Hezbollah leaders have expressed dismay at Israel's military actions in Syria, rejecting what the group calls an "occupation" by the country it is fighting in Lebanon.
"We hope to see Syria stabilize... and take a firm stand against the Israeli occupation, while preventing foreign interference in its affairs," the Iran-backed armed group said in a statement, according to AFP.
The world has no reason to fear the new Syrian regime, said the leader of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham rebel group.
Abu Mohamed al Golani told Sky News in his remarks he tried to appease foreign nations and promised that Syria would be "restored":
"Their fears are unnecessary, God willing. The fear was linked to the presence of the [Assad] regime. The country is moving towards development and reconstruction. It is moving towards stability. People are exhausted from the war. That is why the country is not ready for another war and will not enter into the source of our fears were the Iranian militias and the regime that committed the massacres that we are witnessing today. Their removal is the solution for Syria. The current situation will not allow a return to a state of panic," he said al Golani.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov revealed in an exclusive interview with NBC News that Moscow had given Bashar al-Assad sanctuary after he was flown to the Russian capital on Sunday "in the safest possible way."
This statement represents the first official confirmation by a Russian official that the former Syrian leader is in Russia, NBC reported.
"He is secured, and it shows that Russia is acting as it should in such an extraordinary situation. I have no idea what is happening with him right now. It would be very wrong of me to talk about what happened and how the matter was resolved." Ryabkov said.
He stressed that Russia would continue to support Assad and would refuse to hand him over to the International Criminal Court (ICC) for trial for human rights violations, even if requested.
"Russia is not a signatory to the convention that established the ICC," Ryabkov pointed out.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed tonight that his country had launched a series of airstrikes across Syria aimed at destroying the remaining military capabilities of the ousted government and said he wanted to establish relations with the new government being formed in the country.
Hours after Israeli warplanes struck Syria, Netanyahu said Israel did not want to interfere in Syria's internal affairs, but would take the necessary steps to protect its security and prevent jihadist extremists from taking over Syrian army assets and weapons.
He warned that if the new Syrian government allows Iran to reassert itself in Syria, or allows the transfer of Iranian or any other weapons to (Lebanese) Hezbollah, or if it attacks Israel, the response will be violent and the price high, the Associated Press reported.
Netanyahu's video announcement was recorded at the headquarters of the Israeli army in Tel Aviv, after the first day of testimony at the corruption trial.
He said that Israel will not hesitate if the new regime in Syria attacks or threatens the Jewish state.
"What happened to the previous regime will also happen to the new regime," warned the Israeli leader.
Netanyahu compared Israel's bombing of strategic Syrian military targets this week to the Royal Navy's 1940 bombing of the French fleet in Algeria, to keep it from falling into Nazi hands.
(BETA)
The White House signaled today that it approves Israeli attacks on Syrian army targets, as well as the takeover of the buffer zone on the Golan Heights after the fall of Bashar al-Assad's government.
"These are demanding operations to eliminate what are believed to be immediate threats to their national security," White House national security spokesman John Kirby said today, adding that the US would let the Israelis discuss the details of their operations.
"They always have the right to defend themselves," Kirby said. He refused to reveal details and US intelligence cooperation with Israel regarding these attacks.
Kirby said the White House was reaffirming support for the 1974 separation agreement in the Golan Heights, but did not criticize Israel's takeover of the demilitarized zone.
Israel has long occupied the territory during wars with its neighbors and keeps it under occupation indefinitely, citing concern for its own security as the reason.
(BETA)
US President Joe Biden said that US forces will remain in northeastern Syria, where they support the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces against the Islamic State. About 900 US soldiers are currently deployed in that part of the country.
During Syria's brutal civil war, the US has repeatedly argued that Assad has lost credibility, but has refrained from directly advocating his fall because of suspicions of Islamist rebels, the Guardian reports.
Outgoing US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has called for an "inclusive" political process in Syria, noting that the US will recognize a future government if it meets such standards.
"The Syrian people will decide the future of Syria. All nations should pledge to support an inclusive and transparent process and refrain from outside interference," Blinken said in a statement.
"The United States will recognize and fully support the future government of Syria that results from that process," he added.
Blinken said Syria's future government should be "credible, inclusive and non-sectarian after Islamist rebels ousted Bashar al-Assad, a member of the minority Alawite community who led a secular dictatorship."
He emphasized that the new government must "clearly respect the rights of minorities" and enable the flow of humanitarian aid
He added that the US wants the next government to "prevent the use of Syria as a base for terrorism, to not pose a threat to its neighbors, and to ensure that stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons are safely destroyed," reports the Guardian.
The UN may consider delisting the Syrian rebel group that ousted Bashar al-Assad's regime, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), from the list of terrorist organizations if the group passes a key test of forming an inclusive transitional government, a senior UN official said.
Geir Pedersen, the UN special envoy for Syria, hinted at the possibility of removing HTS from the list of banned terrorist groups. However, he pointed out that the group cannot rule Syria in the same way it ruled Idlib province, where its base was located and from where it launched the military breakthrough that led to the sudden collapse of the Assad regime.
