Thursday 12 / December / 2024
Former President Assad's prime minister, Mohammed Jalali, has agreed to transfer power to the rebel-led "Salvation Government", which is currently run out of their stronghold in northwest Syria.
Rebel commander Ahmed al-Sharaa, better known by his nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Golani, met with Jalali and Vice President Faisal Mekdad to discuss the state of the transitional government, Reuters news agency reported.
Jalali said the handover may take several days.
Al Jazeera reported that the transitional government will likely be led by Mohamed al-Bashir, who has been leading the Salvation Government already.
In small signs of returns to normality, Syria's banks were open for business again on Tuesday and the state oil ministry urged employees to return to work.
Israel denies its forces have gone past Syria buffer zone
Israel had seized a buffer zone inside Syria, about 155 square miles in size, a day after rebel forces overthrew Bashar Assad's government.
Security sources then told reporters that Israeli troops have advanced into Syrian territory , something the Israeli military denied.
"It's not true, the forces have not left the buffer zone," Reuters news agency reported quoting an Israeli military spokesperson as saying.
Israel also denied a desire to take over more territory in Syria.
But the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said they would deploy in the buffer zone and "several other places necessary for (Israel's') defense."
The Turkish Foreign Ministry accused Israel of violating international treaties with the move.
"We strongly condemn Israel's violation of the 1974 Separation of Forces Agreement, its entry into the separation zone between Israel and Syria, and its advance into Syrian territory," the ministry said in a statement.
The statement accused Israel of continuing to display an "occupation mentality."
Israel ramps up strikes on military sites in Syria
A day after laying claim to a buffer zone inside Syrian territory, Israel pounded Syrian army bases with airstrikes.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it has recorded more than 300 Israeli strikes on Syria since rebels toppled Bashar Assad’s government on Sunday.
The war monitor "has been able to document around 310 strikes" carried out by "Israeli warplanes," it said.
The airstrikes focused on Syrian airbases and their contents, including warehouses, aircraft, radar systems and military signal stations, scientific research centres and weapons across Syria, it added.
Scholz, Macron ready to work with Syrian rebels
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron said they are willing to work with the Syrian rebel groups who ousted President Bashar Assad on certain conditions, according to a German government statement after a phone call between the two leaders.
Scholz and Macron "agreed that they were prepared to work together with the new rulers on the basis of fundamental human rights and the protection of ethnic and religious minorities," the statement released late Monday read.
The two leaders had expressed positive feelings about the ouster of Assad, who they said caused "terrible suffering to the Syrian people and great damage to his country."
Switzerland suspends asylum procedures for Syrians
The Swiss government has said it will suspend asylum procedures for Syrians following the overthrow of the Assad regime, joining several other European countries who say they need time to assess the state of security in the Middle Eastern country.
"The secretariat is suspending asylum procedures and decisions for asylum seekers from Syria with immediate effect
until the situation can be reassessed," Switzerland's state secretariat for migration said on X, formerly Twitter.
Germany, Italy, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and the United Kingdom have all said they are postponing decisions on asylum applications of Syrian citizens until it can be ascertained whether Syria can be classified as a safe country.
