People walk with belongings as they attempt to cross into Syria, at the Masnaa border crossing between Lebanon and Syria, after Syrian rebels ousted Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, December 10, 2024
Damascus, December 11 — Refugees from Syria’s long civil war were making their way home on Wednesday, as a new interim prime minister said he had been appointed with the backing of the rebels who toppled President Bashar al-Assad.
U.S. officials, engaging with rebels led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), urged them not to assume automatic leadership of the country but instead run an inclusive process to form a transitional government.
The new government must “uphold clear commitments to fully respect the rights of minorities, facilitate the flow of humanitarian assistance to all in need, prevent Syria from being used as a base for terrorism or posing a threat to its neighbours,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.
HTS is a former al Qaeda affiliate that led the anti-Assad revolt and has lately downplayed its jihadist roots.
Syrian Interim leader, Muhammad Al-Bashir
In a brief address on state television on Tuesday, Mohammed al-Bashir, a figure little known across most of Syria, said he would lead the interim authority until March 1.
“Today we held a cabinet meeting that included a team from the Salvation government that was working in Idlib and its vicinity, and the government of the ousted regime,” he said.
Rebuilding Syria will be a colossal task following a civil war that killed hundreds of thousands of people. Cities have been bombed to ruins, swathes of countryside depopulated, the economy gutted by international sanctions and millions of refugees still live in camps after one of the biggest displacements of modern times.Bashir ran the rebel-led Salvation Government before the 12-day lightning rebel offensive swept into Damascus.
With European countries pausing asylum applications from Syrians, some refugees from Turkey and elsewhere began making their way home.
Ala Jabeer cried as he prepared to cross from Turkey into Syria with his 10-year-old daughter on Tuesday, 13 years after the war forced him to flee his home.
He returns without his wife and three of his children who died in devastating earthquakes that struck the region last year.
“God willing, things will be better than under Assad’s government. We’ve already seen that his oppression is over,” he said.
“The most important reason for me to return is that my mother lives in Latakia. She can take care of my daughter, so I can work,” Jabeer said.
In the Syrian capital Damascus, banks reopened for the first time since Assad’s overthrow on Tuesday. Shops also opened again, traffic returned to the roads, cleaners were out sweeping the streets and there were fewer armed men about.
