‘Nobody cares about us’: US election doubts in West Bank

‘Nobody cares about us’: US election doubts in West Bank
Palestinian American entrepreneur Jamal Zaglul in Turmus Aya. (AFP)
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Updated 03 November 2024
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‘Nobody cares about us’: US election doubts in West Bank

‘Nobody cares about us’: US election doubts in West Bank
  • There are about 172,000 Palestinian-Americans in the US, according to a 2022 census survey, with many from swing states like Michigan and Pennsylvania

TURMUS AYA, West Bank: As Palestinian American entrepreneur Jamal Zaglul stood by his olive press at the end of the harvest season in the occupied West Bank, his mind was far away from this week’s US election.

Like other US passport holders living in Turmus Aya, where they form the majority, he was skeptical that the ballot would bring change to the region.

“Here we have problems. Nobody (in the US) cares about us,” said the businessman in his 50s.

Violence in the West Bank — occupied by Israel since 1967 — has surged since the Gaza war erupted after militants’ unprecedented Oct.7, 2023 attack on Israel.

Zaglul spoke fondly of former US President Bill Clinton, under whose administration the landmark Oslo Accords were signed, creating arrangements between the Palestinians and Israel.

“This time, we need to start changing. We have to have another party, a separate party, independents,” Zaglul said. “The other ones, they’re not helping us.”

Fellow dual national Basim Sabri planned to vote for a third-party candidate in protest after “eight years of miserable administration.”

The Minnesota-based native of the northern West Bank did not mince words about the current White House occupant, sharply criticizing Joe Biden.

He was equally critical of Biden’s predecessor and current Republican contender, Donald Trump, calling him a “racist.”

Sabri said he would vote for Jill Stein, the perennial Green Party candidate on the ballot in nearly every battleground state this presidential cycle.

Stein ran in 2012 and 2016, securing just 0.4 percent and one percent of the vote, respectively.

Deeply shocked by the Gaza war, Sabri hopes the US will push more for peace.

“It’s the only country in the world that’s vetoing the decision of the majority of the world to stop the war and condemn Israel,” he said.

California resident Odeh Juma, who returns to Turmus Aya several times a year, pointed bitterly to US military support for Israel.

“As Palestinians, we feel our concerns — like ending wars globally, in Palestine or Ukraine — are overlooked in favor of the politicians’ electoral interests,” he said.

Juma planned to watch election night coverage but would not cast a ballot.

“If we don’t vote now, it will highlight the importance of the Arab, Palestinian, and Muslim voices for future elections,” he said.

There are about 172,000 Palestinian-Americans in the US, according to a 2022 census survey, with many from swing states like Michigan and Pennsylvania.

Thousands of Palestinian Americans live in the West Bank, a community shaken by the killings of an American and two dual citizens this year.

Juma’s son Adam said that “people tend to be scared to vote for anybody, especially for Trump.”

He recalled that during Trump’s first presidential run, some hoped he would be “different,” but he dealt numerous blows to Palestinians once elected.

Trump’s administration notably broke with US precedent by declaring it did not see Israeli settlements in the West Bank as illegal.

These settlements are considered illegal under international law.

Adam Juma has been following the election but will not vote, believing the US no longer influences global conflict resolution.

“It won’t change anything if we vote for anybody ... It’s not like how it used to be,” he said.

Ramallah resident Leila said she voted for Stein.

“The ongoing genocide is at the top of my mind, and Harris has done absolutely nothing to win my vote in that regard,” she said.

Sanaa Shalabi, a Palestinian American, also planned to sit out the election.

“Here, no one cares about us... There is an American embassy here, but it does nothing,” she said.

“They do not stand with us. Israel is the one that controls America.”


