The UN Security Council will discuss Syria after the fall of Assad

2024-12-09 14:47:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

The United Nations Security Council will hold a closed-door meeting on Monday on the situation in Syria, following a breakthrough by rebels who ousted President Bashar al-Assad.

Russia, which provided military aid to Assad during the nearly 14-year Syrian civil war, requested a Security Council session to discuss the developments, including the impact on the UN peacekeeping mission in the Golan Heights.

Israeli troops deployed to the UN-monitored buffer zone in the Golan Heights on Sunday, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying the move was necessary to protect Israelis after Syrian forces abandoned their positions.

Many questions remain about who will lead Syria and how the country will try to recover from years of war and nearly five decades under the rule of the Assad family.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement late Sunday that the United States would "closely monitor developments as they unfold and engage with our partners in the region."

"The United States strongly supports a peaceful transition of power to a responsible Syrian government through a comprehensive Syrian-led process," said Secretary Blinken. "During this transitional period, the Syrian people have every right to demand the preservation of state institutions, the resumption of essential services and the protection of vulnerable communities."

Secretary Blinken said the United States will support international efforts to hold Assad and others accountable for abuses against the Syrian people and the detention of civilians such as American journalist Austin Tice. Bashar al Assad has been accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity during the country's civil war, including a 2013 chemical weapons attack on the outskirts of Damascus.

More than half a million Syrians died in the war, and the conflict displaced at least half of the country's pre-war population of over 22 million.

Assad's fall caused crowds to gather and celebrate in Damascus and elsewhere.

Rebels opened prisons where Assad's government held thousands of people as part of a crackdown on an uprising that began in 2011 against his rule.

The focus continued on Monday around Saydnaya prison outside Damascus, where the White Helmets rescue organization said it had deployed teams to search for possible hidden underground cells where prisoners may still be held.

Russian news agencies said on Sunday that Assad and his family had arrived in Moscow and had been offered asylum in Russia.

Assad's fall was extremely swift, with the rebels capturing the cities of Aleppo, Hama and Homs within days, while the Syrian army put an end to all resistance. The insurgents are led by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group, which has its origins in al-Qaeda and is considered a terrorist organization by the United States and the United Nations.

Abu Mohammed al-Golani leads the HTS group and may determine the immediate direction of the country. He is a former al-Qaeda commander who cut ties with the group years ago and says he embraces religious pluralism and tolerance.

But there are deep divisions in the country. Turkish-backed opposition fighters are fighting US-allied Kurdish forces in the north, and the Islamic State militant group is still active in some deep areas./ Voa