Written by Maya Gebaili and Taimour Azhari
DAMASCUS (Reuters) – Refugees from Syria's ongoing civil war returned home on Wednesday as a new interim prime minister announced he had been appointed with the support of opposition fighters who ousted President Bashar al-Assad.
US officials, dealing with the rebels led by Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham, have urged the rebels not to take automatic leadership of the country, but rather manage a comprehensive process to form a transitional government instead.
The US Secretary of State said that the new government must “adhere to clear commitments to fully respect the rights of minorities, facilitate the flow of humanitarian aid to all those in need, and prevent Syria from being used as a base for terrorism or posing a threat to its neighbors.” Antony Blinken said in a statement.
Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham is a former al-Qaeda affiliate that led the anti-Assad revolt, and has recently downplayed its jihadist roots.
In a brief speech broadcast on state television on Tuesday, Mohammed al-Bashir, a little-known figure in most of Syria, said he would lead the interim authority until March 1.
He added, “Today we held a cabinet meeting that included a team from the Salvation Government that was operating in Idlib and its environs and the government of the former regime.”
Al-Bashir was running the rebel-led Salvation Government before the 12-day blitz swept Damascus.
Behind him were two flags: the green, black and white flag raised by Assad's opponents throughout the civil war, and a white flag with the Islamic oath of faith written in black, usually raised by Sunni Islamist fighters in Syria.
Huge rebuild
Rebuilding Syria will be an enormous task in the wake of a civil war that has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives. Cities have been bombed into rubble, swaths of the countryside have been depopulated, the economy has been damaged by international sanctions, and millions of refugees still live in camps after one of the largest displacements in modern times.
As European countries halted asylum requests from Syrians, some refugees from Türkiye and elsewhere began returning to their homes.
Alaa Jaber cried as he prepared to cross from Türkiye into Syria with his 10-year-old daughter on Tuesday, 13 years after war forced him to flee his home.
He returns without his wife and three children, who died in the devastating earthquakes that struck the region last year.
“God willing, things will be better than they were under Assad’s government,” he said. “We have already seen that his oppression has ended.”
“The most important reason for my return is that my mother lives in Latakia. She can take care of my daughter so I can work,” Jaber said.
In the Syrian capital, Damascus, banks reopened for the first time since the ouster of Assad on Tuesday. Shops were open again, traffic was back on the roads, cleaners were out cleaning the streets, and there were fewer armed men.
US Warning
US Deputy National Security Advisor John Viner told Reuters that Washington is still working on how to deal with rebel groups, adding that so far there has been no official change in policy and that actions are what is most important.
Viner said that the American forces present in northeastern Syria as part of a counter-terrorism mission will remain there, and the most senior American general responsible for the Middle East visited them on Tuesday.
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller declined to say whether Washington would change the designation of Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham as a foreign terrorist organization, which would prevent the United States from assisting it.
“We have seen over the years any number of armed groups that have seized power, that have promised to respect minorities, that have promised to respect religious freedom, that have promised that they will govern in an inclusive manner, and then we see them fail to deliver on those promises,” he said.
Miller said that the United States asked Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham to help locate and free American journalist Austin Tice, who was kidnapped in Syria in 2012. He said that this is a “priority” for Washington.
Israeli invasion
Israeli air strikes targeted Syrian army bases, whose forces melted in the face of the rebel advance.
The Israeli military said it had hit most of Syria's strategic weapons stockpiles in the past 48 hours, and Defense Minister Israel Katz said it aimed to impose a “sterile defense zone” in southern Syria that would be enforced without a permanent troop presence.
Israel, which has sent troops across the border into a demilitarized zone inside Syria, admitted on Tuesday that its forces had also taken up some positions outside the buffer zone established following the 1973 Middle East war, although it denied they were advancing on Damascus.
The Israeli incursion, which has been condemned by Turkey, Egypt, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, creates an additional security problem for the new administration, although Israel says its intervention is temporary.
