• UN calls for free and fair polls in Syria
• Saudi crown prince, Iraqi PM discuss future of Damascus

DAMASCUS: The first flight since the ouster of Syria’s president Bashar al-Assad took off on Wednesday from Damascus airport to Aleppo in the country’s north.

Forty-three people including journalists were on board the Syrian Air plane.

Bashar al-Assad fled Syria as a lightning rebel offensive launched on Nov 27 wrested city after city from his control.

His army and security forces abandoned Damascus airport on Dec 8, and until Wednesday no flights had taken off or landed.

Meanwhile, the UN envoy to Syria called for “free and fair” elections after the ouster of president Bashar al-Assad, as he voiced hope for a political solution for Kurdish-held areas.

Addressing reporters in Damascus, UN special envoy Geir Pedersen said “there is a lot of hope that we can now see the beginning of a new Syria”.

“A new Syria that […] will adopt a new constitution… and that we will have free and fair elections when that time comes, after a transitional period,” he said.

Calling for immediate humanitarian assistance, he also said he hoped to see an end to international sanctions levied against Syria.

Pedersen said a key challenge was the situation in Kurdish-held areas in Syria’s northeast, amid fears of a major escalation between the US-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and Turkiye-backed militant groups.

Turkiye accuses the main component of the SDF, the People’s Protection Units (YPG), of being affiliated with Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants at home, whom both Washington and Ankara consider a “terrorist” group.

The United States said on Tuesday it had brokered an extension to a fragile ceasefire in the flashpoint town of Manbij and was seeking a broader understanding with Turkiye.

HTS military chief Murhaf Abu Qasra said Kurdish-held areas would be integrated under the country’s new leadership, adding that the group rejects federalism.

“Syria will not be divided,” he said, adding that “the Kurdish people are one of the components of the Syrian people”.

He said HTS would be “among the first” factions to dissolve its armed wing and integrate into the armed forces, after the leader of the group ordered the disbanding of rebel organisations.

Members of the UN Security Council, which includes Assad’s ally Russia as well as the United States, called on Tuesday for an “inclusive and Syrian-led” political process.

“This political process should meet the legitimate aspirations of all Syrians, protect all of them and enable them to peacefully, independently and democratically determine their own futures,” a statement said.

It also “underlined the need for Syria and its neighbours to mutually refrain from any action … that could undermine each other’s security”.

Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes on Syrian military assets since Assad’s overthrow.

Israeli troops also occupied strategic positions in a UN-patrolled buffer zone in a move United Nations chief Antonio Guterres described as a breach of a 1974 armistice.

Former opposition leader

Hadi al-Bahra, head of the Syrian National Coalition that grouped opponents of Bashar al-Assad during the civil war, said on Wednesday Syria’s transitional government should be credible and not exclude any Syrian party or be based on sectarianism.

The Syrian National Coalition would return to Syria and set up headquarters there, former Syrian opposition leader al-Bahra said, adding that he intended to return as well.

MBS, Iraqi PM discuss Syria

Iraq’s Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani discussed developments in Syria at a meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman during a visit to Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, Sudani’s office said.

Sudani emphasised “Iraq’s keenness on the unity of Syria, non-interference in internal affairs, and respect for the free will of the Syrians”, his office said.

Published in Dawn, December 19th, 2024