Bewildered, elated prisoners pour out as Assad’s jails flung open

A person gestures as individuals, reportedly freed prisoners, run in the streets of Damascus, Syria, December 8, 2024. (Reuters)
A person gestures as individuals, reportedly freed prisoners, run in the streets of Damascus, Syria, December 8, 2024. (Reuters)
Updated 23 sec ago
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Bewildered, elated prisoners pour out as Assad’s jails flung open

A person gestures as individuals, reportedly freed prisoners, run in the streets of Damascus, Syria, December 8, 2024. (Reuters)
  • Throughout the civil war that began in 2011, security forces held hundreds of thousands of people seized in detention camps

DAMASCUS: Bewildered and elated prisoners poured out of Syrian jails on Sunday, shouting with joy as they emerged from one of the world’s most notorious detention systems and walked to freedom following the collapse of Bashar Assad’s government.
All across Syria, families wept as they were reunited with children, siblings, spouses and parents who vanished years ago into the impregnable gulag of the Assad dynasty’s five-decade rule.
A video verified by Reuters showed newly freed prisoners ran through the Damascus streets, holding up the fingers of both hands to show how many years they had been in prison, asking passers-by what had happened, not immediately understanding that Assad had fallen.
“We toppled the regime!” a voice shouted and a prisoner yelled and skipped with delight in the same video. A man watching the prisoners rush through the dawn streets put his hands to head, exclaiming with wonder: “Oh my god, the prisoners!“
Throughout the civil war that began in 2011, security forces held hundreds of thousands of people seized in detention camps where international human rights organizations say torture was universal practice. Families were often told nothing of the fate of their loved ones.
As insurgents seized one city after another in a dizzying eight-day campaign, prisons were often among their first objectives. The most notorious prisons in and around Damascus itself were finally opened on the uprising’s final night and the early hours of Sunday.
When they reached Sednaya prison, rebels shot the lock off the gate, a video showed, using more gunfire to open closed doors leading to cells. Men poured out into corridors and a courtyard, cheering and helping them open more cells.
In a video uploaded by Step News Agency, a grey-haired man leapt into the arms of relatives in a sudden, disbelieving hug, the three men clasping each other and sobbing with joy before one fell to his knees, still clutching the freed man’s legs.
The pan-Arab Arabiya news channel showed a family arriving in Damascus by car from Jordan to meet their newly released son, the elderly mother’s voice breaking with emotion as she told the interviewer he had been freed after 14 years.
Reuters was not immediately able to verify the locations of some of the videos, though no one disputed that prisons were opened across the country.
Relief and terror
In what was purported to be the women’s block at Sednaya prison on the Damascus outskirts, perhaps the most notorious in the country, a rebel recorded the moment he reached cells and pulled open the doors for prisoners who seemed to have had little idea they were about to be freed.
“May God honor you!” a woman shouted to the men freeing her. As they left their cells a toddler could be seen walking the corridor, having apparently been held in the prison along with his mother.
“He (Assad) has fallen. Don’t be scared,” a voice shouts, trying to reassure the prisoners that they faced no more danger.
In another video, a deafening roar erupted as rebels marched down a corridor, said to be in the prison at Mezzeh air base southwest of the old center of Damascus. Prisoners leaned through the bars at the top of doors and banged on the sides of their cells as shouts of joy echoed all around.
One video showed a shaven-headed man squatting on his heels, trembling and barely able to answer the rebels asking his name and where he was from.
Over the years, thousands of Syrians were brusquely informed by authorities that their relatives had been executed, sometimes years earlier.
The United States said in 2017 it had evidence of a new crematorium built at Sednaya especially to dispose of bodies of thousands of inmates hanged during the war.
Some of the most disturbing information about Assad’s prison system came with thousands of photographs smuggled out of Syria by a military photographer codenamed Caesar who defected to the West in 2013.
His photographs of thousands of killed detainees showed clear marks of torture and starvation and for many families provided the first evidence that imprisoned relatives were dead.
A few miles from Sednaya early on Sunday, a stream of freed prisoners was recorded walking toward Damascus, many lugging sacks of belongings on their backs, and chanting “God is great!”


