Yahoo News Russia ‘close to agreeing deal with Syria rebels to keep military bases’
Russia is reportedly close to securing a deal with the new Syrian leadership that would secure the future of its military bases in the country.
Under the deal, Russia would keep its naval port in Tartus and air base in Hmeimim, Bloomberg News reported.
Russia’s defence ministry said it had a tacit understanding with Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS), the rebel group that spearheaded the collapse of the Assad regime on Sunday and is leading efforts to set up a transitional government.
Russia has had a naval base at Tartus since 1971, with the facility being expanded in 2012 as Moscow began to increase its support for the Assad regime.
It is Russia’s only “replenishment and repair point” in the Mediterranean and has become a key staging post for its operations in Africa.
04:34 PM GMT
Today’s live coverage has ended
Today’s live coverage has ended. Here’s a roundup of the day’s events:
A ceasefire was agreed between Turkish-backed fighters and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in northern Syria.
The Kurdish-led Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria adopted the Syrian opposition flag.
A missing US citizen was found in Syria after being released from the notorious Sednaya Prison.
The UN said it was sending more troops to the Golan Heights after Israel seized the buffer zone.
Bashar al-Assad’s Syrian Baath Party announced that it was suspending operations in the country indefinitely.
02:49 PM GMT
UN sends more troops to Golan Heights after Israel seizes buffer zone
The UN has sent reinforcement troops to the Golan Heights buffer zone in Syria after it was seized by Israeli troops earlier this week, according to a report.
UN peacekeepers had “reinforced a couple of their positions” over the past 24 hours, a UN diplomat told Newsweek.
“UNDOF’s [United Nations Disengagement Observer Force] freedom of movement is severely constrained in the current context,” the UN official added. “It is imperative that the UN peacekeepers are allowed to carry out their mandated tasks without hindrance.”
After Syrian rebels overthrew the Assad regime on Sunday, Israel took control of the UN-patrolled demilitarised zone in a move the UN said violated its 1974 armistice with Syria.
The Israeli air force has since also launched hundreds of strikes on former Assad military sites in order to prevent them from falling into “hostile” hands.
Israeli officials confirmed on Tuesday that their troops had moved into positions beyond the buffer zone.
01:59 PM GMT
Rojava adopts flag of new Syrian government
The Kurdish-led Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (Aanes), also known as Rojava, that controls much of northeast Syria said on Thursday that it will adopt the three-starred independence flag long used by the opposition
Aanes said it “decided to raise the Syrian (independence) flag on all councils, institutions, administrations and facilities affiliated with the Autonomous Administration”.
It described the flag as a “symbol of this new stage, as it expresses the aspirations of the Syrian people towards freedom, dignity and national unity”.
01:29 PM GMT
Pictured: Abandoned Russian army buildings in Syria
01:00 PM GMT
G7 will back ‘inclusive’ Syrian government efforts
Leaders of the G7 nations said on Thursday they were ready to support the transition to an “inclusive and non-sectarian” government in Syria after Islamist-rebels overthrew the regime of Bashar al-Assad on Sunday.
In a statement, they called for the protection of human rights, including those of women and minorities, while emphasising “the importance of holding the Assad regime accountable for its crimes”.
“After decades of atrocities committed by the Assad regime, we stand with the people of Syria,” said the G7, which comprises Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, the United States and Italy.
They urged those seeking to govern now to “prevent the collapse of state institutions” and “ensure the conditions for [the] safe and dignified voluntary return to Syria of all those who were forced to flee”.
12:01 PM GMT
Pictured: Syrians celebrate overthrow of Assad in Damascus
11:57 AM GMT
Iran must live with ‘new realities’ of Syria, says IRGC chief
The head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said the country must learn to live with the new “realities” of Syria after Tehran-backed president Bashar al-Assad was ousted on Sunday, state media reported on Thursday.
“We have to live with the realities of Syria; we look at them and act based on them,” Hossein Salami said, quoted by the IRNA news agency.
“Strategies must change according to the circumstances; we cannot solve numerous global and regional issues with stagnation and employing the same tactics,” he added.
Iran had been a key ally of the Assad regime, which provided an important service for Tehran in facilitating the supply of weapons to its Lebanese proxy Hezbollah through Syria.
