the former Syrian intelligence officials with engaging in a conspiracy to commit cruel and inhuman treatment of civilian detainees, including US citizens, during the course of the Syrian civil war.

US says terror designation doesn’t bar talks with Syrian rebel group
AP/December 10, 2024
WASHINGTON: The State Department said Monday it is not actively reviewing the “foreign terrorist organization” designation of the main Syrian rebel group that overthrew Bashar Assad’s government this weekend. But, it said such designations are constantly under review, and that even while it’s in place, the label does not bar US officials from speaking with the group. “There is no specific review related to what happened” over the weekend, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters. “That said, we are always reviewing. Based on their actions, there could be a change in our sanctions posture, but we have nothing today.”He said a review could be initiated if Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, known as HTS, takes steps to reverse the reasons for its designation. That would be based entirely on its actions, he said. The designation imposes numerous sanctions against those targeted, including a ban on the provision of “material support” to such groups, although Miller said that would not necessarily prevent discussions between its members and US officials. HTS will be an “important component” in what transpires in Syria and the US needs to “engage with them, appropriately, and with US interests in mind,” said a senior administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. Miller cited the case of the Trump administration negotiating with the Taliban over the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, but later conceded that the Taliban has never been designated in the same way. Instead, the Taliban was listed as a “specially designated terrorist organization,” a label that comes with less stringent sanctions. Nevertheless, Miller said US officials “do have the ability, when it is in our interest, legally to communicate with a designated terrorist organization.”Meanwhile, President Joe Biden and Jordan’s King Abdullah II spoke by phone about the rapidly evolving situation in Syria and joint efforts to keep the Daesh militant group from exploiting the situation, according to the White House. In their call, Biden and the Jordanian monarch also discussed the dozens of US airstrikes conducted on Sunday targeting Daesh leaders and fighters in the Syrian desert as well as ongoing efforts to reach a ceasefire and hostage deal in Gaza.
The call came as Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs John Bass and Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs Barbara Leaf were in the region holding consultations with key partners. They are in Amman, Jordan, on Monday and were in Doha, Qatar, over the weekend, the State Department said. More than a million Syrian refugees have flooded into neighboring Jordan since the civil war ignited in 2011, and officials in Amman are hoping to avoid another refugee crisis following the fall of Assad’s government. “The President emphasized the support of the United States for the stability of Jordan and Jordan’s central role in maintaining stability and de-escalating tensions throughout the Middle East region,” the White House said in a statement. Separately, the State Department said the US had arranged with local groups to secure the shuttered US Embassy compound in Damascus, which suspended operations in 2012 and had been until recently under the protection of the Czech Embassy. The Czechs, however, closed their own embassy in Damascus as the situation in the capital grew more uncertain. It would not say with what groups the US made the arrangements.

Syria rebels say found dozens of tortured bodies in hospital near Damascus
AFP/December 10, 2024
BEIRUT, Lebanon: Rebel fighters told AFP they found around 40 bodies bearing signs of torture inside a hospital morgue near Damascus on Monday, stuffed into body bags with numbers and sometimes names written on them.
“I opened the door of the morgue with my own hands, it was a horrific sight: about 40 bodies were piled up showing signs of gruesome torture,” Mohammed Al-Hajj, a fighter with rebel factions from the country’s south told AFP by telephone from Damascus. AFP saw dozens of photographs and video footage that Hajj said he took himself and showed corpses with evident signs of torture: eyes and teeth gouged out, blood splattered and bruising. The footage taken in Harasta hospital also showed a piece of cloth containing bones, while a decomposing body’s rib cage peaked through the skin. The bodies were placed in white plastic bags or wrapped in white cloth, some stained with blood.Corpses had pieces of cloth or adhesive tape bearing scribbled numbers and sometimes names.
Some seemed to have been killed recently.
While some of the dead were wearing clothes, others were naked. Islamist-led rebels seized power on Sunday ousting former President Bashar Assad, whose family ruled Syria with an iron fist for more than five decades. At the core of the system of rule that Assad inherited from his father Hafez was a brutal complex of prisons and detention centers used to eliminate dissent by jailing those suspected of stepping out of the ruling Baath party’s line. Thousands of people hoping to reunite with loved ones who disappeared in Assad’s jails had gathered Monday evening at the notorious Saydnaya prison outside Damascus, AFP correspondents said. Hajj said the fighters received a tip from a hospital worker about the bodies that were being dumped there. “We informed the military command of what we found and coordinated with the Syrian Red Crescent, which transported the bodies to a Damascus hospital, so that families can come and identify them,” he added. Diab Serriya, who cofounded the Association of Detainees and the Missing in Sednaya Prison (ADMSP) watchdog, told AFP the bodies were likely detainees from Saydnaya prison. “Harasta Hospital served as the main center for collecting the bodies of detainees,” he said. “Bodies would be sent there from Saydnaya prison or Tishrin Hospital, and from Harasta, they would be transferred to mass graves,” he added. “It is very important to document what we are seeing in the video.”According to the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor, at least 60,000 people have been killed under torture or because of terrible conditions in Assad’s detention centers. Since the start of the conflict, President Bashar Assad’s government has been accused of human rights abuses and of cases of torture, rape and summary executions. Hajj said he hoped that efforts will focus on “exposing the crimes committed by Assad in prisons and detention centers” during the transitional period.“We hope Assad will be held to account as a war criminal,” he said.

Rebels take north Syria town from US-backed group, Turkish source says
Reuters/December 09/2024
The SDF had been holding the town in recent days amid intense fighting with the Syrian National Army (SNA) and other Turkey-backed groups.
Turkey-backed Syrian opposition groups took control of the northern Syrian town of Manbij from US-backed Syrian Kurdish forces (SDF), a Turkish security source said on Monday, a day after rebels declared Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's ouster.
The SDF had been holding the town in recent days amid intense fighting with the Syrian National Army (SNA) and other Turkey-backed groups. Clashes in the north continued even as the world was surprised by the opposition's swift successes in initially seizing Aleppo and, on Sunday, the capital, Damascus, in the south. The lightning offensive took less than two weeks after a 13-year war. A video, verified by Reuters, showed opposition forces being welcomed by people in Manbij, which is some 30 km (19 miles) south of the Turkish border and west of the Euphrates River. Turkish state-owned Anadolu news agency reported the area is being searched for possible landmines and traps left behind by the Kurdish militia. The SDF is the main ally in a US coalition against Islamic State militants. Turkey says it is spearheaded by a terrorist group closely tied to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants who have fought the Turkish state for 40 years. Abdurrahman Mustafa, head of the Turkey-backed opposition's provisional government, congratulated the troops that took Manbij.
"We stand with pride and honor with our heroic forces, and we support them to complete the liberation of every inch of our land and achieve the aspirations of our people for freedom and dignity," Mustafa said in a post on X.
US says it would maintain presence in eastern Syria
The United States said it would maintain its presence in eastern Syria, where the SDF is concentrated, and will take necessary steps to prevent a resurgence of Islamic State. The United States is estimated to have 900 troops in eastern Syria as a hedge against ISIS militants. Separately, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said US strikes in Syria in recent days were focused on ISIS cells to hinder them from taking advantage of the fallout from the rebellion.

IDF Paratroopers secure northern border as Syrian revolution escalates
Jerusalem Post/December 09/2024
Paratroopers joined up with brigades already stationed in the area to establish secure perimeters within the buffer zones bordering Syria. IDF soldiers from the 210th Batallion of the Paratroopers Brigade took proactive measures to ensure the safety of Israel's border in the Golan Heights on Sunday as Syrian rebels took over Damascus, the military announced on Monday. Paratroopers joined up with brigades already stationed in the area to establish secure perimeters within the buffer zones bordering Syria. Additionally, engineering, infantry, and armored forces, operating under the command of the 474th and the 810th regional brigades, are stationed along Israel’s border with Syria to secure the area. This announcement came after Defense Minister Israel Katz instructed the IDF to complete the consolidation of control over the Syrian buffer zone and create a security zone in the area. This directive came out after the IDF took over the Syrian side of Mount Hermon on Sunday to enlarge a demilitarized buffer zone along Israel's border with Syria. According to Katz, the security zone within the buffer zone would be free of strategic weapons and terror infrastructure. The fall of the Assad regime. On Sunday, the Syrian Islamist rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) seized control of Damascus, forcing former president Bashar al-Assad to flee the country by plane to Russia. HTS is currently acting as the defacto leading group in Syria until a new government is formed.

With Assad Ousted, a New Era Starts in Syria as the World Watches
Asharq Al Awsat/December 09/2024
Syrians awakened on Monday to a hopeful if uncertain future, after the opposition forces seized the capital Damascus and President Bashar al-Assad fled to Russia, ending a 13-year civil war and more than 50 years of his family's brutal rule. The lightning advance of an opposition 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 on his Telegram channel on Sunday. 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 party held an influential role there. Japan's chief cabinet secretary, Yoshimasa Hayashi, said on Monday Tokyo was paying close attention to developments in 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 Türkiye, Lebanon and Jordan to finally return home.
NOW TO REBUILD
The opposition faces 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."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. The White Helmets rescue organization said it had dispatched emergency teams to search for hidden underground cells still believed to hold detainees. With a curfew declared by the opposition forces, Damascus was calm overnight, with roads leading into the city mostly empty. One shopping center had been looted on Sunday, and some people rampaged inside Assad's presidential place, leaving carrying furniture. The opposition coalition said it was working to complete the transfer of power to a transitional governing body with executive powers, referring to building "a Syria together."
WORLD STUNNED
The pace of events stunned world capitals and raised concerns about more regional instability on top of the Gaza war, Israel's attacks on Lebanon and tensions between Israel and Iran. The US Central Command said its forces conducted dozens of airstrikes targeting known ISIS camps and operatives in central Syria on Sunday. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said on Sunday he spoke with Turkish Minister of National Defense Yasar Guler, emphasizing the importance of protecting civilians and that the United States is watching closely. During Syria's civil war, which erupted in 2011 as a peaceful uprising against Assad, his forces and their Russian allies bombed cities to rubble. The refugee crisis across the Middle East was one of the biggest of modern times and caused a political reckoning in Europe when a million people arrived in 2015. In recent years, Türkiye had backed some opposition factions in a small redoubt in the northwest and along its border. The United States, which has about 900 troops in Syria, backed a Kurdish-led alliance that fought ISIS from 2014-2017.

