As Assad’s Regime Collapses, Syrians Rejoice While US Pushes for Peaceful Transition
Thousands of Syrians gathered in Damascus’ main square and a historic mosque for the first Muslim Friday prayers since former President Bashar Assad was overthrown, a major symbolic moment for the country’s dramatic change of power. The rebels are now working to establish security and start a political transition after seizing the capital on Sunday.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken made an unannounced visit to Iraq on Friday, pressing ahead with efforts to unify Middle East nations in support of a peaceful political transition in Syria. It’s part of Blinken’s 12th trip to the Mideast since the Israel–Hamas war erupted last year in Gaza but his first after Assad was ousted.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken (2nd R) attends a briefing with U.S. Army Major General Kevin Leahy (R), commander of the Combined Joint Task Force–Operation Inherent Resolve, at the U.S. Embassy headquarters in Baghdad, Iraq, on Dec. 13, 2024. Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/Pool/AFP via Getty Images
Blinken arrived in Iraq after talks in Jordan and Turkey, which backs some of the Syrian insurgent factions. So far, U.S. officials have not talked of direct meetings with Syria’s new rulers.
The main insurgent force, the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) terrorist group, has worked to establish security and start a political transition after seizing Damascus early Sunday. The group has tried to reassure a public both stunned by Assad’s fall and concerned about extremist jihadis among the rebels.
Insurgent leaders say the group has broken with its extremist past, though HTS is still labeled a terrorist group by the United States and European countries.
HTS’s leader, Ahmad al-Sharaa, formerly known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani, appeared in a video message Friday congratulating “the great Syrian people for the victory of the blessed revolution.”
“I invite them to head to the squares to show their happiness without shooting bullets and scaring people,” he said. “And then after, we will work to build this country.”
Syrians Celebrate in Damascus
Huge crowds, including some insurgents, packed the historic Umayyad Mosque in the capital’s old city, many waving the rebel opposition flag—with its three red stars—which has swiftly replaced the Assad-era flag with with its two green stars.
Blocks away in Damascus’ biggest roundabout, named Umayyad Square, thousands gathered, including many families with small children—a sign of how, so far at least, the country’s transformation has not caused violent instability.
“Unified Syria to build Syria,” the crowd chanted.
One man in the crowd, 51-year-old Khaled Abu Chahine—originally from the southern province of Daraa, where the 2011 uprising first erupted—said he hoped for “freedom and coexistence between all Syrians, Alawites, Sunnis, Shiites, and Druze.”
The interim prime minister, al-Bashir, had been the head of a de facto administration created by HTS in Idlib, the opposition’s enclave in northwest Syria. The rebels were bottled up in Idlib for years before fighters broke out in a shock offensive and marched across Syria in 10 days.
US and Allies Try to Shape a Rapidly Changing Syria
Al-Sharaa, HTS’ leader, has promised to bring a pluralistic government to Syria, seeking to dispel fears among many Syrians—especially its many minority communities—that the insurgents will impose a hard-line, extremist rule.
