Germany Hopes for a peaceful transition process in Syria
After the fall of Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad, the world is hoping for a peaceful transition to a new political leadership.
14.12.2024, 05:59
SDA
At a crisis summit in Jordan today, foreign ministers from Arab states are discussing the future of the country, which has been ravaged by dictatorship and civil war, with international representatives. The heads of state and government of the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations (G7) called for a "comprehensive political process" in a video link, said Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni as acting G7 chairwoman.
Meanwhile, Turkey is reopening its embassy in the Syrian capital Damascus today, as Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan explained according to the Turkish news agency Anadolu. The embassy had been closed in 2012 due to the deteriorating security situation in the civil war.
Crisis summit discusses Syria's future
The Turkish Foreign Minister himself will meet with his colleagues from Arab states at the crisis summit in Jordan today. According to Jordanian sources, this includes ministers from Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Lebanon, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Qatar.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Kaja Kallas and the UN Special Envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, are also taking part in the summit in the city of Aqaba. The aim is to explore ways to support Syria in the transition phase, according to Jordan's Foreign Ministry. The aim is to initiate a political process under Syrian leadership that includes all groups in the fragmented country.
Report: Syria's rebels have been planning an overthrow for a year
On Sunday, a rebel alliance led by Haiat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) overthrew the ruler Bashar al-Assad, who had been in power for 24 years. He fled to Russia, where he was granted asylum. Concrete planning for Assad's overthrow began a year ago, Abu Hassan al-Hamwi, head of the military wing of the HTS, told the British Guardian.
However, preparations have been underway for years, he said. They had suffered considerable territorial losses in 2019 due to attacks by Assad troops. All groups had recognized "that the fundamental problem was the lack of unified leadership and control over the fight", he said.
As a result, the HTS brought other opposition groups in the northwest under its control and then slowly molded its fighters into a disciplined fighting force using a military doctrine developed by the HTS, he said. By late November, the rebel alliance felt the time was ripe for its offensive as Assad's main allies were preoccupied with other conflicts: Russia was fighting in Ukraine, while Iran and its ally Lebanese Hezbollah were weakened by the battle with Israel.
Scholz: Europe will support the reconstruction of Syria
Meanwhile, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz promised help with the reconstruction of Syria. "Europe will also help with the reconstruction," said the SPD politician in his "Chancellor Compact" video, which was published on Platform X. After all the suffering, the Syrians deserved a life in freedom and security. It is the task of the new rulers to ensure this. "We will work with them on this basis," said Scholz.
Following the uprising in Syria, the chairman of the CDU, Friedrich Merz, is calling for stricter controls at European borders to prevent Assad's supporters from entering the country. "We Europeans must now work together as quickly as possible to ensure that the Assad regime's accomplices from the second and third ranks do not enter Europe and Germany undetected as asylum seekers," the CDU candidate for chancellor told the Rheinische Post newspaper. The EU must now control its external borders very strictly.
Turkey is considered to be the most influential foreign player in Syria following the change of power. "Ankara has the strongest communication channels and has long been working with the Islamist group that is currently in charge in Damascus," wrote analyst Gönül Tol in the magazine "Foreign Affairs". There was no control over the HTS, but it had made it clear to the group that it hoped for a peaceful transition, a person familiar with the matter in Ankara told dpa.
War in the Gaza Strip continues
Meanwhile, the war in the Gaza Strip between Israel and the Islamist Hamas continues. According to the Israeli air force, it once again attacked a Hamas command center in the city of Gaza in the north of the sealed-off coastal strip. It was located in a building that used to be a school, the army announced at night. The attack was aimed at Hamas terrorists who were planning attacks on Israel's troops in Gaza and on Israeli territory "in the immediate future". Before the "precise attack", numerous measures were taken to reduce the danger to civilians. The army's claims could not be independently verified.
No details of possible casualties were given. The army had previously announced that two more rockets had been fired at Israel from Gaza. They had been intercepted, it said. Rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip, which has been embattled for more than a year, have been rather rare recently.
The war was triggered by the massacre by Palestinian terrorists from the coastal region on October 7 last year in Israel, which left 1,200 dead and around 250 people displaced. Since then, Israel has been fighting against the Islamist Hamas in Gaza, where, according to Palestinian figures, almost 45,000 people have been killed so far. The figures do not differentiate between fighters and civilians.