Mikati urges Lebanese ‘to show wisdom and calm during critical time’

Mikati urges Lebanese ‘to show wisdom and calm during critical time’
Updated 18 min 6 sec ago
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Mikati urges Lebanese ‘to show wisdom and calm during critical time’

Mikati urges Lebanese ‘to show wisdom and calm during critical time’
  • Prime minister stresses need to tighten border control in talks with army commander, security chiefs

BEIRUT: Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati stressed the need to tighten control over the border and distance Lebanon from the repercussions of the developments in Syria on Sunday.

Mikati discussed the situation at the Syrian border in a call with Gen. Joseph Aoun, head of the Armed Forces, and other security chiefs.

Lebanon currently hosts around 2 million Syrians, while more than 800,000 are registered with the UN. Many fled Syria after its civil war began in 2011.

Mikati called on the “Lebanese people, of all affiliations, to show wisdom and avoid provocations, especially at this critical time for our country.”

He urged communication with the National Commission for the Missing and Forcibly Disappeared in Lebanon and the committee addressing the issue of Lebanese detainees in Syria.

He requested the use of all available resources to contact the relevant parties for the release of hundreds of prisoners in Syrian prisons.

Recent developments in Syria, including the opening of prisons by opposition factions and the release of all detainees, along with videos on social media showing alleged Lebanese prisoners previously considered missing, have sparked widespread anger in Lebanon.

On Sunday, Lebanese citizen Marwan Nouh, who had been imprisoned in Syria, returned to Arsal, Lebanon.

The president of the Committee of Families of the Kidnapped and Disappeared in Lebanon, Wadad Halwani, called on Lebanese authorities to follow up on this issue, especially since Syrian officials had long denied the presence of Lebanese prisoners in Syrian prisons.

In Tripoli, Sidon, and parts of Beirut, people celebrated the fall of the Syrian regime.

The Lebanese Army Command took security measures “to prevent any threat to civil peace.”

Social media activists circulated a video showing a group of Lebanese youth storming the Arab socialist Baath party’s office in Akkar, northern Lebanon, and removing posters of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad.

Also on Sunday, many pro-regime Syrian families, along with Lebanese families who had been living in Syria, namely in Rablah and surrounding villages, entered Lebanon.

Hezbollah in Bekaa sent out a message urging the residents of the pro-Hezbollah Baalbek-Hermel region to welcome them.
Amid these developments, an Israeli airstrike hit the eastern ridge between Qoussaya and Anjar.

Early on Sunday, hundreds of Syrians gathered at Masnaa Border Crossing with Syria, waiting for the Lebanese General Security’s to open it.

Many more closely followed the rapid military developments in their homeland through television and social media.

Around 400,000 Syrians returned home from Lebanon during the Israeli assault on southern Lebanon, which lasted for 64 days.

In Arsal, a border town in eastern Lebanon whose terrain overlaps with Syria and includes the most significant number of Syrian refugee camps, people emerged from their tents at dawn and began chanting enthusiastic slogans.

One camp official, Abu Mohammed, told Arab News that people had not slept.

“We toured these camps in the Qalamoun region, Qusayr, and its countryside. All the people want to return, but we look forward to an orderly exit from Lebanon.”

He said that the refugee committees submitted a request to the relevant authorities in Lebanon to inquire about the procedures for return.

“We have been informed that those wishing to leave Lebanon may do so only once without possibly returning.

“Departure can occur through Al-Zamrani crossing on the outskirts of Arsal, a natural geographical passage and not an official crossing, or via Al-Matraba crossing in Hermel, an unofficial route.

“The former leads refugees to Qalamoun, while the latter directs them to Qusayr.”

The General Directorate of General Security in Lebanon said it would provide all necessary facilities to return Syrians to Lebanon.

It noted that the repeated Israeli assaults on the land border crossings, particularly in the north, have led to the closure of these crossings until further notice to ensure the safety of travelers and entrants.