At a briefing in Geneva, Pedersen said that Syria is still at a crossroads and that the situation is extremely volatile, reports the Guardian.
Speaking about the future status of HTS, he recalled that UN resolution 2254 designated the predecessor of HTS - al-Nusra Front - as a terrorist organization.
"It's a compounding factor for all of us," he said.
"We must be honest and look at the facts. Nine years have passed since the adoption of that resolution, and the reality is that HTS and other armed groups have sent good messages to the Syrian people about unity and inclusiveness. On the ground, in Hamah and Aleppo, there are positive signals," he added.
Israel's military said today it had carried out strikes on a total of 320 strategic targets in Syria since the fall of Bashar al-Assad's regime at the weekend, destroying a variety of advanced weapons amid fears they could fall into enemy hands, including Lebanon's Hezbollah.
The operation, whose goal is to destroy the weapons of Assad's army, is called the Star of Bashan after the biblical name of the region on the Golan Heights and southern Syria, according to Israeli media.
The army estimates that 70 percent of the strategic military capabilities of the former Assad regime were destroyed in those attacks.
The attacks began late on Saturday and first targeted Syrian air defenses, giving Israel's air force more freedom.
A total of 320 targets were hit across Syria from Damascus to Tartus.
In addition to the anti-aircraft defense system, rocket warehouses, production facilities, drones, helicopters, fighter planes, tanks, radars, ships, among other things, were destroyed, according to the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces).
Syrian ships were destroyed last night in a major operation by the Israeli navy.
The army stated that, among other things, long-range missiles, Scud and cruise missiles, and surface-to-sea missiles were destroyed.
The IDF also targeted several chemical weapons sites in a series of attacks, Israeli officials said.
After the fall of the Assad regime, the IDF said it was tracking advanced weapons to Syria and working to keep them from reaching Hezbollah or any other hostile force that could threaten Israel.
Meanwhile, the army is still deployed in the buffer zone between Israel and Syria on the Golan Heights on the Syrian side of the border as part of the aforementioned operation.
The military has stressed that the deployment to the buffer zone is a defensive and temporary measure amid the chaos in Syria, but that it is possible that troops will remain there for a long time depending on developments.
They will not directly interfere in the incidents in Syria and will reportedly only conduct defensive operations.
(BETA)
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said its troops were operating outside the demilitarized zone in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, a rocky plateau about 60 kilometers southwest of Damascus, which Israel unilaterally annexed in 1981.
A demilitarized zone between Syria and the Golan Heights was established in 1974, after the Yom Kippur War, which began with a surprise attack on Israel by Egypt and Syria. UN peacekeepers have been patrolling the demilitarized zone since 1974.
Israeli army spokesman, Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, said today that Israeli troops are in the demilitarized zone and in "several additional locations" near it.
This is the first official Israeli acknowledgment that its forces have moved out of that zone.
"We are not involved in what is happening inside Syria, we are not a party to that conflict and we have no interest other than the protection of our borders and the safety of our citizens," Shoshani said, according to Reuters.
However, the IDF denied some media reports that its forces were "advancing towards Damascus".
Members of the Syrian government under the leadership of ousted President Bashar al-Assad will gradually transfer power to a new transitional cabinet led by Muhammad al-Bashir.
The outgoing government met with al-Bashir for the first time since Assad fled Damascus last weekend. But who exactly is the rebel leader who helped topple the Assad regime?
El Bashir was born in 1983 in Jabal al-Zawiya, in Idlib province, an area that in recent years has been largely controlled by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and allied factions with less influence, the Guardian writes.
According to his biography, he studied electrical and electronic engineering at the University of Aleppo, as well as Islamic and civil law at the University of Idlib. He also worked for the Syrian state gas company.
El Bashir has been the head of the rebel administration known as the "Salvation Government" since January, and previously held the position of "Minister of Development" in the same government.
The "Salvation Government", with its ministries, departments, judicial and security agencies, was established in Idlib in 2017 to provide assistance to people in rebel-held areas who were cut off from government services.
It has since begun providing aid in Aleppo, the first major city to fall under rebel control after they launched a lightning offensive on November 27, seizing large swaths of territory and taking over the capital on Sunday, ousting Assad.
Bashir, an engineer in his early forties, will now temporarily lead the national government in very uncertain times.
The Palestinian news agency Wafa announced that six people were killed in Israeli attacks on Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip.
Muhammad al-Bashir was appointed as the interim prime minister of the transitional Syrian government until March 1 next year.
Bashir said this in a televised address, Reuters reports.
After the start of the Syrian uprising against the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in 2021, al-Bashir left his job in state institutions and joined the "rebel ranks".
He previously headed the Government of National Salvation, which was affiliated with Hayat Tarir al-Sham (HTS) and governed parts of northwestern Syria and Idlib.
Between 2022 and 2023, El Bashir served as Minister of Development and Humanitarian Affairs in the government of his predecessor, Ali Keda.
In January of this year, the council of the Government of National Salvation elected him as prime minister.
In late November, when HTS and other Syrian rebel groups launched an offensive in northwest Syria and captured Aleppo, al-Bashir said at a press conference that the offensive was a response to "the Syrian regime's attacks on civilians, which have displaced tens of thousands of people."