Opposition Forces in Syria Announce a General Amnesty for All Conscripted Soldiers
Asharq Al Awsat/December 09/2024
Opposition forces in Syria announced on Monday a general amnesty for all conscripted soldiers serving under mandatory service in the now-ousted Syrian regime. “The Military Operations Directorate announces a general amnesty for all conscripted soldiers serving under mandatory service. Their safety is guaranteed, and any harm or assault against them is strictly prohibited,” the opposition said in a message on their Telegram channel. The announcement followed the ousting of Bashar al-Assad and the fall of his regime, which had ruled Syria for over 50 years. The opposition faced little resistance from the Syrian army as it moved south, swiftly capturing one city after another.Opposition Fighters Take North Syria Town from SDF, Turkish Source Says
Asharq Al Awsat/December 09/2024
Türkiye-backed Syrian opposition groups took control of the northern Syrian town of Manbij from US-backed Syrian Kurdish forces (SDF), a Turkish security source said on Monday, a day after the opposition declared Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's ouster. The SDF had been holding the town in recent days amid intense fighting with the Syrian National Army (SNA) and other Türkiye-backed groups.
Clashes in the north continued even as the world was caught surprised by the opposition's swift successes in initially seizing Aleppo and, on Sunday, the capital Damascus in the south. The lightening offensive took less than two weeks, after a 13-year war. A video, verified by Reuters, showed opposition forces being welcomed by people in Manbij, which is some 30 km (19 miles) south of the Turkish border and west of the Euphrates river. Turkish state-owned Anadolu news agency reported the area is being searched for possible landmines and traps left behind by the Kurdish group. The SDF is the main ally in a US coalition against ISIS militants. Türkiye says it is spearheaded by a terrorist group closely tied to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants who have fought the Turkish state for 40 years. Abdurrahman Mustafa, head of the Türkiye-backed opposition's provisional government, congratulated the troops that took Manbij. "We stand with pride and honor with our heroic forces, and we support them to complete the liberation of every inch of our land and achieve the aspirations of our people for freedom and dignity," Mustafa said in a post on X. The United States said it will maintain its presence in eastern Syria, where the SDF is concentrated, and will take necessary steps to prevent a resurgence of ISIS. The United States is estimated to have 900 troops in eastern Syria as a hedge against ISIS militants. Separately, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said US strikes in Syria in recent days were focused on ISIS cells to hinder them from taking advantage of fallout from the uprising.

How Syria Opposition’s Stars Aligned for Assad’s Ouster
Asharq Al Awsat/December 09/2024
After 13 years of civil war, Syria's opposition militias sensed an opportunity to loosen President Bashar al-Assad's grip on power when, about six months ago, they communicated to Türkiye plans for a major offensive and felt they had received its tacit approval, two sources with knowledge of the planning said.Launched barely two weeks ago, the operation's speedy success in achieving its initial goal - seizing Syria's second city, Aleppo - took almost everybody by surprise. From there, in a little more than a week, the opposition alliance reached Damascus and on Sunday put an end to five decades of Assad family rule. The lightning advance relied on an almost perfect alignment of stars for the forces opposed to Assad: his army was demoralized and exhausted; his main allies, Iran and Lebanon's Hezbollah, were severely weakened by conflict with Israel; and his other key military supporter, Russia, was distracted and losing interest. There was no way the anti-government fighters could go ahead without first notifying Türkiye, which has been a main backer of the Syrian opposition from the war's earliest days, said the sources, a diplomat in the region and a member of the Syrian opposition. Türkiye has troops on the ground in northwest Syria, and provides support to some of the opposition who were intending to take part, including the Syrian National Army (SNA) - though it considers the main faction in the alliance, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), to be a terror group. The opposition’s bold plan was the brainchild of HTS and its leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, better known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani, the diplomat said. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government, which struck a deal with Russia in 2020 to de-escalate fighting in northwestern Syria, has long opposed such a major opposition offensive, fearing it would lead to a new wave of refugees crossing its border. However, the opposition sensed a stiffening of Ankara's stance towards Assad earlier this year, the sources said, after he rebuffed repeated overtures from Erdogan aimed at advancing a political solution to the military stalemate, which has left Syria divided between the regime and a patchwork of opposition groups with an array of foreign backers. The Syrian opposition source said the opposition had shown Türkiye details of the planning, after Ankara's attempts to engage Assad had failed. The message was: "That other path hasn't worked for years - so try ours. You don't have to do anything, just don't intervene." Reuters was unable to determine the exact nature of the communications. Hadi Al-Bahra, head of the internationally-recognized Syrian opposition abroad, told Reuters last week that HTS and SNA had had "limited" planning together ahead of the operation and agreed to "achieve cooperation and not clash with each other". He added that Türkiye's military saw what the armed groups were doing and discussing. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, speaking in Doha on Sunday, said Erdogan’s effort in recent months to reach out to Assad failed and Ankara "knew something was coming". However, Türkiye's deputy minister for foreign affairs, Nuh Yilmaz, told a conference on Middle Eastern affairs in Bahrain on Sunday that Ankara was not behind the offensive, and did not provide its consent, saying it was concerned about instability. Türkiye's foreign and defense ministries did not respond directly to Reuters questions about an HTS-Ankara understanding about the Aleppo operation. In reply to questions about Türkiye's awareness of battlefield preparations, a Turkish official told Reuters that the HTS "does not receive orders or direction from us (and) does not coordinate its operations with us either."The official said that "in that sense" it would not be correct to say that the operation in Aleppo was carried out with Türkiye approval or green light. Turkish intelligence agency MIT did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Reuters was unable to reach a representative for HTS.
VULNERABLE
The opposition fighters struck when Assad was at his most vulnerable.
Distracted by wars elsewhere, his military allies Russia, Iran, and Lebanon's Hezbollah failed to mobilize the kind of decisive firepower that had propped him up for years. Syria's weak armed forces were unable to resist. A regime source told Reuters that tanks and planes were left with no fuel because of corruption and looting - an illustration of just how hollowed out the Syrian state had become. Over the past two years morale had severely eroded in the army, said the source, who requested anonymity because of fear of retribution.
Aron Lund, a fellow at Century International, a Middle-East focused think-tank, said the HTS-led coalition was stronger and more coherent than any previous opposition force during the war, "and a lot of that is Abu Mohammed al-Golani’s doing". But, he said, the regime's weakness was the deciding factor. "After they lost Aleppo like that, regime forces never recovered and the more the opposition advanced, the weaker Assad’s army got," he said. The pace of the opposition advances, with Hama being captured on Dec. 5 and Homs falling on or around Sunday at the same time government forces lost Damascus, exceeded expectations. "There was a window of opportunity but no one expected the regime to crumble this fast. Everyone expected some fight," said Bassam Al-Kuwatli, president of the Syrian Liberal Party, a small opposition group, who is based outside Syria. A US official said on condition of anonymity that while Washington had been aware of Türkiye's overall support for the opposition, it was not informed of any tacit Turkish approval for the Aleppo offensive. The White House National Security Council did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Türkiye's role. US President-elect Donald Trump on Sunday said that Russia's abandonment of Assad led to his downfall, adding that Moscow never should have protected him in the first place and then lost interest because of a war in Ukraine that never should have started. Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday noted his country's role in weakening Hezbollah, which sources told Reuters withdrew its remaining troops from Syria on Saturday.
GAZA FALLOUT
Sources familiar with Hezbollah deployments said the Iran-backed group, which propped up Assad early in the war, had already withdrawn many of its elite fighters from Syria over the last year to support the group as it waged hostilities with Israel - a conflict that spilled over from the Gaza war. Israel dealt Hezbollah heavy blows, particularly after launching an offensive in September, killing the group's leader Hassan Nasrallah and many of its commanders and fighters. The opposition offensive in Syria began the same day as a ceasefire came into effect in the Lebanon conflict on Nov. 27. The sources familiar with Hezbollah said it did not want to engage in big battles in Syria as the group focused on starting a long road to recovery from the heavy blows. For the opposition alliance, the withdrawal of Hezbollah presented a valuable opportunity. "We just wanted a fair fight between us and the regime," the Syrian opposition source said. Assad's fall marks a major blow to Iranian influence in the Middle East, coming so swiftly after the killing of Nasrallah and the damage done by Israel to Hezbollah. Türkiye, on the other hand, now appears to be Syria's most powerful external player, with troops on the ground and access to the opposition leaders. In addition to securing the return of Syrian refugees, Türkiye's objectives include curbing the power of Syrian Kurdish groups that control wide areas of northeast Syria and are backed by the United States. Ankara deems them to be terrorists. As part of the initial offensive, the Türkiye-backed SNA seized swathes of territory, including the city of Tel Refaat, from US-backed Kurdish forces. On Sunday, a Turkish security source said the opposition entered the northern city of Manbij after pushing the Kurds back again. "Türkiye is the biggest outside winner here. Erdogan turned out to be on the right - or at least winning - side of history here because his proxies in Syria won the day," said Birol Baskan, Türkiye-based political scientist and former non-resident scholar at Middle East Institute.

Kremlin Says to Discuss Russian Bases with Syria’s New Rulers
Asharq Al Awsat/December 09/2024
The Kremlin said on Monday that it was too early to say what the future would hold for Russia's military bases in Syria, adding that it would be the subject of discussion with the new rulers in Damascus. After a lightning advance of an opposition alliance spearheaded by Hayat al-Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a former al-Qaeda affiliate, Bashar al-Assad fled to Russia, raising questions about two strategically-important Russian military facilities in Syria. Asked about the future of the bases, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: "It's premature to talk about it yet.""This is all a subject for discussion with those who will be in power in Syria," Peskov said, adding that there was "extreme instability" in the country. "Of course, everything is being done now that is necessary and everything that is possible in order to get in touch with those who can deal with security. And, of course, our military is also taking all necessary precautions," Peskov said. Russia boasts the Hmeimim airbase in Syria's Latakia province a naval facility at Tartous on the coast. The Tartous facility is Russia's only Mediterranean repair and replenishment hub, and Moscow has used Syria as a staging post to fly its military contractors in and out of Africa. Peskov confirmed that Assad had been given asylum in Russia, saying the decision was made by President Vladimir Putin. Asked about a possible meeting between Putin and Assad, Peskov said none was currently in the official Kremlin schedule. More broadly, Peskov said, the Kremlin saw a turbulent international situation with a high potential for conflict. "We see the situation around Ukraine, we see many contradictory statements in this regard, we see a growing conflict potential in other regions, we can say the burning Middle East," Peskov said. US President-elect Donald Trump called on Sunday for an immediate ceasefire and negotiations between Ukraine and Russia to end "the madness".
The Kremlin said on Sunday that Russia was open to talks, but that they had to be based on agreements reached in Istanbul in 2022 and on current realities on the battlefield where Russian forces have been pushing forward at their fastest rate since the early days of the war in 2022. Putin has said that Ukraine must not join the NATO military alliance and that Russia should be left fully in control of four Ukrainian regions his troops partially control at the moment for a peace deal to be done.
Asked if there had been any contact with Trump or his team, Peskov said: "No, there have still been no contacts."