Consequently, Masnaa Border Crossing remains open for the place of entry and exit, especially for Syrian nationals, under the previously issued temporary exceptional measures and instructions.

As of Sunday afternoon, around 1,500 Syrians crossed from Lebanon into Syria at Masnaa Border Crossing.

Conversely, the crossing experienced a significant influx of Syrians entering Lebanon, either to utilize Beirut Airport for travel or due to having residency permits or sponsors under the procedures established by Lebanon.

The Military Operations Management in Syria confirmed the withdrawal of Hezbollah from Al-Qusayr and Homs towards Lebanon.

The Lebanese Armed Forces announced the deployment of reinforcements to the Lebanese border north of the town of Al-Qaa following reports of the evacuation of Syrian security and customs personnel from their positions.

Dalal Harb, the spokesperson and Communications Officer for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, told Arab News about the measures UNHCR can implement to facilitate the return of Syrian refugees from Lebanon to Syria.

She said it is aware of reports of Syrians returning from Lebanon, with some movements reported through Masnaa crossing in Bekaa.

According to the Lebanese General Security Office, measures have been announced to facilitate returns to Syria.

Harb said: “We closely monitor these developments and remain in contact with the relevant authorities. Updates will be provided as more information becomes available.”


US to work with partners in Syria to manage risk after Assad toppled, Biden says

US President Joe Biden speaks after Syrian militants announced that they have ousted Syria’s Bashar Assad, at the White House.
US President Joe Biden speaks after Syrian militants announced that they have ousted Syria’s Bashar Assad, at the White House.
Updated 27 min 23 sec ago
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US to work with partners in Syria to manage risk after Assad toppled, Biden says

US President Joe Biden speaks after Syrian militants announced that they have ousted Syria’s Bashar Assad, at the White House.
  • Biden said the US will support Syria’s neighbors through the period of transition and will assess the words and actions of militant groups

WASHINGTON: The United States will work with partners and stakeholders in Syria to help seize an opportunity and manage the risk, US President Joe Biden said on Sunday after militants overthrew Syrian President Bashar Assad.
In remarks at the White House, Biden said the United States will support Syria’s neighbors through the period of transition and will assess the words and actions of militant groups.
Biden said the United States does not officially know of Assad’s whereabouts but noted reports that he fled to Moscow. He said Assad “should be held accountable.”
Biden said Syria is in a period of risk and uncertainty and that it is the first time in years that neither Russia nor Iran nor the Hezbollah militant organization held an influential role in Syria.
“For years, the main backers of Assad have been Iran, Hezbollah and Russia. But over the last week, their support collapsed — all three of them — because all three of them are far weaker today than they were when I took office,” said Biden, who became president in 2021.
Biden said US forces on Sunday conducted a dozen precision strikes within Syria targeting camps and operatives of Daesh.
“It’s a moment of historic opportunity for the long suffering people of Syria to build a better future for their proud country. It’s also a moment of risk and uncertainty,” Biden said.
“As we all turn to the question of what comes next, the United States will work with our partners and the stakeholders in Syria to help them seize an opportunity to manage the risk,” Biden added.


Fall of Syria’s Bashar Assad marks the end of an era

Fall of Syria’s Bashar Assad marks the end of an era
Updated 11 min 53 sec ago
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Fall of Syria’s Bashar Assad marks the end of an era

Fall of Syria’s Bashar Assad marks the end of an era
  • What began as a bloodless coup by Hafez Assad in 1970 has ended with his son Bashar fleeing the country
  • Bashar Assad “inherited and built upon” the record of brutal repression that was part of his father’s long rule

