Thousands of Syrians gathered in Damascus’ main square and a historic mosque for the first Muslim Friday prayers since former President Bashar Assad was overthrown, a major symbolic moment for the country’s dramatic change of power. The rebels are now working to establish security and start a political transition after seizing the capital on Sunday.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken made an unannounced visit to Iraq on Friday, pressing ahead with efforts to unify Middle East nations in support of a peaceful political transition in Syria. It’s part of Blinken’s 12th trip to the Mideast since the Israel–Hamas war erupted last year in Gaza but his first after Assad was ousted.
Blinken arrived in Iraq after talks in Jordan and Turkey, which backs some of the Syrian insurgent factions. So far, U.S. officials have not talked of direct meetings with Syria’s new rulers.
The main insurgent force, the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) terrorist group, has worked to establish security and start a political transition after seizing Damascus early Sunday. The group has tried to reassure a public both stunned by Assad’s fall and concerned about extremist jihadis among the rebels.
Insurgent leaders say the group has broken with its extremist past, though HTS is still labeled a terrorist group by the United States and European countries.
HTS’s leader, Ahmad al-Sharaa, formerly known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani, appeared in a video message Friday congratulating “the great Syrian people for the victory of the blessed revolution.”
Syrians Celebrate in Damascus
Huge crowds, including some insurgents, packed the historic Umayyad Mosque in the capital’s old city, many waving the rebel opposition flag—with its three red stars—which has swiftly replaced the Assad-era flag with with its two green stars.Blocks away in Damascus’ biggest roundabout, named Umayyad Square, thousands gathered, including many families with small children—a sign of how, so far at least, the country’s transformation has not caused violent instability.
“Unified Syria to build Syria,” the crowd chanted.
One man in the crowd, 51-year-old Khaled Abu Chahine—originally from the southern province of Daraa, where the 2011 uprising first erupted—said he hoped for “freedom and coexistence between all Syrians, Alawites, Sunnis, Shiites, and Druze.”
The interim prime minister, al-Bashir, had been the head of a de facto administration created by HTS in Idlib, the opposition’s enclave in northwest Syria. The rebels were bottled up in Idlib for years before fighters broke out in a shock offensive and marched across Syria in 10 days.
US and Allies Try to Shape a Rapidly Changing Syria
Al-Sharaa, HTS' leader, has promised to bring a pluralistic government to Syria, seeking to dispel fears among many Syrians—especially its many minority communities—that the insurgents will impose a hard-line, extremist rule.Another key factor will be winning international recognition for a new government in a country where multiple foreign powers have their hands in the mix.
The Sunni Arab insurgents who overthrew Assad did so with vital help from Turkey, a longtime foe of the U.S.-backed Kurds. Turkey controls a strip of Syrian territory along the shared border and backs an insurgent faction uneasily allied to HTS—and is deeply opposed to any gains by Syria’s Kurds.
In other developments, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said Turkey’s Embassy in Damascus would reopen Saturday for the first time since 2012, when it closed due to the Syrian civil war.
The U.S. has troops in eastern Syria to combat remnants of the ISIS terrorist group and supports Kurdish-led fighters who rule most of the east. Since Assad’s fall, Israel has bombed sites all over Syria, saying it is trying to prevent weapons from falling into extremist hands. It has also seized a swath of southern Syria along the border with the Golan Heights, calling it a buffer zone.
After talks with Fidan, Blinken said there was “broad agreement” between Turkey and the United States on what they would like to see in Syria.
That starts with an “interim government in Syria, one that is inclusive and non-sectarian and one that protects the rights of minorities and women” and does not “pose any kind of threat to any of Syria’s neighbors,” Blinken said.
Fidan said the priority was “establishing stability in Syria as soon as possible, preventing terrorism from gaining ground, and ensuring that IS and the PKK aren’t dominant”—referring to ISIS and the Kurdistan Workers Party.
Ankara considers the PKK within Turkey’s borders a terrorist group, as it does the Kurdish-backed forces in Syria backed by the United States.
In Baghdad, Blinken met with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed al-Sudani, saying both countries wanted to ensure ISIS—also known by its Arabic acronym Daesh—doesn’t exploit Syria’s transition to re-emerge.
“Having put Daesh back in its box, we can’t let it out, and we’re determined to make sure that that doesn’t happen,” Blinken said.
The U.S. official who briefed reporters said that Blinken had impressed upon al-Sudani the importance of Iraq exercising its full sovereignty over its territory and airspace to stop Iran from transporting weapons and equipment to Syria, either for Assad supporters or onward to the Hezbollah terrorist group in Lebanon.