Collapse of Syria’s Assad Is a Blow to Iran’s ‘Axis of Resistance’
Asharq Al Awsat/December 09/2024
Its decades-long strategy of building an “Axis of Resistance” supporting militant groups and proxies around the region is falling apart. First came the crushing Israeli campaign in Gaza triggered by the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel by Iranian-backed Hamas. That war spawned another in Lebanon, where Israel has mauled Iran’s most powerful ally, Hezbollah, even as Israel has launched successful airstrikes openly inside of Iran for the first time. And now Iran’s longtime stalwart ally and client in Syria, President Bashar al-Assad, is gone. As dawn broke Sunday, opposition forces completed a lightning offensive by seizing the ancient capital of Damascus and tearing down symbols of more than 50 years of Assad's rule over the Mideast crossroads. Ali Akbar Velayati, a key adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, once called Assad and Syria “the golden ring of the resistance chain in the region.” “Without the Syrian government, this chain will break and the resistance against Israel and its supporters will be weakened.”That break in the chain is literal. Syria was an important geographical link that allowed Iran to move weapons and other supplies to Hezbollah in Lebanon. Its loss now further weakens Hezbollah, whose powerful arsenal in southern Lebanon had put Iranian influence directly on the border of its nemesis Israel. “Iran’s deterrence thinking is really shattered by events in Gaza, by events in Lebanon and definitely by developments in Syria,” a senior diplomat from the United Arab Emirates, Anwar Gargash, said at the International Institute for Strategic Studies’ Manama Dialogue in Bahrain. Iran still holds the card of its nuclear program. Though it denies that intention, it can use the potential for building a weapons capability to cast a shadow of influence in the region.“Iran remains a critical regional player,” Gargash said. “We should use this moment to connect and speak about what’s next in my opinion.”
Dramatic reversal
Only a few years ago, Iran loomed large across the wider Middle East. Its “Axis of Resistance” was at a zenith. Hezbollah in Lebanon stood up against Israel. Assad appeared to have weathered an “Arab Spring” uprising-turned-civil war. Iraqi insurgents killed US troops with Iranian-designed roadside bombs. Houthi militias in Yemen fought against the legitimate government there.
Syria, at the crossroads, played a vital role.
Early in Syria’s civil war, when it appeared Assad might be overthrown, Iran and its ally, Hezbollah, rushed fighters to support him — in the name of defending Shiite shrines in Syria. Russia later joined with a scorched earth campaign of airstrikes.
The campaign won back territory, even as Syria remained divided into zones of government and opposition control. But the speed of Assad’s collapse the past week showed just how reliant he was on support from Iran and Russia — which at the crucial moment didn’t come.
“What was surprising was the Syrian’s army’s failure to counter the offensive, and also the speed of the developments," Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told state television late Sunday night. "That was unexpected.”Russia remains mired in Ukraine years after launching a full-scale invasion there in 2022. For Iran, international sanctions over its advancing nuclear program have ground down its economy. For Israel, breaking Iran’s regional network has been a major goal, though it is wary over extremist fighters among the opposition who toppled Assad. Israel on Sunday moved troops into a demilitarized buffer zone with Syria by the Israel-held Golan Heights in what it called a temporary security measure. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Assad's fall a “historic day,” saying it was “the direct result of our forceful action against Hezbollah and Iran, Assad’s main supporters.”Iran’s theocratic rulers long touted their regional network to Iranians as a show of their country’s strength, and its crumbling could raise repercussions at home — though there is no immediate sign of their hold weakening. Anger over the tens of billions of dollars Iran is believed to have spent propping up Assad was a rallying cry in rounds of nationwide anti-government protests that have broken out over recent years, most recently in 2022.
Iran could respond by revving up its nuclear program
The loss of Syria does not mean the end of Iran’s ability to project power in the Mideast. The Houthis continue to launch attacks on Israel and on ships moving through the Red Sea — though the tempo of their attacks has again fallen without a clear explanation from their leadership. Iran also maintains its nuclear program. While insisting it enriches uranium for peaceful purposes, Western intelligence agencies and the International Atomic Energy Agency say Iran had an organized nuclear weapons program until 2003. The head of the IAEA also warned Friday that Iran is poised to “quite dramatically” increase its stockpile of near weapons-grade uranium as it has started cascades of advanced centrifuges. “If Iran would develop nuclear weapons, that would be a great blow to the international nonproliferation regime,” said Thanos Dokos, Greece’s national security adviser, in Bahrain. Whatever happens next, Iran will need to make the decision weighing the problems it faces at both home and abroad. “Whereas stability is a difficult commodity to export, instability can travel very fast, which is why stability in the Middle East is very important for all of us,” Dokos said.

Israel says it will destroy Syria's heavy strategic weaponry
Reuters/December 09/2024
A senior Israeli official said airstrikes would persist in the coming days.
Israel will step up airstrikes on Syrian stores of advanced weaponry, Israeli officials said on Monday, and keep a 'limited' troop presence on the ground, hoping to head off any threat that could emerge in the fallout of former president Bashar al-Assad's overthrow.Israel has watched the upheaval in Syria with a mixture of hope and concern as it weighs the consequences of one of the most significant strategic shifts in the Middle East in years. While Assad's fall wiped out a bastion from which Israel's arch-foe Iran had exercised influence in the region, the lightning advance of a disparate group of rebel forces with roots in the Islamist ideology of Al Qaeda poses risks. Defense Minister Israel Katz said the military would "destroy heavy strategic weapons throughout Syria, including surface-to-air missiles, air defense systems, surface-to-surface missiles, cruise missiles, long-range rockets, and coastal missiles."A senior Israeli official said airstrikes would persist in the coming days, while Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar said Israel had no interest in interfering in internal Syrian affairs and was concerned only with defending its citizens. "That's why we attack strategic weapons systems like, for example, remaining chemical weapons or long-range missiles and rockets in order that they will not fall into the hands of extremists," Sa'ar told reporters in Jerusalem. Still reeling from Hamas's attack on October 7 of last year, Israel is also looking to head off any future threat from its neighbor. Israeli forces had already cleared landmines and established new barriers on the frontier between the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and a demilitarized strip bordering Syria in October.
IDF sends troops to demilitarized zone
Early on Sunday, the military said it had sent ground forces into the demilitarized zone, a 400-sq-km (155-sq-mile) buffer created by a 1974 Separation of Forces Agreement and overseen by the UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF).
The military on Monday published photos of Israeli commandos in the Syrian Mount Hermon area. Sa'ar said the troop presence was strictly limited. "It's basically near our borders, sometimes a few hundred meters, sometimes one mile or two miles," he said. "It is a very limited and temporary step we took for security reasons."

Israel 'more optimistic' on prospects of Gaza hostage deal
James Mackenzie and Nidal al-Mughrabi/JERUSALEM/CAIRO (Reuters)/December 9, 2024
Israel is now more optimistic about a possible hostage deal in Gaza, Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said on Monday, amid reports that Hamas had asked for lists of all hostages still held by militant groups in the Palestinian enclave. He said indirect negotiations were under way about the return of about 100 hostages and that, while it was still too early to be sure, prospects had improved. "We can be more optimistic than before but we are not there yet. I hope we will be there," Saar told a press conference in Jerusalem, reiterating Israel's position that the hostages still held in Gaza must be returned before Israel agrees to an end to the fighting. "There will not be a ceasefire in Gaza without a hostage deal," he said. A Palestinian official with knowledge of the mediation effort said Hamas had asked other factions in Gaza to start listing the names of Israeli and foreign hostages in their custody, whether dead or alive. The official gave no further details of the mediation effort but said the mediators, backed by the United States, had stepped up contacts with Israel and Hamas. Hamas officials declined immediate comment. An official of a militant group allied with Hamas expressed hope that talks could lead to a deal. Hamas gunmen took over 250 hostages back to Gaza after their attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, which killed some 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies. Over 44,700 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli offensive on Gaza that followed, Gaza health authorities say. Some hostage families voiced cautious optimism after meeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday. Netanyahu told them the time had come for a hostage deal, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said. Each side accuses the other of standing in the way of a deal but Saar said Hamas' previous position "might have changed during recent times". "So if both parties are interested in an agreement, there is a better chance it will be achieved," he said. Israeli strikes across Gaza continued overnight and on Monday, medics said. One strike killed at least four people near Jabalia camp on the northern edge of the enclave, they said. In Rafah, near the southern Gaza border with Egypt, health officials said rescue teams have recovered at least 11 bodies of Palestinians killed in Israeli airstrikes overnight and on Monday. Residents of Al-Maghazi camp in the central Gaza Strip said some Israeli tanks pushed into the eastern area of the camp early on Monday, forcing some residents to flee their homes. Later on Monday, medics said an Israeli strike in Al-Maghazi killed four children aged between 4 and 13, while an airstrike in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip killed six people. The Israeli military has not commented on Monday's strikes on Gaza.

How the loss of its Mediterranean naval base in Syria would weaken Russia as a global power
Basil Germond, Professor of International Security, Department of Politics, Philosophy and Religion, Lancaster University/The Conversation/December 9, 2024
The fall of the Assad regime constitutes a major blow to Russia’s foreign policy and prestige. Not least among the setbacks is the prospect of possibly having to swallow the loss of its only overseas naval base, located in the port of Tartus on Syria’s Mediterranean coast.
The fate of the base is not yet sealed. There can be little doubt that the Kremlin’s top diplomats will be working hard with the new rulers of Damascus to secure their only replenishment and repair station in the Mediterranean.
Yet, the departure of all Russian warships from the base last week indicates that the Russian navy has been overtaken by events. At this stage, the likely outcome is that Moscow’s long-term access to this base will be at least compromised.
Since Peter the Great created the regular imperial Russian navy in 1696, Moscow’s diplomacy and military forces have persistently striven for access to “warm waters”. Indeed, Russia’s access to the global sea lanes of communication passes through enclosed seas (namely the Baltic Sea, Black Sea and Sea of Japan) – which do not afford Russian ships unimpeded access to the world’s oceans – or hostile natural environments (such as the Arctic Ocean and Bering Sea) where conditions tend to make navigation perilous.
Institute for the Study of War
For helping the Assad regime during the Syrian civil war that started in 2011, one of Moscow’s most prized rewards had been access to a naval facility at Tartus.
Since 2013, Assad provided the Russian navy with a safe place for its medium-sized warships operating in the Mediterranean. Its primary purpose is to service and replenish Russia’s naval assets, allowing them to operate in the region for longer periods of time. Although often overlooked, the task force has used Tartus as a base from which to conduct naval exercises and deployments to shadow Nato forces in the Mediterranean. The purpose of this, in the context of the global geopolitical tensions, has been to contest (or at least test) western dominance of the Mediterranean.
Wider geopolitical consequences
If Russia permanently loses Tartus, it would have several consequences for Moscow. Most importantly its permanent naval task force in the Mediterranean would be forced to either start a long – and frankly humiliating – journey back to Russian bases, or find another temporary base in the region. After Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Ankara closed the Turkish Straits to Russian warships in application of the Montreux convention. This means that any vessels operating in the Mediterranean are unable to journey back to Russian bases at Sevastopol or Novorossiysk in the Black Sea via the Bosphorus. In the longer term, Russia’s presence in the Mediterranean and, by extension, the Middle East would be diminished. Naval forces play a key role for power and force projection. Indeed, western global military dominance rests on western countries being able to deploy military forces all over the globe for extended periods of time. This usually involves prepositioning forces such as large carrier battle groups. It’s a domain in which Russia has traditionally lagged behind Nato and the west. This has tended to hamper Russia’s ability to deploy its military power globally. Logistics is key here. Russia’s loss of Tartus – combined with the enduring closure of the Turkish Straits to its warships as long as the war in Ukraine continues – would seriously damage Moscow’s ability to deploy naval task forces and support operations on land in the region and beyond.
What’s more, the role of naval forces is also to protect the global sea lanes of communication and one’s own merchant marine. With western sanctions restricting commercial shipping operations to and from Russia, Moscow is increasingly dependent on its fleet of Russian-flagged ships to maintain its supply chain. In this context, any limit put on Russian naval power might affect the security of its civilian sector and commercial operations. Russia’s inability to rescue its client in Syria will have deep consequences for Moscow’s diplomacy in Africa, Asia and South America, where it will be unable to operate with the same ease. But apart from all this, it is important to recognise that – symbolically – the threat of a loss of a naval facility hits at Russia’s global credibility. This had already taken a hit with the many setbacks Russia has suffered to its Black Sea fleet. The loss of Tartus certainly won’t force Russia to stop its war in Ukraine. Moscow has demonstrated resilience to strategic setbacks in the past. But it is a serious blow to Moscow’s image as a great power. And this is something that the Kremlin can ill afford ahead of a second Trump presidency.
*This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
*Basil Germond does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Drone fired from Yemen explodes in Yavne, no sirens sound
Jerusalem Post/December 09/2024
A drone that likely crossed into Israeli territory from Yemen crashed in the city of Yavne in central Israel with no sirens sounding, the military confirmed on Monday, adding that the incident was under investigation. Earlier, the Yavne municipality said that an explosion was heard in a residential building in the city, as the IDF said it had received reports regarding a suspicious aerial target crashing in the area. The municipality added that the details of the incident were under review by security officials on site, noting that at this stage, no injuries had been reported. According to an earlier Army Radio report, the explosion was caused by a drone that had infiltrated Israel undetected from either Iraq or Yemen and, therefore, had not been intercepted.
No injuries reported
Israel's emergency service, Magen David Adom (MDA), stated that its paramedics had searched the building, and no injuries had been reported.
MDA paramedics Israel Weingarten and Roy Ben Shushan recounted what they saw upon arrival at the scene. "We arrived at the scene quickly with large forces and saw thick smoke rising from the balcony on the top floor of the building. We entered the apartment from which the smoke was coming and saw destruction on the balcony. We conducted a search of the apartment and other apartments in the building, and at this stage, no casualties were found." The police later said they were conducting searches in the Yavne area as well as the larger Shfela region to rule out further threats.
Houthis claim mission accomplished
Hours after the explosion, Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree announced that the terror group carried out a "quality military operation" during which they attacked a "sensitive target of the Israeli enemy" in the Yavne area using a drone that hit its target "precisely."

