Spotlight on Syria (Following the Toppling of the Syrian Regime) January 15 – 22, 2025
According to Murhaf Abu Qasra, the Syrian defense minister, the armed factions were willing to join the new military structure. He said the Kurdish militia of the Syrian Democratic Forces would not be able to maintain an independent identity in the new army, while the militia commander said they had not yet decided if they were going to hand over their weapons; Ahmed al-Sharaa (Abu Muhammad al-Julani), de facto leader of Syria, and Asaad al-Shibani, Syrian foreign minister, met in Damascus with diplomats. Al-Sharaa also congratulated President Trump and expressed confidence he would help bring peace to the Middle East; The new regime's security forces continued operations to locate senior figures from the Assad regime still inside Syria, focusing on the Daraa province in the south. The forces thwarted an attempt to smuggle weapons into Lebanon, including Iranian UAVs; According to reports, three people were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a convoy of the Syrian military operations directorate in the al-Quneitra area. Syrian officials called for the withdrawal of IDF forces and claimed Syria was no longer a threat to Israel.
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