KEY POINTS
- The UN envoy highlights fragile stability and fears of renewed military escalation.
- Pedersen urges an inclusive, Syrian-led transition as per UN resolution.
- The UN envoy condemns Israeli strikes in Syria and settlement expansion.
- Global leaders and organizations increase direct communication with Syria’s new leadership.
- UN migration chief warns against large-scale refugee returns.
DAMASCUS, Syria: The United Nations special envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, warned on Tuesday that Syria’s conflict “has not ended yet”, even as the country’s new leaders stepped up contacts with governments after Bashar al-Assad’s ouster.
Briefing the UN Security Council about the situation in Syria, Pedersen said, “We are seeing a Syria that is stable at present in many parts. But stability can be fragile in many parts of Syria, and in the northeast, there are still front-lines and open hostilities in which civilians are being killed, injured and displaced.”
Pedersen also said he had met with Syria’s new leadership following the opposition’s lightning takeover. Assad fled Syria just over a week ago following a lightning offensive led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).
Geir Pedersen, the UN’s special envoy for Syria, also called at the Security Council for Israel to “cease all settlement activity in the occupied Syrian Golan” and said an end to sanctions would be key to assisting Syria.
The UN envoy said, “There have been significant hostilities in the last two weeks before a ceasefire was brokered between Turkey and the United States. A five-day ceasefire has now expired and I am seriously concerned about reports of military escalation, as well as reports of military build-ups. Such an escalation could be catastrophic.”
Geir Pedersen said that after the Assad regime that ruled Syria for some 54 years fell in two short weeks, Syria faces a wholly new reality. He said there was great hope that Syria now has a real chance to move towards peace, economic stability and growth, inclusion for all Syrians and accountability and justice.
“The challenges ahead are enormous. I worry that, if this is not handled right by both the Syrians and the international community a turn for the worse again is possible,” the UN envoy said.
Pedersen said, that in Syria, there are armed opposition groups that operate outside of the Military Operations Command, most of which act under the auspices of the opposition Syrian National Coalition.
The UN envoy called for “broad support” for Syria and an end to sanctions to allow for reconstruction of the war-ravaged country.
“Concrete movement on an inclusive political transition will be key in ensuring Syria receives the economic support it needs,” Pedersen said.
Attacks on Syria’s Sovereignty
“There is a clear international willingness to engage. The needs are immense and could only be addressed with broad support, including a smooth end to sanctions, appropriate action on designations, too, and full reconstruction,” Pedersen said.
Western countries are wrestling with their approach to HTS, which spearheaded the takeover of Damascus.
Pedersen noted that there are media reports of Israeli advances several kilometres into Syrian territory. “Israel has carried out more than 350 strikes on military facilities, equipment and supplies across Syria since the former regime fell and these continue including an enormous attack in Tartous.”
“Such attacks place a battered civilian population at further risk and undermine the prospects of an orderly political transition,” he said.
The envoy warned against plans announced by Israel’s cabinet to expand settlements inside the Golan Heights, occupied by Israel since 1967 and annexed in 1981.
On Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a security briefing atop a strategic Syrian peak inside the UN-patrolled buffer zone on the Golan Heights that Israel seized this month.
“Israel must cease all settlement activity in the occupied Syrian Golan, which is illegal. Attacks on Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity must stop,” said Pedersen.
“Before travelling to Damascus, I joined representatives of the Arab Contact Group on Syria, along with Ministers and representatives of Bahrain, France, Germany, Qatar, Turkey, the UAE, the UK, the US and the EU.
This meeting expressed a common belief that the transitional political process must be Syrian-led and Syrian-owned and produce an inclusive, non-sectarian and representative government formed through a transparent process based on the principles of Security Council resolution 2254,” Pedersen stated.
Pedersen stressed that Syrians need an orderly transition that provides for preservation of state institutions that serve their interests and provide them with critical services.
“The transition must also be credible and inclusive, including the broadest spectrum of Syrian society and Syrian parties, so that it inspires public confidence,” the UN envoy stated.
Return of Refugees
Meanwhile, the UN’s migration chief, Amy Pope, warned against a “large-scale return” of refugees to Syria, adding that “sending people back will only destabilise the country further”.
She also said that “tens of thousands” of people have fled Syria and “we are hearing that especially religious minorities are leaving.”
European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen pledged to intensify the EU’s engagement with Syria’s new rulers.
“Now we have to step up and continue our direct engagement with HTS and other factions,” she said after talks in Ankara with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose government is in constant dialogue with HTS.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said the bloc would reopen its mission in Syria following “constructive” talks with its new leadership.
Turkey and Qatar have reopened embassies in Damascus, while US officials have launched communications with Syria’s new leaders.
France sent a delegation to Damascus, with special envoy Jean-Francois Guillaume saying his country was preparing to stand with Syrians during the transition.
After meeting Syria’s new leaders, UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher said he was “encouraged”, and that there was a “basis for ambitious scaling-up of vital humanitarian support”.
A British delegation also visited Damascus this week for “meetings with the new interim Syrian authorities”, Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s spokesman said.
“The meetings discussed what we can do to support a peaceful Syrian-led transition to restore stability, protect the rights of all Syrians, and ensure civilians are protected,” he added.
Syria came under international sanctions over Assad’s crackdown on an uprising against his rule, which sparked a war that killed more than 500,000 people and forced half of the population to flee their homes.
Ahmed al-Sharaa, who heads HTS, stressed the need in a meeting with the British delegation to end “all sanctions imposed on Syria so that Syrian refugees can return to their country”.
He also said Syria’s armed groups would be “disbanded and the fighters trained to join the ranks of the defence ministry”.
Iran said its embassy in Syria would reopen once the “necessary conditions” are met.
On Monday, the ousted president broke his silence with a statement on Telegram saying that he only left for Russia once Damascus had fallen, and denounced the country’s new leaders as “terrorists”.
“My departure from Syria was neither planned nor did it occur during the final hours of the battles,” the statement said.