Hamas submits names of hostages who would be included in hostage deal - report
Jerusalem Post/December 09/2024
According to the report, the list includes four hostages who hold American citizenship.
Hamas has reportedly presented Egyptian mediators an initial list with the names of the hostages who would be included in a possible hostage deal, according to the London-based Qatari newspaper Al-Araby Al-Jadeed on Monday, citing a source familiar with the subject. According to the report, the list included four hostages who hold American citizenship, in addition to hostages who are elderly and who suffer from medical conditions. Hamas also reportedly submitted a list with the names of Palestinian prisoners.
On Sunday, a Hamas delegation headed by senior Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya visited Cairo for hostage deal negotiations, which the report claimed have reached an "advanced stage."
Israeli negotiating team reportedly set to travel to Cairo
Al-Araby Al-Jadeed further claimed that an Israeli delegation was set to head to the Egyptian capital on Monday for further discussions. On Saturday, the Saudi-owned news outlet Asharq Al-Awsat reported that Hamas was attempting to determine the number of living Israeli hostages it and other terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip were holding. The municipality added that the details of the incident were under review by security officials on site, noting that no injuries had been reported.

Northern resident was in contact with Iranian agents, carried out operations – Shin Bet, police
Jerusalem Post/December 09/2024
The suspect's interrogation revealed that he had been in contact with an individual dubbed "Eliad," who proposed he spray paint graffiti against the Israeli government.
An Israeli was arrested on suspicion that he was in contact with Iranian agents and carried out operations in Israel on their behalf for a monetary reward, Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) and Israel Police announced on Monday. Artium Zolotrav, a 33-year-old resident of Nof Hagalil, was arrested after he spray-painted graffiti in his town as well as in Haifa and Migdal Ha’emek. The two organizations noted that the suspect’s interrogation revealed that he had been in contact with an individual dubbed “Eliad,” who proposed he spray-paint graffiti against the Israeli government. While carrying out dozens of such operations, the suspect filmed himself, sent the footage to “Eliad,” and subsequently erased the inscriptions. His reward for such missions was $2,800 in cryptocurrency. The suspect understood “Eliad” was an Iranian agent when he was asked to photograph residential buildings and burn vehicles and when he saw the stories of additional citizens who had been arrested after working for the Islamic Republic. “Eliad” further asked the suspect to kill an individual for $125,000 and buy a weapon to transfer to a third party; the suspect refused. However, he did burn a vehicle in Haifa at the behest of the Iranian agent, receiving $2,000 in exchange. 'Children of Ruhollah' An additional Iranian agent named “Boaz Mar” was then introduced to the suspect, for whom he spray-painted graffiti in Haifa and Afula, which included the inscription “children of Ruhollah,” in reference to the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. He also torched an additional vehicle in Haifa, filmed it, and sent the footage to the Iranian agent. An indictment is set to be filed against Zolotrav, the two organizations said.

'The time is now!': Smotrich calls for seizure of Gaza Strip, action in West Bank
Jerusalem Post/December 09/2024
He also pushed back against deals that would result in the release of some hostages, saying they compromised military achievements. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called for Israel to seize control of the Gaza Strip during a Religious Zionist Party (RZP) faction meeting on Monday. Smotrich called for decisive action in Gaza and the West Bank, urging the government to strip Hamas of its authority and dismantle remaining terror hubs in the West Bank.
“It is time to seize control of Gaza and strip Hamas of its civilian authority, cutting off its lifeline,” he declared. “We’ve seen in Syria how regime leaders flee like rats when they realize they’ve lost their grip on power. The same can be achieved in Gaza. We are close—we’ve already made tremendous strides there. Now, we must take the next step to secure a decisive and clear victory.” Smotrich also criticized deals that would result in the release of some hostages, saying they compromised military achievements. “Instead of discussing partial deals that leave many hostages behind, compromise the war's achievements, and diminish the chance of victory, we must press forward. We must stop fearing our own shadows and do what is necessary,” he said.
“If we take these necessary steps, with God’s help, we will see the remaining Hamas leaders flee like rats, desperate to save themselves and their families. This will bring all the hostages home and remove the threat to Israel once and for all." Dismantling West Bank terror
Regarding the West Bank, Smotrich called for increased settlement and referred to the region as Iran’s last foothold. “The axis of evil’s ultimate hope is to establish a Palestinian state there as a base for the destruction of Israel,” he asserted. “Here, too, we must end the policy of containment and defense and shift to initiative and offense. We must dismantle terror hubs, strengthen Jewish settlements, and create facts on the ground that prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state and remove this possibility from the agenda once and for all.”Smotrich also criticized the Attorney General and the prosecution for requiring Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to testify in court despite the war. “Tomorrow, the Prime Minister is expected to testify in court for extended hours, as required by the Attorney General and the prosecution, who have refused to postpone the testimony despite the war and the significant security challenges we face,” the RZP head said. “The fact that the prime minister is required to appear in court at such a critical time is absurd and constitutes a severe blow to national interests,” he added. “Those who ignore this grave warning may find themselves responsible for security failures, and history will judge them accordingly.”
Despite the war’s economic strain, Smotrich assured that the economy would remain stable. “Wars are costly, and this latest conflict, spanning seven fronts, is particularly expensive,” he said. “However, fears of economic collapse, the government’s inability to pass a budget during the war, and capital flight from Israel have proven to be baseless. Despite the challenges of war, I can confidently say that Israel’s economy is strong and stable, thanks to the policies we are implementing.”Smotrich ended his remarks on an optimistic note. “This is just the beginning. Israel’s economy will soar to unprecedented heights.”

Tragedy in Gaza: Three Givati Brigade soldiers killed by anti-tank fire in northern Gaza
Jerusalem Post/December 09/2024
Twelve additional soldiers were wounded in the same incident.
Staff Sergeant Ido Zano, Staff Sergeant Daniel Barak Halpern, and Sergeant Omri Cohen were killed in battle while fighting in the Gaza Strip, the IDF announced on Monday. St.-Sgt. Zano, 20, from Yehud-Monosson, St.-Sgt. Halpern, 19, from Kiryat Ono, and Sgt. Cohen, 19, from Ashdod, all served in the Shaked Battalion in the Givati Brigade. All three of them were killed in the northern Gaza Strip by anti-tank fire while entering an armored IDF transport.
Additionally, 12 soldiers were wounded in the same incident, including two who were seriously wounded.
Israel-Hamas war
According to the IDF's tally, the deaths of St.-Sgt. Zano, St.-Sgt. Halpern and Sgt. Cohen raises the total of soldiers killed on or since October 7 of last year to 816.
Some 384 of this number were killed since the start of the military's ground operations in the Strip on October 27. This comes after the IDF announced the deaths of four additional soldiers who were killed in combat in Lebanon on Monday.
were Major (res.) Evgeny Zinershain, 43, from Zichron Ya’acov; Captain (res.) Sagi Ya'akov Rubinshtein, 31, from Lavi; Staff-Sergeant-Major (res.) Binyamin Destaw Negose, 28, from Bet Shemesh; and Sergeant-Major (Res.) Erez Ben Efraim, 25, from Ramat Gan.
Yonah Jeremy Bob contributed to this report.

Court rejects ministers’ request to delay Netanyahu trial
Jerusalem Post/December 09/2024
The court rejected the ministers' argument that the court’s demands on Netanyahu would “unequivocally” constitute “severe harm to the state's security.”The judges presiding over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s criminal trial rejected on Monday a request by 12 ministers from the National Security Cabinet to delay the prime minister’s testimony, which will begin on Tuesday morning. In their ruling the judges, Jerusalem Regional Court judges Rivka Friedman-Feldman, Moshe Bar’am, and Oded Shacham, wrote, “According to law, managing the trial is done by the sides to the trial, and by them alone. No normative basis was laid to sway from this in this case. As such, the request will not lead to a change of the dates that were set to conduct the procedure.”The judges decided in an earlier ruling that Netanyahu is set to testify three times a week, on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays, for six hours each day. The judges added that specific scheduling requests would be treated individually. Court disagrees. According to the request, which was sent in the form of a letter to Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara and to the Director of the Court Authority, Judge Tzahi Uziel, the ministers argued that the court’s demands on Netanyahu would “unequivocally” constitute “severe harm to the state's security.” “Anyone who ignores this severe warning may be found responsible for security failures, and history will judge them for it. We demand that you urgently reconsider the conduct of the judicial system regarding the management of the Prime Minister's legal proceedings and find a solution that will allow him to fulfill his central role in leading the State of Israel at this critical time,” the ministers wrote. “There is no place for considerations detached from reality when the security of the state and national resilience are at stake,” they added. “We request that you bring this letter to the attention of the panel of judges and summon the relevant security officials to present the implications and current security aspects confidentially before the judges,” the ministers concluded. After the request was rejected, Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Minister Yariv Levin said, “The legal proceedings against Prime Minister Netanyahu, from the very start of the investigation, have been a long and disgraceful display of unlawful conduct and abuse of judicial processes. Today, it is clear that nothing stops this—not even the need to safeguard the state’s security.”“Despite this decision, millions of Israeli citizens stand behind Prime Minister Netanyahu and will continue to support him so he can lead us through these challenging and turbulent times," Levin added. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said ,"The panel of judges is harming Israel's security."