LONDON: In scenes reminiscent of every violent regime change in the Middle East’s recent history, on Saturday afternoon jubilant crowds in the Jaramana suburb of Damascus toppled a statue of Hafez Assad, founder of the family regime that, until this weekend, had ruled Syria for over half a century.
The beheading of the larger-than-life bust, captured in shaky smartphone footage, spoke volumes about the roots of the crisis that is now engulfing Syria.
President Bashar Assad, who fled Syria and was granted asylum along with his family by Russia on Sunday, inherited an autocratic system that his father had forged out of the chaos that was the Syrian political landscape for two decades after the country gained its independence in 1949.
Together with Lebanon, Syria, an Ottoman province since the early 16th century, was occupied by France in 1919 after the defeat of the empire in the First World War, and in 1923 became a French mandate under the auspices of the League of Nations.
The mandate triggered a multifactional revolt against French rule, which raged from 1925 to 1927 until it was finally put down by overwhelming French military force.
A complex but relatively peaceful two decades followed until, in the wake of the Second World War, Syria finally won its long-promised independence in 1946.
But the golden era anticipated by Syrians failed to dawn. From 1949 to 1970, the country was wracked by a series of 20 military coups, or attempted coups.
To Syrians and international observers alike, it seemed that Syria was doomed to basket-case status. But waiting in the wings was a man who, in time, would appear to be the answer to the troubled nation’s prayers.
By all accounts, Hafez, born on Oct. 6, 1930, one of 11 children of a poor Alawite farming family, never wanted to be a dictator, or even be involved in politics.
Instead, he wanted to become a doctor, a dream that foundered on the inability of his father, Ali Sulayman, to pay for his tuition (Sulayman would later adopt his local nickname, Al-Assad, “the lion,” as his family’s surname.)
Instead, in 1950 Hafez enrolled in the fee-free Homs Military Academy, learned to fly, joined the Syrian Air Force — and found himself embroiled in the febrile atmosphere of plot and counterplot that prevailed within the military establishment.
In 1955, President Adib Al-Shishakli was overthrown in a military coup that saw the return of civilian government in Syria. For the next few years, Hafez saw active service, training on MiG fighters in Russia and flying air defense missions during the Suez crisis.
Following the formation by Syria and Egypt of the short-lived United Arab Republic in 1958, the air force officer became increasingly politicized, so much so that in March 1963 he played a prominent role in the Ba’athist military coup against Syrian President Nazim Al-Kudsi.
By now, Hafez was in charge of the Syrian Air Force and a member of both the Syrian Regional Command of the Ba’ath Party and the Military Committee, a powerful Ba’athist group within the Syrian military establishment.
In February 1966, the Military Committee overthrew the Ba’ath Party’s ruling National Command, and Hafez was appointed minister of defense by coup leader Salah Jadid, chief of staff of the Syrian army.
For Jadid, the appointment would prove to be a disastrous miscalculation. On Nov. 12, 1970, Hafez mounted his own bloodless coup. At first, at least, his “Corrective Revolution” (Al-Thawra Al-Tashihiyya) appeared to promise a fresh start for all Syrians.
In the words of Patrick Seale, author of the 1988 biography “Assad of Syria: The Struggle for The Middle East,” Hafez’s rule began “with an immediate and considerable advantage: the regime he displaced was so detested that any alternative came as a relief.
“As it was an open secret that he was more liberal than Salah Jadid, his victory ushered in a political honeymoon. People were long to breathe more freely.”
Hafez’s basic accomplishment, according to an assessment of his legacy published in 2005 by the Brookings Institution, “was to transform the Syrian political order from a coup-ridden, postcolonial, semi-state into a veritable model of all authoritarian stability.”
In the process, he established a power structure that defined “fundamental political choices” for his son.
By the time of his death in June 2000, the victim of a cardiac arrest at the age of 69, for 30 years Syria had been in the grip of “a highly developed and coercive police state apparatus,” designed to “put down perceived, potential, and real threats to the regime.”
As a result, “an ongoing record of brutal repression remains an important and inescapable part of Assad’s legacy” — and one that his son would inherit and build upon.
Like his father before him, Bashar sought a career in medicine, studying in Damascus and working as a doctor in the Syrian army before moving to the UK in the 1990s to train as an ophthalmologist.
