DAMASCUS, Syria: Turkey reopened its embassy in Damascus on Saturday, nearly a week after president Bashar al-Assad was toppled by an alliance of groups.
The move came as Middle Eastern and Western diplomats were meeting in Jordan for high-level talks on Syria a day after nationwide celebrations at Assad’s ouster.
The Turkish flag was raised over the diplomatic mission, in an embassy district of Damascus, in the presence of the new charge d’affaires Burhan Koroglu, an AFP journalist said.
Turkey’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, who on Friday said the embassy would be “operational” on Saturday, also said Ankara had urged Russia and Iran not to intervene.
“The most important thing was to talk to the Russians and Iranians to ensure that they didn’t enter the equation militarily… They understood,” Fidan told the private television network NTV.
Turkish diplomats joined counterparts from the European Union, the United States and the Arab world on Saturday for talks in the Jordanian city of Aqaba.
UN special envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen urged participants to provide humanitarian aid and to ensure “that state institutions do not collapse”.
“If we can achieve that, perhaps there is a new opportunity for the Syrian people,” he said.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, on a regional Syria-focused tour, said the Aqaba meeting agreed on the need for an “inclusive and representative” government in Damascus.
A Qatari diplomat, meanwhile, said a delegation from the Gulf emirate would visit Syria on Sunday to meet transitional government officials on aid and the reopening of its embassy.
Wonderful Sight
A day before the meetings in Jordan, Syrians had celebrated what they called the “Friday of victory”, with fireworks heralding the fall of the Assad family.
Celebrations continued into the night on the first Friday since Assad was ousted. Exhilarated crowds chanted, “The Syrian people is one!”
In the southern city of Sweida, the heartland of Syria’s Druze minority, Bayan al-Hinnawi, 77, never believed he would live to see such a day.
“It’s a wonderful sight. Nobody could have imagined this could happen”, said Hinnawi, who spent 17 years in prison.
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham has sought to moderate its rhetoric, and the interim government insists the rights of all Syrians will be protected, as will the rule of law.
The European Union was seeking “to establish contacts” with the new rulers soon, an EU official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Israeli Strikes on Syria
A Syria war monitor said Israeli strikes early Saturday “destroyed a scientific institute” and other related military facilities in Barzeh, in northern Damascus, and targeted a “military airport” in the capital’s countryside.
Strikes also hit targets in the Qalamun area, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights added.
The Observatory said several rounds of bombardment targeted “military sites of the former regime forces, as part of destroying what is left of the future Syrian army’s capabilities”.
Israel has also sent troops into a UN-patrolled buffer zone that separated Israeli and Syrian forces on the Golan Heights, a move the UN said violated a 1974 armistice.