The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources on December 09-10/2024
Why Islam Is Inherently Genocidal
Raymond Ibrahim/The Stream/December 09/2024
Proofs that Islam should be outlawed — that is, if the West was actually serious about its own laws — continue to pile up.
In a recent article, we saw that, according to the UN’s own definitions of hate speech, the Koran should be banned not just for routinely hating others by name — Christians, Jews, polytheists, and “infidels” (kuffar) of every stripe — but openly calling for overt violence against them.
As it happens, Islam is also inherently genocidal — again, according to the UN’s own definition:
Genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such:
(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group
With the exception of “d,” all of these acts have been and continue to be part of Islam’s modus operandi. In the name of jihad, Muslims have killed and injured millions of non-Muslims over the centuries (“a” and “b”). And they have most certainly “forcibly transferred” (“e”) the children of non-Muslims for their own use (entire institutions were dedicated to transforming enslaved non-Muslim boys into Muslim crack troops — think janissaries, mamelukes, etc. — to say nothing of all the captured children sold on the slave markets or sent to harems). Indeed, to this day, jihadist groups still abduct non-Muslim children and turn them into “cubs of the caliphate.”
But it is arguably “c” that most underscores Islam’s genocidal nature: “Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.”
Conditional Acceptance
The word “conditions” is quite apropos: Islam’s treatment of religious minorities is heavily based on a document called The Conditions of Omar (see here for my translation). Named after history’s second caliph, Omar bin al-Khattab (r. 634 to 644), the Conditions was purportedly agreed upon between that caliph and a group of conquered Christians (possibly of Jerusalem, when it fell to Islam in 637). It stipulated the conditions by which conquered non-Muslims needed to abide in order to be tolerated and not killed.
Thus, as Koran 9:29 commands Muslims to fight the “People of the Book” (namely, Christians and Jews) until they either convert or “pay the jizya with willing submission and feel themselves subdued,” the Conditions of Omar lays out in precise detail how they are to feel themselves subdued.
Christians were banned from building or repairing churches, displaying Bibles or crosses, ringing bells, or praying loud enough for Muslims to hear them. (These bans and variations on them are still alive and well in many, if not most, Muslim nations). Nor could Christians in any way make their religion attractive to — and certainly never proselytize — Muslims. (An 80-year-old Christian man was recently sentenced to five years’ imprisonment in Iran in part for distributing “Christian publications with the aim of attracting Muslims.”)
On the other hand, Christians were banned from in any way objecting to their relatives converting to Islam.
In classic “Rosa Parks” fashion, Christians even had to “honor the Muslims, show them the way, and rise up from our seats if they wish to sit down.”
A Disarmed Populace
To make sure they never resisted whatever treatment might come their way, Christians also were banned from bearing “any arms whatsoever.”
The Conditions concluded by making clear that if any of its stipulations were violated, all bets were off, and the Muslims were free to punish the culprits. That often took place — and still does — in the context of collective punishment.
Although first formulated in the context of conquered Christians, the Conditions went on to be codified in sharia, forming the basis of Islam’s treatment of those conquered non-Muslims who refused to convert to Islam (“dhimmis”). They remained in force for well over a millennium, until Western colonial powers pressured Muslim rulers to abolish them in the nineteenth century.
The question before us is simple: Do these Conditions, under which millions of non-Muslims have to live, conform to the UN’s definition of genocide: “Deliberately inflicting on the group [non-Muslims] conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part”?
The fact that we have what is today called the “Islamic world” is an emphatic yes. After all, the heart of the Muslim world (MENA, the Middle East and North Africa) was almost entirely Christian when Islam conquered it in the seventh century. Today MENA is well over 90% Islamic; Christianity has been altogether snuffed out in areas that were once bastions of the faith, such as Algeria (whence Augustine, the father of Western theology, hailed).
A Direct Result
What caused all those Christians, many of whom were described as fiercely attached to their religion, to convert to Islam? The answer is clear as day: Islamic law deliberately inflicted on Christians and Christianity conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction in whole or in part.
As yet another example, consider sharia’s position on churches: following the seventh century Muslim conquest of Christian MENA, those nations that resisted had their churches systematically destroyed, while those that capitulated were allowed to retain their preexisting churches—on the condition that they build no more, nor repair the currently existing ones. The Muslim logic was simple: in time, all churches would eventually crumble away.
Incidentally, we haven’t even gotten into Koran 9:29’s demand for jizya — the often exorbitant tax/tribute that all non-Muslims had to pay. Considering that millions of impoverished infidels over the centuries ended up converting to Islam because they couldn’t pay this tax, was jizya not another “condition of life calculated to bring about [the end of Christianity],” as it nearly has in MENA?
After mentioning the “vicious system of bribing the Christians into conversion,” historian Alfred Butler writes in The Arab Conquest of Egypt (1902),
[A]lthough religious freedom was in theory secured for the Copts under the capitulation [to Islam], it soon proved in fact to be shadowy and illusory. For a religious freedom which became identified with social bondage [Conditions of Omar] and with financial bondage [jizya] could have neither substance nor vitality. As Islam spread, the social pressure upon the Copts became enormous, while the financial pressure at least seemed harder to resist, as the number of Christians or Jews who were liable for the poll-tax [jizya] diminished year by year, and their isolation became more conspicuous. … [T]he burdens of the Christians grew heavier in proportion as their numbers lessened. The wonder, therefore, is not that so many Copts yielded to the current which bore them with sweeping force over to Islam, but that so great a multitude of Christians stood firmly against the stream, nor have all the storms of thirteen centuries moved their faith from the rock of its foundation.
Such is the forgotten history of the Copts’ diminution: The fact that 10% of Egypt is still Christian is not a reflection of Muslim tolerance, as many apologists claim, but intolerance. While the lives of many Christians were snuffed out over centuries of violence, the spiritual and cultural identities of exponentially more were wiped out — cleansed through genocide, as defined by the UN — in their gradual conversion to Islam. (Such is the sad and ironic cycle that plagues modern Egypt: those Muslims who persecute Christians are themselves often distant descendants of Copts who first embraced Islam to evade their own persecution.)
Worst of all, this entire matter is not limited to history. Because the Conditions and jizya are doctrinal aspects of Islam, they continue to permeate and influence the Islamic world (as in Saudi Arabia, our “good friend and ally,” where not even a single church can be built for Christian use).
In other words, to this very day throughout the Islamic world, non-Muslims in general and Christians in particular continue to live under “conditions of life calculated to bring about [their demise].” If they are not persecuted outright, they are at least discriminated against; and churches are either outright banned or face numerous, often insurmountable, bureaucratic hurdles to their existence (including in more “moderate” nations, from Egypt to Indonesia).
It’s not for nothing that, according to reliable statistics, approximately 84% of the absolute worst persecution Christians experience around the globe takes place in the name of Islam; or that 37 of the 50 worst nations in which one can be a Christian are Muslim.
In short, yes, Islam is, according to the UN’s own definitions, genocidal. But the fact that the UN would never dream of holding sharia accountable is proof positive that all of its laws, especially those that revolve around so-called “human rights” or which seek to ban “hate speech,” are cudgels used to take advantage of certain peoples — apparently never Muslims.
*Raymond Ibrahim, author of Defenders of the West and Sword and Scimitar, is the Distinguished Senior Shillman Fellow at the Gatestone Institute and the Judith Rosen Friedman Fellow at the Middle East Forum.

