Syrian rebel leader meets ex-PM to coordinate transfer of power as parliament backs 'people's will'
The Syrian parliament said Monday it supports the will of the people to build a new country, a day after President Bashar al-Assad fled Damascus as rebels took over.
"December 8th was a historic day in the lives of all Syrians. We support the will of the people to build a new Syria towards a better future governed by law and justice," parliament, formerly pro-Assad, said in a statement carried by SANA -- the state news agency whose logo on Telegram now bears the three stars of the rebel flag.
Syrian rebel leader Abu Mohammed al-Jolani met with outgoing Syrian prime minister Mohammed al-Jalali and discussed the "transfer of power", the rebels said Monday.
Jolani, now using his real name Ahmed al-Sharaa, met 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. A short video of the meeting also showed Mohammed Bashir, who heads the rebels' "Salvation Government" in their northwest Syria bastion in attendance.
Earlier in the day, Jalali said that most cabinet ministers are still working from offices in Damascus after rebels entered the capital and overthrew Assad, who has repotedly fled to Russia with his family.
The Kremlin has declined to confirm reports that Assad had fled to Moscow, adding that it was "surprised" by the rebel takeover. "As for Mr Assad's whereabouts, I've got nothing to tell you," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists.
Meanwhile, there were already signs of the difficulties ahead for the rebel alliance now in control of much of the country, which is led by Jolani, a former senior al-Qaida militant, who severed ties with the extremist group years ago and has promised representative government and religious tolerance.
The rebel command said Monday they would not tell women how to dress.
“It is strictly forbidden to interfere with women’s dress or impose any request related to their clothing or appearance, including requests for modesty,” the General Command said in a statement on social media.
Streams of refugees crossed back into Syria from neighboring countries, hoping for a more peaceful future, with the United Nations calling for "patience" and "vigilance" over their return.
Major European nations including Germany, France, Austria and several Nordic countries said Monday they would freeze all pending asylum requests from Syrians, a day after Assad's ouster.
Meanwhile, Israel conducted strikes on Monday targeting positions of the deposed Syrian government's army including in Damascus, the south and the coast, a war monitor said, the latest in a series of attacks since rebels took over a day earlier.
It has also seized a buffer zone inside Syria after Syrian troops withdrew. "Israeli strikes targeted military sites, including weapons depots housing anti-tank missiles and anti-aircraft weapons," Rami Abdel Rahman, who heads the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor told AFP.
"Israel is deliberately destroying anything it perceives as a threat," Rahman added.
The global chemical weapons watchdog said on Monday that it reminded Syria of its obligations to comply with rules to safeguard certain toxic chemicals. The Organisation 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.”
The OPCW has been in contact with the Syrian embassy in The Hague, where the organization is based. 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.
Assad fled Syria as Islamist-led rebels 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.
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 group said they were searching for potential secret doors or basements in Saydnaya prison, though they said there was no immediate sign that anyone was 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, urging families of the missing to have "patience".
Aida Taha, aged 65, said she had been "roaming the streets like a madwoman" in search of her brother, who was arrested in 2012.
"We've been oppressed long enough, we want our children back," she said.
While Syria has been at war for over 13 years, the government's collapse ended up coming in a matter of days, with a lightning offensive launched by the Islamist 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 will operate 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.
(With inputs from AFP and AP)
