Residents of Damascus are fleeing as rebels close in on the Syrian capital

Latest:

• Thousands are rushing to the border between Syria and Lebanon.
• The Syrian army withdrew from most of the country’s south.
• UN envoy to Syria calls for ‘orderly political transition.’
• Officials from Iran, Russia and Turkey meet in Qatar.

The terrorist march across Syria gained momentum on Saturday with news that they had reached the outskirts of the capital and the government was forced to deny rumors that President Bashar al-Assad had fled the country.

The rebel movement in Damascus, reported by a military monitor and a rebel commander, came after the Syrian army withdrew from the southern part of the country, leaving other areas, including two provincial capitals, under the control of the opposition.

The development this past week was one of the biggest in recent years by the opposition, led by a group that has its roots in al-Qaeda and is considered a terrorist organization by the US and the United Nations. As they advanced, the insurgents – led by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS – group met little resistance from the Syrian army.

The UN’s special envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, on Saturday called for urgent talks in Geneva to ensure an “orderly political transition.” Speaking to reporters at the annual Doha conference in Qatar, he said the situation in Syria is changing by the minute.

In Damascus, people rushed to collect goods. Thousands rushed to the border between Syria and Lebanon, trying to leave the country.

Many shops in the capital are closed, a resident told The Associated Press, and those that remain open have run out of basic items such as sugar. Some stores were selling items at three times the normal price.

“The situation is very strange. We are not used to that,” said the resident, who is withholding his name, fearing reprisals.
“People are worried about whether there will be a war [in Damascus] or not.”

It was the first time opposition forces had reached the outskirts of Damascus since 2018, when the Syrian army recaptured the area following a years-long siege.

Assad’s situation

With these incidents, the media of the Syrian state denied the rumors that were prevalent on the social media that Assad has left the country, saying that he will do his work in Damascus.

Assad’s main international backer, Russia, is busy with its own war in Ukraine. Lebanon’s powerful Hezbollah, which once sent thousands of troops to bolster Assad’s forces, has been weakened by the year-long conflict with Israel. Iran, on the other hand, has seen its proxies across the region decimated by regular Israeli airstrikes.

Pedersen said the date of the talks in Geneva regarding the implementation of UN Resolution 2254 will be announced later. This resolution, which was adopted in 2015, proposed a Syrian-led political process, starting with the establishment of an interim governing body, followed by the drafting of a new constitution and ending with elections overseen by the UN.

Guerrilla march

Rami Abdurrahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights based in Britain, who monitors the opposition, said that the rebels are in the Damascus areas of Maadamiyah, Jaramana and Daraya. Opposition forces were also marching from eastern Syria towards the Damascus suburb of Harasta, he added.

The rebel commander, Hassan Abdul-Ghani, posted on the Telegram messaging app that opposition forces had begun the “final phase” of their assault on Damascus.

Meanwhile, the Syrian army has sent more troops to secure the key central city of Homs, Syria’s third-largest city, as rebels close in on its outskirts.

The shocking offensive began on November 27, when gunmen captured the northern city of Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, and the central city of Hama, the country’s fourth largest city.

HTS leader Abu Mohammed al-Golani told CNN in an interview Thursday from Syria that the goal is to topple the Assad government.

The Britain-based Observatory said the Syrian army had withdrawn from much of the two southern provinces and was sending reinforcements to Homs, where fighting broke out. If the insurgents capture Homs, they will sever communications between Damascus, Assad’s capital, and the coastal region where the president enjoys widespread support.

The Syrian army said in a statement on Saturday that it had re-deployed and repositioned areas in Sweida and Daraa after attacks by “terrorists.” The army said it was imposing “a strong and consistent belt of defense and security in the area,” apparently to protect Damascus in the south.

The Syrian government has labeled opposition gunmen as terrorists since the outbreak of war in March 2011.

After the fall of the cities of Daraa and Sweida early Saturday, Syrian government forces remained in control of five provincial capitals – Damascus, Homs and Quneitra, as well as Latakia and Tartus on the Mediterranean coast.

Tartus is home to Russia’s only naval base outside the former Soviet Union and Latakia is home to Russia’s largest air base.

Diplomacy in Doha

In the gas-rich country of Qatar, the foreign ministers of Iran, Russia and Turkey met to discuss the situation in Syria. Turkey is the main supporter of the rebels.

The head of the Qatari embassy, ​​Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, criticized Assad for failing to take advantage of the truce in recent years to address the country’s current problems. “Assad did not seize this opportunity and started to get involved in restoring his relationship with his people,” he said.

Sheikh Mohammed said he was surprised by how quickly the rebels had moved and said there was a real threat to “maintaining the territorial integrity of Syria.” He said war “can damage and destroy what is left if there is no sense of urgency” to start a political process.

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After the fall of the cities of Daraa and Sweida early Saturday, Syrian government forces remained in control of five provincial capitals – Damascus, Homs and Quneitra, as well as Latakia and Tartus on the Mediterranean coast.

On Friday, the US-backed forces of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces captured large parts of the eastern province of Deir el-Zour on the border with Iraq and the provincial capital of the same name. The capture of Deir el-Zour is a blow to Iran’s influence in the region as the area is the gateway to the Mediterranean-Iran corridor, a supply line for fighters supported by Iran, including Lebanon’s Hezbollah.

With the capture of the main border crossing with Iraq by the SDF and after opposition forces took control of the Naseeb border crossing into Jordan in southern Syria, the Syrian government’s gateway to the outside world is the Masnaa border crossing into Lebanon.