Syria After The Revolution, Now Comes The Hard Part
Amb. Alberto M. Fernandez/MEMRI Daily Brief No. 684/December 09/2024
He will likely never have a sweeter moment in his life. Here was the victorious conqueror in one of the greatest temples in the lands of Islam, on ground once trod by Caliphs like Muawiya and Sultans like Saladin. Abu Muhammad Al-Joulani – real name Ahmed Al-Shar'a – spoke on December 8 at the glorious eighth-century Umayyad Mosque in Damascus in humble gratitude to God at the fall of the tyrant Assad and the restoration of Sunni Muslim rule to Syria after almost 60 years. Syria was ruled since 1966 by Alawite strongmen, first Salah Jadid, and then the Assads, father and son.
Al-Joulani at the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus
These Alawite rulers were able to come to power through the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party and especially through the Syrian Army. A hundred years ago, when France had a League of Nations Mandate over Syria, they began to build a colonial army. They favored "the martial races," better fighters and more loyal than the Sunni Arab Muslim majority. In Syria, that meant the Druze and the even more populous Alawites, a syncretic amalgam of paganism, Shi'ism and Christianity, traditionally a despised heretical underclass. When Syria became independent in 1946, the army was still filled with Alawites and would essentially remain so until December 2024. Syria needs a new army that reflects both the country's Sunni majority and its diversity.
Although Ahmed Al-Shar'a was the key architect of the fall of Assad, he and his organization were not the only ones to bring it about. They provided the spark and the startling string of initial victories, but in the end, others rose up in the Syrian south and east to help finish the wounded beast off. Al-Shar'a is the most powerful, most important of these victors but he and they now face a daunting task. So far, he has handled the military offensive and the political transition extremely well, but now the difficult work begins.
The greatest fear is not so much that Syria will now be an Islamic state but that it will be a failed one (it already had many of the characteristics of one under Assad), not tyrannical but chaotic. The danger is as much or more that anarchy will prevail rather than Shari'a Law will.
The country is bankrupt and broken, most Syrians now live in deep poverty and Assad likely stole whatever was left. Even though Assad was defeated by Syrians alone, part of the country is still controlled by Turkey through a gang of failed revolutionaries-turned-mercenaries whose main goal is to fight and kill Syrian Kurds. Turkey would like to control the future of the new regime in Damascus and at some point soon, Al-Shar'a and company will have to knuckle under to Erdoğan or find a way of breaking with him. Syria's Kurds at least are pragmatic and will be looking to secure some sort of arrangement with the powers that be that preserves a certain measure of local autonomy. Too much autonomy will anger Ankara, not enough autonomy will keep the country divided.
Al-Shar'a, his Hay'at Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) organization, and many of their allies are hardcore Islamists, the closest comparison being not ISIS and Al-Qaeda, but the Taliban and Hamas, political projects that were both Islamist and nationalist. But Syria is much more diverse than either Gaza or Afghanistan. The so-called Syrian Revolution had both Islamist and more nationalist, secular-leaning faces. Al-Shar'a has to deal with not only the Kurds, but also the formerly favored Alawites (ten percent of the population), Druze (concentrated in Southern Syria near the border with Israel), Christians (internally insignificant with 80-90% of their population departed since 2012 but significant on the world stage), with tribal elements, with hardcore Jihadists of the Islamic State still in the wilderness, and with possible subversion internally and from abroad by Assad regime remnants much like that carried out by Izzat Ibrahim Al-Douri in Iraq after Saddam Hussein fell.
Syrian political prisoner, former air force officer, freed after 43 years
In the first flush of victory, things seem easier, anything seems possible. It is impossible not to be moved at videos of political prisoners (Syrian, Lebanese, and Palestinian) liberated after 30, 40 years of brutal Assad regime imprisonment. Al-Shar'a and company can be both Islamist and seemingly tolerant for a while. But what happens if the situation, the precarious living conditions of ordinary citizens, continues to deteriorate? Other established Islamist regimes in the past – the Taliban, Hamas, Al-Bashir in Sudan – have resorted almost invariably to internal repression and/or military adventures that ended disastrously. The temptation for Syria to do the same, to crush dissent and interfere with its neighbors, will be great.
Al-Shar'a will be remarkable indeed if he avoids the trap – assuming that he wants to – of using power responsibly. I am not talking about the chimera of Western-style liberal democracy, that is not in the cards and anyone who thinks that it is is dreaming. The best-case scenario for Al-Shar'a and Syria's new rulers is something like HTS-ruled Idlib – clearly Islamist, clearly but not immoderately authoritarian, but with a real focus on good governance. Syria will need both order and security, something that it really did not have under Assad's chaotic, criminal regime.
Expect the new Syria to still be anti-Israel but how it is will greatly matter. Having political objections to the Zionist state is one thing. Al-Shar'a has admitted that he was deeply influenced as a teenager by the plight of the Palestinians. But Syria becoming, as it was under Assad, a safe haven and breeding ground for terrorist attacks against any of its neighbors, including Israel, would be extraordinarily unwise given the country's parlous state.
The incoming Trump Administration has – wisely in my opinion – signaled a cautious, wait-and-see attitude toward the Syrian debacle. This is a crisis created by Iran, Russia, and Hezbollah (all now weakened as a result of Assad's fall) with an assist from the feckless Obama and Biden Administrations. But Arab regimes do not have the same luxury of standing by. They will have to overcome their dislike for Al-Shar'a's ambiguous type of Islamism and find ways to engage and support the Syrian people rather than leaving them to the tender mercies of Turkey and Qatar. The fact that Syrians are often talented and well-educated people who have flourished outside their country is a positive element. Certainly, the Syrian people are in desperate, urgent need of humanitarian help. The bill for reconstruction and development will be massive.
Al-Shar'a's initial Jihadist organization in Syria – the Nusra Front – had a media outlet, the Manara Al-Bayda ("White Minaret") Foundation. That white minaret is one of the towers gracing the same Umayyad Mosque in Damascus where Al-Shar'a just spoke. It is associated with Islamic apocalyptic literature and the end of all things. Syria's putative new rulers are going to have to worry much more about the dire, volatile situation they face before them rather than how the world ends. Making sure the world does not end them will have to be the first priority.
*Alberto M. Fernandez is Vice President of MEMRI. He served in Syria at the US Embassy in Damascus from 1993 to 1996.

Why Arabs and Muslims 'Betrayed' Hamas
Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone Institute/December 09/2024
As far as Hamas leaders are concerned, the involvement of Iran's other proxies in the Jihad against Israel has been insufficient. Hamas leaders were hoping to see Arab and Muslim armies march on Israel and fulfill their dream of replacing it with a jihadist terror state.
They are also aware that Iran wants to use them to expand its control over the Middle East. Iran already occupies three Arab countries – Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen, and until last week, Syria as well – and has brought nothing but death and destruction to the people there.
The "betrayal" of Hamas by Arabs and Muslims is a sign that these people are committed to stopping the Iranian regime from using them as puppets in its plan to destroy the "Zionist entity" and take over the Middle East.
For Hamas leaders, the involvement of Iran's other proxies in the Jihad against Israel has been insufficient. Hamas leaders were hoping to see Arab and Muslim armies march on Israel and fulfill their dream of replacing it with a jihadist terror state. They were also hoping that the Arab and Muslim masses would revolt against their governments and replace them with regimes that support the annihilation of Israel and serve as puppets in the hands of Tehran's mullahs. Pictured: Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of Iran, meets with Ismail Haniyeh, then leader of Hamas, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader Ziyad al-Nakhalah, on July 30, 2024 in Tehran. (Photo by the Supreme Leader's Press Office via Getty Images)
Fourteen months after the Iran-backed terrorist group, Hamas, attacked Israel, murdering 1,200 Israelis and wounding thousands more, Hamas has finally acknowledged that it has been abandoned by many Arabs and Muslims.
When Hamas launched the October 7, 2023 assault on Israeli communities near the border with the Gaza Strip, its leaders were hoping that many Arabs and Muslims would join the fight to murder as many Jews as possible to eliminate Israel. Hamas officials expressed hope at the time that the October 7 atrocities would prompt the formation of a large Arab-Islamic battlefront against Israel. The hope was that the Iran-backed Hezbollah organization in Lebanon would launch a similar invasion of Israel, that Iran would unleash thousands of ballistic missiles against Israel, and that tens of thousands of Muslims would invade Israel from Jordan.
The only parties that chose to join Hamas's war on Israel were Iran's other terror proxies: Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, and some Shiite armed groups in Iraq. Several Iran-backed armed groups, consisting mostly of Palestinian Islamic Jihad members in the West Bank, also joined Hamas's Jihad (holy war) against Israel by unleashing a wave of terrorist attacks against Israelis.
Israel's military and security operations against Iran's terror proxies in Lebanon, Yemen and the West Bank during the past year have been harsh. Hezbollah's political leadership and military infrastructure have been almost entirely destroyed, forcing it to accept a US-brokered ceasefire agreement with Israel. Hezbollah was also forced to disconnect itself from the Hamas war against Israel in the Gaza Strip. When Hezbollah joined the war against Israel just one day after the October 7 attack, its leaders stressed that they would stop firing rockets, missiles and drones only when Israel halted its "aggression" against the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.
The Houthis in Yemen have also been targeted by the Israeli Air Force at least twice in the past year. The airstrikes focused on key military infrastructure in Yemen's Ras Issa and Hodeida regions, including power stations and a port used for importing oil. These facilities were being used by the Houthis to transfer weapons and military supplies, including oil, to their forces.
The West Bank's Iran-backed terrorist groups have also suffered casualties during the past year. Hundreds of Palestinian gunmen have been killed, wounded or arrested by Israeli security forces, especially in the northern cities of Jenin, Nablus and Tulkarem.
As far as Hamas leaders are concerned, the involvement of Iran's other proxies in the Jihad against Israel has been insufficient. Hamas leaders were hoping to see Arab and Muslim armies march on Israel and fulfill their dream of replacing it with a jihadist terror state.
They were also hoping that the Arab and Muslim masses would revolt against their governments and replace them with regimes that support the annihilation of Israel and serve as puppets in the hands of Tehran's mullahs. Much to the dismay of its leaders, however, Hamas's dreams have not been fulfilled.
"We truly feel let down by the [Islamic] nation in an unprecedented manner," said senior Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya, expressing Hamas' deep disappointment with Muslims for failing to join the Iran-led "Axis of Resistance" against Israel. Moreover, al-Hayya's statement reflects the sentiments of many Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, who have also been complaining that their Arab and Muslim brothers have chosen to sit on the fence since the beginning of Hamas's October 2023 war on Israel. Many Palestinians and Arabs, in a reference to the Arabs' failure to intervene in the Israel-Hamas war, are openly talking about the "betrayal" of the Arabs and Muslims.
Yemeni political analyst Wafaa al-Kabsi wrote:
"The Gaza war has not only exposed the failure of the Arab and Islamic regimes, but it has also exposed the failure of their silent people and revealed their deteriorating reality and weak and shameful positions.... Where are the Arabs who go out en masse to attend a music festival for a trivial singer? Where are the Islamic masses that gather for the most trivial football match? Why did the [Arab and Muslim] people fail to support the Palestinian people who turn a blind eye to them? Where is the Arab and Islamic dignity, if they have any dignity at all?"
The answer to such questions is simple. Many Arabs and Muslims are aware that Iran's mullahs want to use them to export the Iranian "Islamic Revolution" to their countries. They are also aware that Iran wants to use them to expand its control over the Middle East. Iran already occupies three Arab countries – Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen, and until last week, Syria as well – and has brought nothing but death and destruction to the people there.
On a more optimistic note, it appears that a large number of Arabs and Muslims are tired of Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist organizations constantly entangling the Palestinians in pointless and lethal conflicts with Israel. The "betrayal" of Hamas by Arabs and Muslims is a sign that these people are committed to stopping the Iranian regime from using them as puppets in its plan to destroy the "Zionist entity" and take over the Middle East.
Bassam Tawil is a Muslim Arab based in the Middle East. His work is made possible through the generous donation of a couple of donors who wished to remain anonymous. Gatestone is most grateful.
© 2024 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.

What’s at stake for America in Syria after Bashar al-Assad
David Adesnik/ New York Post/December 09/2024
Bashar al-Assad, Syria’s murderer-in-chief, has fled to Moscow. The people are celebrating, tearing down posters of Assad and statues of his equally vicious father, who founded the regime.
But the driving force behind these changes is a terrorist organization, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, that is the offspring of a complicated relationship between al-Qaeda and the Islamic State.
The leader of HTS is Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, who began his career fighting US troops in Iraq. He rejects the label of terrorist and wears a suit jacket for interviews with Western media.
Days ago, a CNN correspondent asked if “strict Islamic rule” was still Jolani’s plan for Syria. His answer? “People who fear Islamic governance . . . do not understand it properly.”This may not allay the fears of those who remember the trail of broken promises the Taliban left behind when they returned to power in Afghanistan three years ago.
Those with longer memories may recall Iran’s Islamic Revolution of 1979 and Ayatollah Khomeini’s pledge that the people would rule, not the clerics.
Americans across the political spectrum want no part in Syria’s internal conflicts, but we have interests we can’t afford to ignore.
The first is the fate of American hostages in Assad’s prisons, like Austin Tice, as well as the remains of those who died in captivity, like Majd Kamalmaz.
Next, there is the matter of Syria’s chemical weapons, which should not fall into the hands of a terrorist organization regardless of what it promises.
Israel has reportedly struck multiple sites associated with Assad’s chemical-weapons program, but that is a stop-gap at best. What the United States and allies should expect from the new Syrian government is unconditional permission for international inspectors to document and dismantle any remnants of Assad’s pursuit of weapons of mass destruction. Washington has ample leverage it can employ to prod HTS and Syria’s interim government in the right direction.
There is a comprehensive sanctions regime in place that the United States should unwind gradually and only in exchange for clear moves in a positive direction.
The US military has also spent more than a decade working with local partners in northeast Syria to dismantle the ISIS caliphate and then prevent an ISIS comeback.
Those local partners — mainly Kurdish, but also some Arab — happen to control the region that is home to most of Syria’s oil and gas reserves. It is also the country’s agricultural center. Without the cooperation of Washington and its local partners, Syria’s new government will not be able to tap those resources.
If HTS is content to rule the mountains of rubble Assad left behind, it may not respond positively to any of the incentives Washington offers.
Yet Jolani’s promises of moderation suggest he is ready for a diplomatic dance in which each side seeks to maneuver the other into a position of pliability.
The best outcome for Syria would be a system of government in which the people exercise civil liberties and elect their leaders. And perhaps the people will exert enough pressure on HTS to make that happen, but those with the guns usually make the rules.
Thus, the United States will have to consider carefully what demands are realistic. The release of hostages and complete dismantling of Assad’s chemical weapons program should be non-negotiable.
It is also reasonable to expect that Damascus shut down the multibillion-dollar narco-trafficking enterprise that Assad built to fund his regime in its final years.
If the new leaders in Damascus cannot say yes to those requests, they should expect to remain pariahs. The next priority should be an understanding, likely informal, that the US-led anti-ISIS coalition be allowed to continue its mission.
HTS claims it is prepared to respect Syria’s ethnic and religious minorities, including Kurds and Christians, but there may be need to discuss the details.
The most contentious questions may be the extent of political freedom and Syrians relations with other US-designated terrorist groups. Will HTS allow Syrians to establish political parties and an independent media? Will there be elections?
Will Syria turns its back on other jihadists, or welcome their leaders, like America’s supposed allies in Turkey and Qatar? Washington’s careful use of incentives may help direct Syria toward moderation and away from an Islamist dictatorship.
*David Adesnik is vice president of research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies

