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Mohamed al-Bashir has been named interim prime minister of the Syrian transitional government until March 1, 2025, he said in a televised statement on Tuesday.
Al-Bashir led the rebel-led Salvation Government before opposition fighters launched a 12-day lightning offensive, storming Damascus and toppling the Syrian regime.
The appointment was announced after the Israeli military attacked Syrian army bases on Tuesday with airstrikes as its troops reportedly advanced deeper into Syria.
Syrian security sources said the Israeli raid reached about 25 kilometers southwest of Damascus, after Israel seized a buffer zone in southern Syria and launched airstrikes against the Syrian army and air bases overnight. .
Israel denied that its forces had advanced into Syria beyond a buffer zone on the border, saying their goal was to prevent weapons from falling into hostile hands.
A Syrian security source said Israeli troops had arrived in Qatana, which is located 10 kilometers inside Syrian territory east of a demilitarized zone separating the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights from Syria.
Israel’s military operation in Syria comes two days after the lightning overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad by a rebel alliance left Syrians, regional countries and world powers nervous about what comes next.
Lieutenant colonel. Nadav Shoshani, an Israeli military spokesman, said troops remained in the buffer zone and at “some additional points” nearby, but denied there had been any significant advance into Syria beyond the separation area.
“IDF forces are not advancing towards Damascus. This is not something we are doing or pursuing in any way,” he said in a briefing with reporters.
Israel has said it will not get involved in the conflict in Syria and that its seizure of the buffer zone was a defensive measure.
Airstrikes wipe out Syrian army assets, sources say
Egypt, Qatar and Saudi Arabia have condemned the raid. Saudi Arabia said the move would “ruin Syria’s chances of restoring security.”
Regional security sources and officials within the now-fallen Syrian army said intense Israeli airstrikes continued against military installations and air bases across Syria overnight, destroying dozens of helicopters and planes, as well as Republican Guard assets in Damascus and its surroundings.
They said the approximate count of 200 raids had left nothing of the Syrian army’s assets.
Israel said its airstrikes would continue for days but told the UN Security Council it would not intervene in the Syrian conflict. He said he had taken “limited and temporary measures” only to protect his safety.
SEE | The Syrian prison, scene of desperate searches:
With the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s government, Syrians searched for those missing under his regime, especially in the country’s notorious Sednaya prison. Meanwhile, the world waited to see what a new government could mean for the future.
The United Nations Security Council met behind closed doors on Monday night, and diplomats said they were still shocked by the speed with which Assad’s overthrow unfolded, after a 13-year civil war that lasted stagnant for years.
“Everyone was taken by surprise, everyone, including the council members. So we have to wait and watch and watch… and evaluate how the situation will develop,” Russian U.N. ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told reporters. after the meeting.
The atmosphere in Damascus remains festive
Russia played an important role in supporting Assad’s government and helping it fight the rebels. The Syrian leader fled Damascus for Moscow on Sunday, ending more than 50 years of his family’s brutal rule.
While the mood in Damascus was still festive, Assad’s Prime Minister Mohammed Ghazi al-Jalali agreed on Monday to hand over power to the rebel-led Salvation Government, an administration based in rebel-held territory in northwest Syria. Syria.
Top rebel commander Ahmed al-Sharaa, better known as Abu Mohammed Al-Golani, met with Jalali and Vice President Faisal Mekdad to discuss the transitional government, a source familiar with the discussions told Reuters. Jalali said delivery could take days to complete.
Al Jazeera television reported that the transitional authority would be headed by Mohamed al-Bashir, who has headed the Salvation Government.
The sweeping advance of the militia alliance led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a former al Qaeda affiliate, was a generational turning point for the Middle East.
The civil war that began in 2011 killed hundreds of thousands of people, sparked one of the biggest refugee crises of modern times and left cities bombed to rubble, the countryside depopulated and the economy emptied by global sanctions.
But the rebel alliance has not communicated plans for Syria’s future and there is no blueprint for such a transition in the troubled region.
