Crowds gathered in Damascus on Sunday to celebrate with chants, prayers and the occasional gunshot after the stunning advance by opposition forces end the 50 years of iron rule of the Assad family but it raised questions about the future of the country and the region in general.
President Bashar Assad and other officials left Syria, where their whereabouts are unknown, after resigning and hosting negotiations with rebel groups, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said on Sunday.
Omar Sanadiki / AP
In a post on the Telegram messaging app on Sunday, the ministry said Assad left Syria after negotiating with opposition fighters and gave “instructions” to “transfer power peacefully”.
“Russia did not participate in these negotiations,” said the ministry, which added that it had followed the “dramatic events” in Syria “with extreme concern.”
The White House told CBS News that Assad’s whereabouts were unknown.
It was the first time opposition forces had been in Damascus since 2018, when Syrian troops retook areas on the outskirts of the capital after a years-long siege.
Hussein Malla / AP
Videos from Damascus showed families entering the presidential palace, with some emerging carrying stacks of dishes and other household items.
“I didn’t sleep last night and refused to sleep until I heard the news of his fall,” said Mohammed Amer Al-Oulabi, 44, who works in the electricity sector. “From Idlib to Damascus, it only took them (the opposition forces) a few days, thank God. God bless them, the heroic lions who made us proud.”
Ghaith Alsayed / AP
Rapidly developing events have shaken the region. Lebanon said it will close land border crossings with Syria, except for one linking Beirut with Damascus. Jordan also closed a border crossing with Syria.
Abu Mohammed al-Golani, a former al-Qaida commander who cut ties with the group years ago and says he embraces religious pluralism and tolerance, leads the largest rebel faction and is poised to chart the future direction of the country
Hussein Malla / AP
The rebels now face the daunting task of healing bitter divisions in a war-torn country still divided between different armed factions. Turkish-backed opposition fighters are fighting US-allied Kurdish forces in the north, and the Islamic State group is still active in some remote areas.
Syrian state television early Sunday broadcast a video statement from a rebel group saying Assad had been toppled and all prisoners freed. The man who read the statement called on rebel fighters and citizens to preserve the institutions of the “free Syrian state”.
Reaction from around the world
Iran, which had strongly backed Assad’s ousted government, says Syrians should decide their country’s future “without destructive, coercive and foreign intervention”.
The Foreign Ministry’s statement on Sunday was the country’s first official reaction to the overthrow of the Assad government by rebel forces.
The UN’s special envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, called for urgent talks in Geneva on Saturday to ensure an “orderly political transition”.
The Gulf nation of Qatar, a key regional mediator, hosted an emergency meeting of foreign ministers and senior officials from eight countries with interests in Syria on Saturday afternoon. Participants included Iran, Saudi Arabia, Russia and Turkey.
“President Biden and his team are closely monitoring the extraordinary events in Syria and are in constant contact with regional partners,” said White House National Security Council spokesman Sean Savett. he wrote in social networks.
Saudi Press Agency via AP
The French foreign ministry said France “welcomed” the fall of the Assad government “after more than 13 years of violent repression against its own people”.
The ministry said in a statement: “The Syrian people have suffered too much. Bashar Assad has bled the country dry, emptied of a large part of its people who, if not forced into exile, have been massacred, tortured and bombed with chemical weapons by the regime and its allies”.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock expressed understanding for the relief felt by the Syrian people after the fall of the Assad government, but warned that “the country must not now fall into the hands of other radicals”.
“Several hundred thousand Syrians have died in the civil war, millions have fled,” Baerbock said in a statement emailed to his office on Sunday. “Assad has killed, tortured and used poison gas against his own people. He must finally be held accountable for this.”
The war in Syria began in 2011 when a pro-democracy uprising calling for an end to Assad’s long reign quickly turned into a brutal civil war. Since then, the conflict has killed more than 500,000 people and displaced some 12 million from their homes.