Reporter's Notebook: Rebuilding North will take five years
Yonah Jeremy Bob/Jerusalem Post/December 09/2024
Two weeks after the ceasefire, almost no one has returned to the North.
The same message came from officials in the municipality and common people of Metula and Kiryat Shmona to The Jerusalem Post during a tour of the North on Monday: rebuilding after 14 months of Hezbollah’s attacks is not a matter of months or a year, but likely five years. Further, almost no one has returned despite two weeks having passed since the November 26 ceasefire with Hezbollah.
Manarah and some other villages which were heavily hit by Hezbollah are in similar circumstances. Kfar Yuval, which the Post attempted to visit, and other villages are still completely closed and abandoned for the time being.
Kfar Giladi, which the Post visited, and some other villages are experiencing a trickle of returnees because their homes and infrastructure were not destroyed on the same scale as the worst hit northern locations, but still have very few returnees. A common theme in all of the locations visited by the Post was that a majority of the population, those with children, will not even consider returning until the end of this school year.
That means, even in the best case scenario where northern residents want to return, that the vast majority of these northern locations are guaranteed to be ghost towns – which was how they looked to the Post - or at least partial ghost towns for another seven to nine months.
And how many really want to return?
Some believe that the second the 60-day ceasefire ends, Hezbollah will violate it with a small number of rockets. And then what is “small” to the rest of Israel will once again be deadly for these residents.
Others believe that Hezbollah will be patient and wait some period of years to rehabilitate its rocket arsenal before attacking, but are virtually certain that it will attack again, whether in three or five years. Kiryat Shmona Spokesman Doron Shneper told the Post, “after 15 months, the war Is still going on, and the residents are still impatiently kept from their houses. We need absolute security and an absolute victory, not a ceasefire.” Pressed that the IDF has killed 25 Hezbollah fighters since the ceasefire, he responded, “We don’t need the IDF to kill 100 or 1,000 of Hezbollah; we need Hezbollah not to exist…We cannot have another October 7” carried out by Hezbollah against the residents of the North. Next, he was pressed about why Kiryat Shmona is not moving forward with government funds for rebuilding, like the village of Shlomi, which sent out photos of rebuilding this week and spoke to the Post but failed to facilitate a visit to see if the rebuilding is a mere promo or serious. He said it was better to wait to rebuild until there was true security rather than rushing to rebuild, only for the newly built structures to be destroyed by Hezbollah again. The statistics
Part of the story is in the statistics.
In Metula, out of 650 structures, 100 experienced direct hits from Hezbollah rockets or anti-tank missiles, and 400 experienced indirect hits. That means that 70% of the residences are not even currently in a condition for residents to return.
Also, almost no one in Metula has proper safe rooms. Many residences have none and a small number have much older safe rooms, which both are in disrepair and would not stand up to Hezbollah’s current weapons. Shortly before the war started, 39 residences were due to get new safe rooms, but only 16 received them by the time of the war, and two of these safe rooms were destroyed by more powerful Hezbollah rockets (given that they are designed only to protect against less powerful attacks.) Metula’s security chief, Doron Mano, gave the Post a tour of several Metula houses that experienced direct hits.
Hezbollah fired 1,600 rockets and mortars and another 450 anti-tank missiles at Metula alone during the war. Mano noted that many of the houses were hit by a large barrage on September 19. One house he showed off of Zami Ravid, experienced multiple hits after having lived in Metula for over 50 years. The second floor of the house was mostly destroyed and caused a collapse of the house onto large portions of the first floor.
Several other houses on the same street were struck in the same barrage.
Yet another house in a different neighborhood of Metula was hit by the same barrage, also with significant damage to the roof and a disfigured-looking pool.
Sarah Caspi, a neighbor to that house, was back temporarily checking on the status of her house, which had minor damage. She said she was still interested in living in Metula at some point, but the situation is complex. None of her children, who also used to live in Metula, want to return, and “they think I am crazy” for wanting to come back.
Caspi noted that just three weeks ago, the IDF found some of the largest volume of Hezbollah weapons in any one place in southern Lebanon inside a tall Lebanese tower that had overlooked her house from less than a kilometer away.
She and her children realize that they could have been Hezbollah’s quick and easy victims in an October 7-style invasion. Pressed further then about why she wanted to return, she acknowledged that before the war, her residence was worth around NIS 5 million and that now she could not sell it if she wanted to. So sometimes economic realities dictate that people may come back, even if they still feel unsafe about Hezbollah and the future.
Kiryat Shmonah’s numbers in percentages are less bad – “only” around 400 out of 7,000 structures received direct hits by Hezbollah.
But in terms of the quantity of structures which must be rebuilt, this is a staggering four times the number of Metula. And many of these structures are larger and more complex than a small house. Kriyat Shomanh Engineer Amsalem Shimon rattled off the names of several schools which had direct hits from Hezbollah, rebuilding projects which will be more expensive and complex than a house.
The Post visited some of these schools and found the damage to be substantial.
Then there is damage to even larger structures, like the hole in the ceiling of the Kiryat Shmona Nehemiah Mall, which the Post witnessed.
The only store open in the mall was the pharmacy, one of a short list of “essential” stores, including a few food stores, which are still open in the otherwise shuttered city.
Kfar Giladi and some other villages which had fewer direct hits have had a trickle of returnees, said Candice Ormerod.
Omerod showed the Post a hit to the village’s well-known hotel and described hits and fires around many parts of the village which have changed the landscape, but at least do not prevent the residents from returning.
In that light, about 30 residents have come back to join around another 25 of the village security team who stayed there throughout the war.
But those numbers are still tiny compared to the 1000 or so people living in Kfar Giladi before the war. Like Caspi from Metula, Omerod is also struggling with her future of whether to stay in Kfar Giladi or move elsewhere as she balances wanting to be with her daughter and the economic realities of owning a residence in a village which suddenly has become less desirable.
In short, the Post found that almost no one has returned to the North, families will not return before the summer/fall, if at all, a delay in building safe rooms could also hold up people returning, residents are worried about Hezbollah attacking both after the 60 days and in a few years, and many residents have made new lives in areas where they spent the last 14 months. If Israel wants to save the northern border cities and villages, it will be a monumental, long-term, complex, and creative effort.

Why Israel must recognize Turkey as powerbroker in Syria - analysis
Dean Shmuel Elmas/Globes/TNT/December 09/2024
Iran has been substantially weakened, while its place has been taken by Turkey.
The final collapse Sunday morning of the regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria puts a seal on a significant change in the balance of influence in the Middle East. Iran has been substantially weakened, while its place has been taken by Turkey.
The regime of the Ayatollahs in Iran is paying dearly for its proxies policy. When the commander of the Quds Force in the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Qasem Soleimani devised that policy, it was logical at the time. The Iranians in general, and Soleimani’s successor Esmail Qaani in particular, were not, however, perceptive enough to make the necessary adaptations. So although the Iranian axis of resistance looked threatening in the wake of Israel’s failure on October 7, it can now be understood that it was a house of cards.
In the ranking of Iran’s needs, Hamas was not a basis but a tool. At the top of Iran’s priorities stood Hezbollah, a terrorist organization with a country. That was also reflected in Iran’s policy in Syria. The Iranian regime did not rush to Assad’s aid in the previous decade because of concern for his welfare, but out of a desire to expand its influence in Syria in a way that would enable it to keep up a continuous supply of arms to Hezbollah. The house of cards is tottering, however, because each card is shaking. The October 7 attack by Hamas upset the balance, and that is what led to the Assad regime’s fall. Fortunately, it was not a terrorist attack on two fronts like the coordinated Egyptian and Syrian attacks in 1973. The Iranians failed to understand the event in the Gaza Strip in every respect, and sent Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, late in the day from their point of view, to open another front with Israel. Nasrallah and Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei thought that Israel would go along with a war of attrition on the Lebanon border, but reality hit them in the face. Once the IDF had completed the destruction of most of Hamas’s military infrastructure, it switched to bringing to bear its much greater forces in Lebanon, and broke Hezbollah’s united front concept. Now, that powerful and threatening terrorist organization is in its worst position ever.
All the while, the rebels in Syria watched developments in the Swords of Iron war, and from their point of view let Israel do the work of weakening the Shi’ite crescent, especially Hezbollah, for them. So when the ceasefire happened, the Syrian rebel groups Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and the Syrian National Army, and especially the latter’s Turkish patrons, saw that this was an auspicious time that would not return to topple the Assad regime. And here we are: Bashar al-Assad was overthrown within twelve days, six days fewer than it took to remove Hosni Mubarak in Egypt in February 2011.
Perfect storm
It happened because of a perfect storm: a combination of the exceptional weakness of Iran, which was left without significant tools, and regional weakness of Russia, because the invasion of Ukraine monopolized attention and resources. That war is itself a serious failure as far as Russia is concerned, considering its haughty declarations in February 2022 and the situation today in which the president of Russia is forced to fawn on North Korean leader Kim Jong Un so that the latter will send him soldiers as gun fodder. In the case of Syria, it is noticeable that Israel has learned from the mistakes of October 2023. First you bolster your forces, while carrying out constant situation assessment, until you understand which way the wind is blowing. The situation is Syria is very delicate. Hayat Tahrir al-Sham is an offshoot of Al Qaeda, full of extreme jihadists who come from everywhere from China to the Balkans. We saw how, in Egypt, Mohamed Morsi came to power in place of Mubarak, and Hayat Tahrir al-Sham is more extreme than him.
What Morsi and the main rebel groups in Syria (apart from the Kurds) have in common is the link to Turkey. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan must be rubbing his hands with pleasure as he sees his ploy working and making him the main player in Syria. A former senior figure in the Al Quds Force related how Turkey bamboozled Iran. “We asked the Turks and several Arab states, and we received assurances that there would be no movements,” he says. “Hakan Fidan told us that specifically.” In other words, according to the Iranians, the Turkish foreign minister lied to them. The result was that when the escalation bust forth, Iran was left without a response. More than ever before, Israel will now have to examine its ties with Turkey. It’s easy to say “they’re haters of Israel” and accuse them of supporting terrorism, but Israel has a relationship with Turkey, which of course can’t be said about Iran. A combination of Turkish and Israeli interests in which Erdogan obtains some kind of influence that he can wave in the Palestinian arena while Israel obtains useful influence in Syria is the only way in which the upset in Syria can bring some benefit to Israel, and not to the danger of a Syrian Sharia state aggressive towards Israel on the border on the Golan Heights.

