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While Israel continues blitz on sites in Syria, new administration in Damascus forges ahead with international outreach.
Published On 16 Dec 2024
Israel launched overnight attacks on Syrian air defence systems and ammunition depots in its ongoing bid to disable the country’s military capability following the recent removal of President Bashar al-Assad.
War monitor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), said on Monday that Israel targeted military sites in Syria’s coastal Tartous region, including air defence units and “surface-to-surface missile depots”, saying the attack featured “the heaviest strikes” in the area in more than a decade.
“The explosions in Tartous were extremely loud,” said Al Jazeera’s Resul Serdar, reporting from the Syrian capital, Damascus. “Some experts are saying that might probably mean it was a chemical weapons production house.”
The targeting of Tartous was “important”, given its role as a base for Syrian naval forces, he said, adding that the Israeli military had obliterated “a complete fleet” just three days before.
Overnight, Israel also bombed sites in and around Damascus, particularly around the Qasioun mountain, hitting “radar systems” and “air defence systems”, according to Serdar.
Officials expected strikes on remaining “radar systems and battalions” to continue over the coming days, he said.
The overnight raids in Tartous and Damascus marked the latest stage of an ongoing Israeli campaign that has seen the military pummel the country with about 600 strikes in the eight days since the fall of al-Assad.
“Israel is pursuing a strategy of diminishing this country’s air defence capability and also its air forces,” said Serdar.
In parallel, Israeli troops have entered a United Nations-patrolled buffer zone that separated Israeli and Syrian forces on the Golan Heights, violating a 1974 armistice agreement.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office has also announced plans to increase the number of settlers in the Golan Heights, which it has illegally occupied since 1967.
Ahmed al-Sharaa, the de facto head of Syria’s new administration, has said the country is in no position to enter any conflict “because there is general exhaustion in Syria”.
Separately, Syria’s Kurds, who run a semiautonomous administration in the northeast, called for “a stop to military operations over the entire Syrian territory in order to begin a constructive, comprehensive national dialogue”. In a statement at a news conference in Raqa on Monday, the administration also extended a hand to the new authorities in Damascus.
International outreach
Amid attacks from Israel, the new administration has been making strides with international “recognition”, said Al Jazeera’s Serdar, alluding to the opening of embassies by Turkiye and Qatar, and recent contact with US and UK officials.
European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas announced on Monday she had instructed the bloc’s envoy to Syria to go to Damascus and make contact with the country’s new government.
Western nations are wary of the new leadership in Damascus, given that al-Sharaa’s Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group was previously affiliated with al-Qaeda.
The EU cut ties with the al-Assad regime in Damascus during the country’s civil war, but remained a key donor of humanitarian aid to help local populations.
Kallas said EU foreign ministers would discuss in Brussels “how we engage with the new leadership of Syria, and on what level we engage”.
Geir Pedersen, the UN’s Syria envoy, met al-Sharaa in Damascus on Sunday, saying he hoped for a swift end to the sanctions to help facilitate economic recovery.
A Qatari delegation also landed in Syria on Sunday to meet transitional government officials and pledged “full commitment to supporting the Syrian people”.
A French diplomatic team is also due in Damascus on Tuesday to “retake possession of our real estate” and make “initial contact” with the new authorities, said acting Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his country was coordinating on providing aid including wheat, flour and oil to Syria.
Source
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Al Jazeera and news agencies
