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UN Security Council To Meet On Syria Amid Calls For Stability

By RFE/RL's Radio Farda December 09, 2024

The UN Security Council is to convene for an emergency session on the situation in Syria on December 9 following the ouster of longtime President Bashar al-Assad's brutal regime and the fall of Damascus to Islamist-led rebels.

The emergency session, called by Russia according to Dmitry Polyansky, the country's first deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, will be held behind closed doors as world and regional powers call for stability in the civil war-wracked Middle East country.

Assad and his family fled the country on December 8 and are in Moscow, where they have been granted asylum, Russian media reported. The U.S. administration could not confirm the information but said it had no reason to doubt it.

Air strikes could be heard in Damascus early on December 9, media reports said, although it was not immediately clear who conducted the strikes. Earlier, Reuters reported that Israel had conducted three air strikes on the Syrian capital on December 8.

Russia, a longstanding supporter of Assad, said he "decided to resign" after "negotiations" with a "number of participants in the armed conflict" and left office "giving instructions for a peaceful transfer of power." "Russia did not participate in these negotiations," the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

In Damascus and other Syrian cities, people took to the streets to celebrate Assad's ouster, pulling down statues, and ransacking government buildings and Assad's residence.

Social media footage showed crowds of men entering the presidential place in Damascus, with reports of looting.

The rebels, led by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) Islamist militant group, said in a statement aired on state TV that Damascus is "now free of Assad," whose family ruled the country with an iron fist since 1971.

HTS is a U.S.- and EU-designated terrorist organization. In recent years, the group severed ties with Al-Qaeda and sought to remake itself as a pragmatic alternative to the Syrian government. But concerns remain over its alleged rights abuses and ties to terrorist groups.

Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, the leader of the HTS, has sought to reassure Shi'ite Alawites and other Syrian minorities, including Christians, that he will not discriminate against minorities.

In Washington, President Joe Biden said the United States "will engage with all Syrian groups" as the country transitions to a post-Assad government.

"Assad should be held accountable," Biden said, but cautioned that some of the rebel groups that helped overthrow Assad "have their own grim record" of human rights abuses even though they have been "saying the right things" in recent days.

He said the United States will be closely watching the activities of the Islamic State (IS) extremist group, which could seek to use the power vacuum to again establish rule in Syria.

Biden said the United States conducted precision strikes on IS positions in Syria earlier in the day.

A senior Biden administration official told reporters on background it was a "significant" strike on 75 IS targets in eastern Syria using B-52s and F-15s.

"These guys want to reconstitute...and we are going to make sure that if they think they can seize advantage in this situation, that they can't," the senior official said.

The Syrian civil war began in 2011 after Assad's regime unleashed a brutal crackdown in March 2011 against peaceful demonstrators inspired by the wave of protests known as the Arab Spring that were sweeping the Middle East at the time.

Beginning in 2015, Russia intervened in the civil war on Assad's side, unleashing a massive bombing campaign against the rebel groups, including Islamist militants, causing numerous civilian casualties and prompting tens of thousands to flee.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement that the Assad regime's refusal since 2011 to engage "in a credible political process and its reliance on the brutal support of Russia and Iran led inevitably to its own collapse."

"After 14 years of conflict, the Syrian people finally have reason for hope," he added.

The fall of the Assad regime marks a major geopolitical setback for the Kremlin, which, along with Iran, has propped his government, experts believe.

Biden said Russia has been weakened by the nearly three-year war in Ukraine while Iran's proxies in the region have been crushed by Israel.

Besides Russia, Assad has relied on Iran and its Hezbollah proxies to remain in power since the conflict erupted in 2011. Iran's Foreign Ministry said it expects "friendly" relations with Syria to continue and it would take "appropriate approaches" towards Damascus.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Assad's fall "a direct result of the blows we have inflicted on Iran and Hezbollah."

He hailed Assad's overthrow as the fall of a "central link in Iran's axis of evil."

Israel has launched a months-long air-raid campaign in Lebanon against Hezbollah, which has been designated a terrorist organization by the United States.

Russia has an estimated 7,500 troops and multiple military sites in Syria, including an air base at Hmeimim and strategic naval facilities at Tartus, which are also used to support the Kremlin's actions in North and Sub-Saharan Africa.

The ISW said Moscow had not yet begun to evacuate the naval base, "but it remains unclear whether Russia will keep its vessels at the port as Syrian rebels continue to advance swiftly across regime-held territory."

Ruslan Suleymanov, a Russian expert on the Middle East, told RFE/RL that Moscow would "cooperate with the rebels" if they take power in Damascus and that HTS too has "claimed previously that it was ready to negotiate" with the Kremlin.

"Putin wants to save his military presence in the region. In any case, to do that, he has to make concessions -- both to jihadists and to [Turkish President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan who supports [the rebels]," Suleymanov said.

French President Emmanuel Macron welcomed the fall of Assad's "barbaric state."

"I pay tribute to the Syrian people, to their courage, to their patience," Macron said in a statement.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Germany would bring "its contribution" to a political solution for peace.

"Assad has oppressed his own people in a brutal manner, he has countless lives on his conscience," Scholz said.

China's Foreign Ministry on December 9 said that Beijing in "closely following the development of the situation in Syria and hopes that Syria returns to stability as soon as possible."

The United Nations said on December 6 that almost 300,000 people in Syria had already been displaced since late November by the fighting, and that up to 1.5 million could be forced to flee as the rebels advance and inflict losses on Assad, as well as his Russian and Iranian allies.

On December 8, Israel said it has deployed forces in a demilitarized buffer zone along its northern border with Syria and sent troops "other places necessary for its defense."

The Israeli military said the deployment was meant to provide security for residents of the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights.

The United States said it will maintain its presence in eastern Syria and will take measures necessary to prevent a resurgence of Islamic State (IS) in the region. The United States has about 900 soldiers in Syria.

Tom Fletcher, head of the UN humanitarian aid agency, warned about the plight of the millions of Syrians displaced by nearly 14 years of the country's civil war. Now many more are in danger, Fletcher said.

"We will respond wherever, whenever, however we can, to support people in need, including reception centers -- food, water, fuel, tents, blankets," he said.

Human Rights Watch (HRW), meanwhile, cautioned that the armed groups that ousted Assad should ensure humane treatment for all Syrians.

"The fall of Bashar al-Assad's government offers Syrians an unprecedented opportunity to chart a new future built on justice, accountability, and respect for human rights, HRW said in a statement.

Amnesty International also called the end of the Assad regime "a historic opportunity to end and redress decades of grave human rights violations" in Syria.

With reporting by AP, Reuters, AFP, and dpa

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/un-security-council- to-meet-on-syria-amid-calls-for-stability/33232002.html

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UN Security Council To Meet On Syria Amid Calls For Stability