Assad’s downfall and fate decided in Damascus
Ghassan Charbel/Asharq Al-Awsat/December 09, 2024
The long night in Damascus was nothing short of seismic. Opponents could not have predicted the rapid collapse of the Syrian regime. The army was not prepared to fight the opposition advance that was gaining momentum. Russia did not want to get involved and Hezbollah was exhausted.
Bashar Assad saw the writing on the wall. It happens. The errors committed by the ruler accumulated and he had no other choice than to seek exile. So, he got on that plane and left. Syria on Sunday woke up to a new and unbelievable reality. It did not find the man who had been in power for 24 years. The man who was believed to be different and who would not face the same fate as others. No one believed that the American tanks would advance and tear down his statues like they did to Saddam Hussein’s statues in Baghdad. He was not worried as he watched Libyans chase down Muammar Qaddafi and end his life and years of rule. It never occurred to him that he could face the same fate as Ali Abdullah Saleh at the hands of the Houthis. He dismissed the scenes of Hosni Mubarak in court. He never believed that he would suffer the same fate as Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali.
Assad was confident that he was strong, different and capable of weathering the storms. Assad believed that he inherited from his father a regime that could fight fires and contain earthquakes, which were many during his long term.
Syria on Sunday woke up to a new and unbelievable reality. It did not find the man who had been in power for 24 years
He lived through the earthquake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attack and ordered his security agencies to cooperate in a limited capacity with the Americans. He had not yet developed his leanings toward Iran, but the American invasion of Iraq pushed him in that direction. He feared that the Baath Party’s rule would be the American campaign’s next target after it was done with Iraq. Damascus and Tehran had a mutual interest in destabilizing the “American formula” in Iraq. Syria opened its borders to militiamen wanting to resist the American occupation of Iraq.
The second earthquake would come from Beirut. On Feb. 14, 2005, Rafik Hariri was assassinated in the Lebanese capital. The massive anger of the Lebanese people forced Assad to withdraw his forces from Lebanon. In Syria, there was a growing belief that the country’s influence that was cultivated by Hafez Assad was starting to wane under Bashar. In 2006, when Hezbollah feared that the Lebanese March 14 movement would alter Lebanon’s regional stance, it went to war with Israel, helping to break Damascus’ international isolation.
In the early 2010s, the so-called Arab Spring swept through the region. Like many others, Assad believed that opening just a small window of change would bring down the entire house. So, he cracked down on the protests and did not hold back in his brutality and oppression. Hundreds of thousands of people were killed and millions displaced. He resorted to barrel bombs and chemical weapons. The opposition drew near his palace, but the Vladimir Putin-Qassem Soleimani understanding helped him fend off the earthquake. Assad came to power in the year 2000, six months after Putin assumed control of Russia and the international scene and less than three years before Recep Tayyip Erdogan would arrive on the scene in Turkiye. Add Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei into the mix and you get an idea of the type of men who left their mark on Assad’s fate. One day, Putin did not hesitate to criticize Assad’s mistakes in front of an Iraqi delegation who had complained about the Syrian ruler. But Putin’s calculations would change when he decided to crown the capture of Crimea by establishing a foothold on the Mediterranean. And so, he allowed Russia’s aerial intervention in Syria. Al-Golani lit the spark. The still waters became a flood that swept Aleppo, Hama, Homs and Damascus
Assad and Recep Tayyip Erdogan had a strange relationship. They got along very well at first but, after falling out, they never saw eye to eye again. So, Assad turned to Hassan Nasrallah. Hezbollah became more powerful than the Syrian army, deepening tensions in Syria. When Yahya Sinwar launched his Al-Aqsa Flood Operation, Nasrallah soon followed by declaring a “support front.” Assad tried to keep a distance from the developments. He played a big game with a hostile player called Benjamin Netanyahu, who would have a say in deciding Assad’s fate. Netanyahu destroyed Gaza and then shifted to the timing of the American elections to take out the Hezbollah leadership. Balances were upended. In Idlib, Assad’s opponents were waiting for the right opportunity to pounce. They never believed in the “de-escalation” agreement and “Trump time.” Erdogan chose to punish Assad, who repeatedly refused offers to hold a meeting. He punished Assad and Syria’s Kurds as well. Ahmed Al-Sharaa, known as Abu Mohammed Al-Golani, lit the spark. The still waters became a flood that swept Aleppo, Hama, Homs and Damascus. Soleimani and Nasrallah were no longer there to help Assad. The supreme leader did not have an answer and Putin was mired in the bloodbath in Ukraine. Fates were decided in Damascus during that long night. It changed the fate of Syria and its regional position. It changed the regional scene. It severed the route of exporting the revolution and the smuggling of rockets from Tehran to Beirut. Hezbollah was brought down to size from its regional role to returning to UN Security Council Resolution 1701. One night in Damascus changed balances in Lebanon. The scene was different yesterday. Syria is without Assad and without Hezbollah. Assad got on that plane and left. An entire era is over. The president left Syria and the region is left to grapple with the “day after” and its challenges.
*Ghassan Charbel is editor-in-chief of Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper. X: @GhasanCharbel

Syrians must be allowed to shape their own future
Lara Setrakian/Arab News/December 09, 2024
They are entitled to their euphoria, along with a deep sense of relief. Hundreds of thousands of people died either fighting Assad’s rule or fighting to defend it, with people on both sides irreparably scarred by one man’s addiction to power. Millions of good people lost their homes or were forced to live in exile, separated from their families and afraid to return. When the prison gates were opened at Sednaya and thousands of Syrians stepped out into the sunlight — many having long been brutalized and presumed dead — it was symbolic of the country’s new life.
But there are also scores of Syrians, even outside the fading circle of regime loyalists, who are worried about what comes next. On the battlefield, the Syrian civil war was won by an array of militant groups, dominated by Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham. This group is a coalition of factions that range from conservative to ultraconservative. HTS was formed a decade ago as Jabhat Al-Nusra, one of the many militias that were popping up across northern Syria. They were startup organizations in the dozens, all competing to prove their credentials. Syrians would joke about the rookie fighters growing out their beards to look more authentic in their brigade formation videos — effectively fundamentalist commercials that were uploaded to YouTube in the hope of attracting funds from conservative patrons abroad.
Among these groups, Jabhat Al-Nusra was always one of the strongest. And yet, if anyone had suggested back then that it would go on to topple the 50-year-old Assad regime, it would have drawn a chuckle. But we are not witnessing the same revolution that started in 2011. The twists, turns and evolutions have matured the players on the ground. HTS softened its tone and disavowed its original ties to Al-Qaeda. But it is still rooted in an authoritarian model. It has transitioned to supporting a de facto regional government in Idlib, with multiple revenue streams and an ability to lead a coalition of militant factions to create a larger fighting force. Already a bastion of social conservatism, Idlib was reshaped according to its vision; children there are now taught a sharply Islamist curriculum in gender-segregated schools.
When thousands of Syrians stepped out of Sednaya and into the sunlight, it was symbolic of the country’s new life.
HTS does not control all of Syria, but it has proven that it can control strategic arteries and swaths of Syrian territory. That, alongside taking credit for Assad’s fall, has given the organization an ability to dictate outcomes and policies in a future government.
There are reasons to be hopeful and see promising ingredients for building a future state — an opportunity only made possible by Assad’s exit. The state bureaucracy, outside of the military and intelligence services, could be strong enough to continue to operate. Talented Syrian technocrats could be persuaded to stay or to return. A generation of Syrians who have lived and studied abroad since the start of the war could bring their skills back home. They simply need to be convinced that the country that is being shaped by HTS, an avowed champion of political Islam, will be one that has space for them to flourish. Its early statements have assured women of their freedoms and encouraged Syrians abroad to return. Now, the Syrian people need to forge a national consensus — an economic-political pact that can unite the country and create momentum.
Syrians have shown over the past 13 years that they have the pragmatism and adaptability to build in a time of chaos. New institutions like the White Helmets and Local Coordination Committees grew from civil society initiatives to deliver humanitarian relief, conduct search and rescue operations and manage trash collections in areas with no formal government. Hybrid charitable foundations backed by the Syrian diaspora have provided medical care, while others like Jusoor, Karam Foundation and Syrian Youth Empowerment built educational programs that have resulted in broad, diverse networks of Syrian professionals. What started out as emergency response mechanisms over more than a decade of war have developed into a blueprint for finding consensus and a common vision for the country.
Having done all this, Syrians are well aware that the near-term risks are acute as the country finds its new form. The US dollar and, more frequently, the Turkish lira have become commonly used currency.
Plans for transitional justice have been years in the making, but now that the moment of transition has come, it will test the limits of accountability for decades of regime crimes, corruption and abuse. There may be demands for a special tribunal, but in the meantime Syrians will have to hold back any impulses toward personal retribution. Syrians have shown over the past 13 years that they have the pragmatism and adaptability to build in a time of chaos.
Syrians will also have to fix a country plagued by socioeconomic depression, mass displacement and drug abuse entwined with the captagon trade. There will have to be detailed plans for demobilization, giving tens of thousands of Syrian militants an alternative job pathway, if not integrating them into the formal state structure. Above all, in terms of physical danger, they will need to manage the risk of militant infighting. There is no shortage of warlords who have drawn power and wealth from the conditions of chaos. There are militant groups in the south and north of Syria with enough heft to challenge HTS, should their interests collide. If outside powers decide to back competing groups, they will risk fueling an ongoing proxy war at the expense of Syrians who have already suffered enough.
For decades, the Syrian Arab Republic was brutally controlled; now, the challenge is to make sure it does not spiral out of control. There is some hope that HTS will pursue the path of accommodation and balance. Syrians should be given the chance to forge that balance and shape their own future, with all the challenges it holds.
• Lara Setrakian is a journalist and President of the Applied Policy Research Institute (APRI). She is also the Co-Founder of News Deeply and its inaugural platform, Syria Deeply. Previously Lara was based in the Middle East as a reporter for ABC News and Bloomberg Television.