(MINE)
"These days we are all praying for peace and an end to conflicts in the Middle East and around the world," said the President of the Parliament of Montenegro Andrija Mandić at today's meeting with the newly elected Israeli Ambassador Avivit Bar-Ilan.
Saudi Arabia condemned today the Israeli incursion into the buffer zone in Syria and the series of Israeli airstrikes launched after the overthrow of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Turkey published a similar statement earlier.
"The attacks carried out by the Israeli occupation government, including the takeover of the buffer zone in the Golan Heights and the targeting of Syrian territory, confirm Israel's continued violation of the principles of international law and its determination to sabotage Syria's chances of restoring security, stability and territorial integrity," the statement said. reported by the agency.
Saudi Arabia has held talks with the US in recent years about normalizing relations with Israel in exchange for a US defense pact, US help in establishing a civilian nuclear program and a path to the establishment of a Palestinian state.
The kingdom has also repeatedly condemned Israel's war in Gaza.
On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israeli soldiers had temporarily taken control of a demilitarized buffer zone in the occupied Golan Heights about 60 kilometers southwest of Damascus.
Israel occupied the territory in the Six-Day War in 1967 and later annexed it.
When the Assad regime fell at the weekend, Netanyahu said the 50-year-old agreement to separate Syrian and Israeli forces had failed as the Syrian army abandoned its positions as rebels took over the country.
"We will not allow any enemy forces to establish themselves on the border," Netanyahu said.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkey stated in a statement that it strongly condemns Israel's violation of the 1974 separation agreement by entering the Israeli-Syrian zone and continuing to advance into Syrian territory. In the statement, it is assessed that Israel is again showing an occupation mentality in a sensitive period.
(BETA)
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz warned Syrian rebels today that whoever follows in the footsteps of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad will end up like him.
Katz said Israeli missile ships destroyed the Syrian military fleet in an operation last night as part of a broad campaign to eliminate strategic threats to the country.
"The Israeli Defense Forces have acted over the past few days to attack and destroy strategic capabilities that threaten the State of Israel," Katz said, adding that the extremist Islamist terrorist entity would not be allowed to operate against Israel outside its borders.
Katz, visiting the naval base in Haifa in the north of Israel, the day after the Syrian fleet was destroyed by missiles fired from warships, informed senior officers how the operation was carried out, Israeli media reported.
"We will do everything to eliminate that threat," Katz said, threatening that any entity that poses a threat to Israel will be targeted mercilessly.
He reiterated that the IDF is creating a demilitarized zone, without a permanent Israeli presence, outside the buffer zone they have taken over in the border area.
Katz explained that Israeli forces are being deployed in a buffer zone between Syria and the Israeli-occupied part of the Golan Heights and that he has ordered the creation of a "sterile defense zone" in southern Syria to eliminate any terrorist threat to the Jewish state.
(BETA)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said today in a court in Tel Aviv that the accusations against him are "an ocean of absurdity".
He stated that he did not care about favorable media coverage of himself and that the reality is quite the opposite, and that he is focused not on his future, but on the future of Israel. He claims that his family was faced with "attacks, slander and lies of such proportions that few public figures have experienced" and that there are probably no similar cases in the world.
Netanyahu has been charged with fraud, abuse of office and bribery in three separate cases
The research center in Damascus, which is part of the Ministry of Defense of Syria, was completely destroyed by Israeli attacks, reported the Agence France-Presse this morning.
The research center in Barze was the target of an attack last night.
The center, which the United States claimed was linked to Syria's chemical weapons program, was already targeted in April 2018 during US, French and British strikes.
The Israeli army destroyed the main military facilities and locations in Syria after carrying out about 300 strikes on Syrian territory since President Bashar al-Assad was overthrown, the Syrian Observatory for Rights (OSDH) announced today.
Assad was ousted on Sunday when rebels stormed the capital Damascus, marking the end of his family's rule, which had ruled Syria for more than half a century.
(BETA)
The Israeli army today denied reports of Israeli tanks advancing towards the Syrian capital Damascus, adding that Israeli forces are stationed in a buffer zone on the edge of the occupied part of the Golan Heights annexed by Israel.
"Reports spread by some media that the Israeli armed forces are advancing towards Damascus or approaching Damascus are completely false," the army's Arabic-language spokesman, Avichay Adraee, wrote on the social network Ix (X).
The Israeli armed forces are stationed in the buffer zone and at defense points near the border to protect Israel's borders, the spokesman added.
(BETA)
The Israeli army has "destroyed the main military sites in Syria" by carrying out about 250 strikes on Syrian territory since the overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian Observatory for Rights (OSDH) announced today.
According to the organization, which relies on a vast network of sources across Syria, Israel has bombed airports, radars, weapons and ammunition depots.
Military research centers were targeted, and ships of Syrian Navy units near the main port of Latakia, in the northwest of the country, were also damaged.
Bashar al-Assad was ousted on Sunday when rebels stormed the capital Damascus, marking the end of his family's rule of more than half a century.
(BETA)
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