Damascus, Syria – A UN envoy has warned that Syria’s protracted conflict “has not ended yet”, even as victorious Islamist-led rebels stepped up contacts with governments that deemed ousted president Bashar al-Assad a pariah.
Assad fled Syria just over a week ago following a lightning offensive spearheaded by the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), more than 13 years after his crackdown on democracy protests precipitated one of the deadliest wars of the century.
However, the United Nations’ special envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, said on Tuesday “there have been significant hostilities in the last two weeks, before a ceasefire was brokered”.
“I am seriously concerned about reports of military escalation. Such an escalation could be catastrophic,” said Pedersen, referring to fighting between the US-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and Turkish-backed groups who have captured several Kurdish towns in recent weeks.
Washington later announced it had brokered an extension to the ceasefire in the flashpoint town of Manbij and was seeking a broader understanding with Ankara.
The Manbij truce “is extended through the end of the week and we will, obviously, look to see that ceasefire extended as far as possible into the future”, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters.
That came amid fears of an assault by Turkey on the Kurdish-held border town of Kobane, also known as Ain al-Arab.
SDF leader Mazloum Abdi proposed in a post on social media platform X the establishment of a “demilitarised zone” in Kobane under US supervision.
Washington regards the SDF as an important ally in its war against the Islamic State group in Syria, although the new Damascus authorities have made clear their opposition to continued Kurdish self-rule in the northeast.
The HTS military chief said in an AFP interview on Tuesday that Kurdish-held areas of Syria would be integrated under the country’s new leadership.
“The Kurdish people are one of the components of the Syrian people… Syria will not be divided and there will be no federal entities,” said Murhaf Abu Qasra, known by his nom de guerre Abu Hassan al-Hamawi.
Abu Qasra also called on the international community to “find a solution” to repeated Israeli strikes on military targets and its “incursion” into the UN-patrolled buffer zone on the Golan Heights.
Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes on Syrian military assets since Assad’s overthrow in what it says is a bid to prevent them falling into hostile hands.
Israeli troops also occupied strategic positions in a UN-patrolled buffer zone in a move UN chief Antonio Guterres described as a breach of the 1974 armistice.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a security briefing on Tuesday on Mount Hermon, Syria’s highest peak, one of the areas of the buffer zone that Israel seized this month.
Netanyahu visited “outposts at the summit of Mount Hermon for the first time since they were seized by the military”, Katz’s office said.
UN warns against mass returns
The UN’s migration chief, Amy Pope, warned against a “large-scale return” of refugees to Syria, saying it “will only destabilise the country further”.
She told AFP “tens of thousands” had fled Syria and “we are hearing that especially religious minorities are leaving”, pointing to reports that members of the Shiite Muslim minority had fled because of “the possible threat”.
Rooted in Syria’s branch of Al-Qaeda, HTS is proscribed by several Western governments as a terrorist organisation, although it has sought to moderate its rhetoric and pledged to protect the country’s religious minorities.
Members of the UN Security Council — which includes Assad 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 Council 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”.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also pledged to intensify the EU’s engagement with Syria’s new rulers.
“Now we have to step up and continue our direct engagement with HTS and other factions,” she said after talks in Ankara.
France sent a delegation to Damascus, with special envoy Jean-Francois Guillaume saying his country was preparing to stand with Syrians during the transition.
A British delegation also visited Damascus this week for “meetings with the new interim Syrian authorities”, Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s spokesman said.
Syria came under international sanctions over Assad’s crackdown on an uprising against his rule, which sparked a war that killed more than 500,000 people and the exodus of millions of refugees.
Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, who heads HTS, stressed the need in a meeting with the British delegation to end “all sanctions imposed on Syria so that Syrian refugees can return to their country”.
‘Finally’ able to weep
Many shops in Damascus’s old souk had reopened more than a week after Assad’s ouster, according to an AFP journalist.
Some shopkeepers were painting their store facades white, erasing the colours of the old Syrian flag that had become ubiquitous under Assad’s rule.
“White is the colour of peace,” said Omar Bashur, a 61-year-old artisan.
Around the country, Syrians deprived for years of news of missing loved ones searched desperately for clues.
In a war-ravaged Palestinian refugee camp near Damascus, Radwan Adwan was stacking stones to rebuild his father’s grave, finally able to return to the cemetery.
“Without the fall of the regime, it would have been impossible to see my father’s grave again,” the 45-year-old said.
His mother Zeina said she was “finally” able to weep for him. “Before, my tears were dry.”
Syria ex-rebel military chief says to dissolve armed wing
The military chief of Syria’s victorious Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham said on Tuesday it would be “the first” to dissolve its armed wing and integrate into the armed forces.
“In any state, all military units must be integrated into this institution,” Murhaf Abu Qasra, known by his nom de guerre Abu Hassan al-Hamawi, said in an interview with AFP, adding that “we will be, God willing, among the first to take the initiative (to dissolve our armed wing)”.
He added that Kurdish-held areas of Syria would be integrated under the country’s new leadership, adding that the group rejects federalism and that “Syria will not be divided”.
“The Kurdish people are one of the components of the Syrian people… Syria will not be devided and there will be no federal entities,” he said.
A US-backed, Kurdish-led administration controls swathes of north and northeastern Syria, and has recently been battling Turkish-backed groups which have captured several Kurdish towns.
Abu Qasra also called on the international community to “find a solution” to repeated Israeli strikes and an “incursion” into Syrian territory.
“We view the Israeli strikes on military sites and the incursion into southern Syria as injust… we call on the international community to find a solution to this matter,” he said.
Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes on Syrian military assets in what it says is a bid to prevent them falling into hostile hands.
It has also sent troops into the UN-patrolled buffer zone on the Golan Heights.
Abu Qasra also called on Western governments to lift the “terrorist” designation from HTS and its leader Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, now using his real name Ahmed al-Sharaa.
“We call on the United States and all countries to lift this designation… on his person and the whole group,” he said, describing it as “unjust” and saying that the group “will ultimately be integrated into state institutions”.
The radical Sunni Islamist group has been proscribed as a terrorist organisation by Western governments including the United States and Britain.
It has recently sought to moderate its rhetoric and assure the international community that religious and other minorities will be protected in the country.