New Delhi:
Rebels on a lightning advance by means of Syria mentioned they had been nearing the capital Damascus on Saturday, though the Bashar al-Assad authorities denied the military had withdrawn from areas across the metropolis. The rebels claimed that they had encircled town.
Here’s your 10-point cheat sheet to this massive story
- “Our forces have begun the ultimate part of encircling the capital,” mentioned insurgent commander Hassan Abdel Ghani, with the Islamist-led alliance that launched the offensive, information company AFP reported.
- The chief of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the Islamist group which has headed the assault, informed fighters to arrange to take the seat of Assad’s authorities, simply over per week right into a renewed offensive within the lengthy dormant battle.
- “Damascus awaits you,” mentioned HTS’s Ahmed al-Sharaa in a press release on Telegram, utilizing his actual title as an alternative of his nom de guerre, Abu Mohammed al-Jolani.
- Syria’s defence ministry mentioned military forces had been “current in all areas of the Damascus countryside”. “There isn’t any reality to information claiming our armed forces… have withdrawn” from positions close to Damascus, it mentioned. Syria’s presidency denied stories that Assad had left Damascus, saying he was “following up on his work and nationwide and constitutional duties from the capital”.
- HTS is rooted within the Syrian department of Al-Qaeda. Proscribed as a terrorist organisation by Western governments, it has sought to melt its picture in recent times. As the Islamist rebels seize extra territory, they’ve sought to reassure minority teams dwelling in areas now beneath their management. “We ask that each one sects be reassured… for the period of sectarianism and tyranny has gone away without end,” mentioned Abdel Ghani.
- Since the offensive started final week, no less than 826 individuals, largely combatants but in addition together with 111 civilians, have been killed. The United Nations mentioned the violence has displaced 3.7 lakh individuals.
- Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov mentioned Syria should not be allowed to fall into the fingers of “terrorist” rebels preventing the forces of Moscow’s ally President Bashar al-Assad. “It’s inadmissible to permit the terrorist group to take management of the lands in violation of agreements which exist, beginning with the UN Security Council Resolution 2254 which strongly reiterated sovereignty, territorial integrity and unity of the Syrian Arab Republic,” Mr Lavrov mentioned at an occasion in Qatar, referring to a 2015 UN decision for a political settlement in Syria.
- US Secretary of State Antony Blinken referred to as for a “political answer to the battle”, his spokesperson mentioned on Friday, in a name with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan.
- US President-elect Donald Trump, nonetheless, on Saturday mentioned the US ought to “not become involved” within the state of affairs in Syria. “Syria is a multitude, however isn’t our buddy, and the United States ought to don’t have anything to do with it. This isn’t our struggle. Let it play out. Do not become involved,” Trump mentioned on his Truth Social platform.
- There has been no public sign that the Biden administration is considering such an intervention. Trump has lengthy taken an isolationist method, and through this yr’s presidential marketing campaign he typically mentioned he may finish the Ukraine and Gaza wars “rapidly.”