New Syria leaders’ Islamist ties are ‘worrying’, says UAE official
Meeting of the Arab Contact Group on Syria in Jordan on Dec 14 Credit: ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/REUTERS
A senior UAE official has expressed concerns about the Islamist affiliation of the forces that ousted Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.
“We hear some reasonable, rational language about unity, not imposing a system on all Syrians. On the other hand, the nature of the new forces, the affiliation with the (Muslim) Brotherhood, the affiliation with Al-Qaeda, I think these are all indicators that are quite worrying,” said Anwar Gargash, a presidential adviser in the United Arab Emirates, in remarks at the World Policy Conference in Abu Dhabi.
Rebel forces who toppled the Assad regime have been working to reopen Damascus international airport.
The new Syrian government has identified a fully-functioning airport as crucial to instilling confidence and legitimacy.
“Damascus international airport is the heart of the city because it is the gateway for international delegations and missions,” said Omar al-Shami, a security official with rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), calling it “the passage for Syria to breathe.”
Israel has launched strikes on military sites in Damascus and its countryside on Saturday morning, according to a Syria war monitor.
“Israeli strikes destroyed a scientific institute” and other related military facilities in Barzeh, in northern Damascus, and targeted a “military airport” in the capital’s countryside, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Strikes also targeted “Scud ballistic missile warehouses” and launchers in the Qalamun area, as well as “rockets, depots and tunnels under the mountain”, the Britain-based monitor said.
Since Assad’s fall last week, Israel has launched hundreds of strikes against Syrian military sites, targeting everything from chemical weapons stores to air defenses.
Israel air strikes on Friday targeted “a missile base at the top of Damascus’s Mount Qasyun”, the group said, as well as an airport in southern Sweida province and “defense and research labs in Masyaf”, in Hama province.
— As the world watches Syria grapple with the aftermath of Bashar al-Assad’s brutal regime and the formation of a new government, one country has emerged as having great influence over the new Syria: its neighbor to the north, Turkey.
In a press conference on Monday, President-elect Donald Trump said he believed that Turkey was behind Assad’s downfall.
“Turkey did an unfriendly takeover without a lot of lives being lost,” Trump said. “I think Turkey is going to hold the key to Syria.”
The Turkish government has not publicly commented on Trump’s remarks.