11:47 AM GMT
Missing US citizen found in Syria
An American who went missing in Syria has been found after being released from the notorious Sednaya Prison.
The man, identified as Travis Pete Timmerman, said he had been captured by Assad’s forces while on a “pilgrimage” to Syria.
He told CBS news he had been released from prison after seven months when two armed men broke down the cell door with a hammer.
Mr Timmerman said he heard screams from torture in the prison, but that he was personally treated well.
More to follow.
X/ @JamesAALongman
11:08 AM GMT
Pictured: Fighter waves an Islamist flag in Damascus
A fighter is shown waving a white Islamist flag at a market in Damascus on Wednesday, despite efforts by the jihadist-linked rebels that captured the Syrian capital on Sunday to appear more moderate in recent years.
10:55 AM GMT
Blinken arrives in Jordan for Syria crisis tour
Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, arrived in Jordan on Thursday to begin a crisis tour addressing the aftermath of the overthrow of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.
Mr Blinken headed straight to meeting with King Abdullah II in the Red Sea city of Aqaba and will travel later in the day to Turkey.
He has called for an “inclusive” process to form Syria’s next government that includes protections for minorities after Islamist-led rebels on Sunday ended the 24-year-long rule of Assad, a member of the Alawite community.
Announcing his trip, the US state department said he would also call for a Syria that is not “a base of terrorism or posing a threat to its neighbours”.
09:29 AM GMT
Watch: Sunken ships in Latakia port after Israeli strike
Drone footage shows extensive damage to a former Syrian navy base in the port of Latakia after an Israeli strike on Monday night.
Burnt-out dock facilities are seen as well as sunken navy ships, including missile boats, in the harbour.
09:12 AM GMT
Assad’s secret police arrested and tortured me – because of my name
From inside Damascus, Adrian Blomfield tells the story of a mechanic from Raqqa who was repeatedly tortured by Assad’s secret police in a grim case of mistaken identity.
Mohammed Ismail al-Daher’s only crime was having the same name as a suspect wanted by the Palestine Branch, one of the most feared intelligence units in Assad’s entire security apparatus.
It did not seem to matter what he did, what records he kept to prove he was not that Ismail al-Daher, whoever he was, that he was merely a humble mechanic from Raqqa.
Eventually, he knew he would be stopped, either at a checkpoint or by a passing patrol, bundled into a vehicle at gunpoint and taken into custody.
Then the torture would begin, first the beatings and later the cigarette burns that still cover much of his body.
You can read the full story here.
09:04 AM GMT
Watch: Israeli troops operating in UN-patrolled Golan buffer zone
Israel took control of the UN-patrolled buffer zone in the Golan Heights after the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad on Sunday in what it said was a move to ensure the security of its borders.
The UN has since accused Israel of violating a 1974 disengagement agreement with Syria signed at the end of the Yom Kippur War. Israel said it considers the agreement void until “order is restored” in Syria.
Credit: IDF
08:52 AM GMT
Netanyahu defends seizure of Golan Heights
Benjamin Netanyahu has defended Israel’s seizure of the Syrian side of the Golan Heights and the adjacent UN-patrolled buffer zone.
He said Israel had taken the measure after the overthrow of Assad to ensure that jihadi groups from Syria do not threaten Israeli communities on the Golan Heights with “October 7th-style attacks”.
The Israeli prime minister added the deployment was temporary “until a force that is committed to the 1974 agreement can be established and security on our border can be guaranteed”.
Mr Netanyahu had said earlier this week that the Golan Heights would be part of the state of Israel for “eternity”.
08:36 AM GMT
Pictured: Former Assad airfield hit by Israeli strike
08:32 AM GMT
Assad’s Baath Party suspends operations
Syria’s Baath Party announced on Wednesday that it was suspending its work in the country indefinitely.
The Baath party central leadership has decided to “suspend party work and activity in all its forms … until further notice”, it said in a statement published on the party newspaper’s website.
The Syrian branch of the Baath Party was established in 1947. It came to power in 1963 through a coup d’état and ruled until the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad on Sunday.
It is a socialist-influenced Arab nationalist ideology.
08:19 AM GMT
Pictured: Israeli troops operating in the Golan Heights
08:17 AM GMT
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