He was never expected to enter the family business. His father was grooming his eldest son, Bassel, as his successor, but this plan was derailed when Bassel died in a car crash in 1994.
Bashar was recalled to Syria, where he entered the military academy in Homs and spent the next six years preparing to succeed his father, surrounding himself with loyal Ba’athist and Alawite supporters in the party and the military.
As the only candidate for the presidency after his father’s death on June 10, 2000, 34-year-old Bashar was a shoo-in — once the Syrian constitution had been amended to lower the age limit for the job from 40.
From the outset, Bashar followed his father’s lead. His first task was to prove himself equal to the job by cracking down ruthlessly on the outbreak of dissent that followed his father’s death.
The demands of protesters, characterized as the “Damascus Spring,” were articulated by the “Statement of 99,” a manifesto signed by intellectuals calling for a new era of freedom of speech and an end to state oppression and imprisonment of political opponents.
Multiple arrests and crackdowns brought about the demise of the Damascus Spring, but the seeds it had sown were only dormant, not dead.
In March 2011, as part of the so-called Arab Spring, a series of mass pro-democracy protests broke out across Syria, with demonstrators demanding the end of the Assad regime.
The protests were met with a brutal crackdown, prompting a descent into what the UN officially declared to be a civil war in June 2012 — a war that has drawn in multiple different players, including Daesh and Al-Qaeda.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, by March this year, 13 years on from the start of the seemingly endless war, Syria’s war has killed more than half a million people. Among them are more than 164,000 civilians, including over 15,000 women and 25,000 children, with millions more displaced from their homes.
In its desperate bid to cling on to power, the Assad regime had used a range of barbaric weaponry, including crude but indiscriminately deadly “barrel bombs,” dropped on civilians from helicopters.
In breach of international law, the regime had also regularly deployed chemical weapons, including the neurotoxin sarin, against civilians and armed factions alike.
In 2012, in a deal to stave off threatened air attacks by the US, brokered by his ally Russia, Assad promised to give up his chemical weapons and join the Chemical Weapons Convention.
But only the following year, in August 2013, shocking photographs emerged of child victims of chemical attacks that had been carried out against areas held by militant groups in the eastern suburbs of Damascus.
Last month, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons revealed that Assad’s pledges to hand over all such weapons had still not been met.
As Western sanctions imposed in the wake of state violence in 2011 bit deeper, the Assad regime became, in effect, a narco-state, increasingly dependent for cash flow on sales of the drug Captagon, which has devastated the lives of so many young people and their families across the Middle East.
As an Arab News Deep Dive published in February 2023 revealed, “the vast majority of the tens of millions of pills flooding the Arabian Peninsula every year are manufactured on the doorstep, mainly in Syria and with the active involvement of the regime of President Bashar Assad.”
Caroline Rose, a senior analyst at New Lines, told Arab News there was no doubt that Captagon was “being produced and trafficked by an array of individuals that are very close to the Assad regime, some of them cousins and relatives of regime members.”
Most notable among them, she said, was Bashar’s brother, Maher, affiliated with production and smuggling efforts in his role as commander of the Fourth Armored Division, a military unit whose primary mission was to protect the Syrian regime from internal and external threats.
Since the start of the Syrian civil war a decade ago, what had begun as a trickle of captagon into the region had turned into a flood. Facing global sanctions that have left it desperate for revenue, the Syrian regime has gone into the drug-manufacturing business, working with Iranian-backed militias in Syria and Lebanon to smuggle industrial quantities of captagon into Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf states, by land, sea and air.
According to a report published in April 2022 by Washington think tank the New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy, war-torn Syria had become “the hub for industrial-sized production.” It added that “elements of the Syrian government are key drivers of the Captagon trade, with ministerial-level complicity in production and smuggling, using the trade as a means for political and economic survival amid international sanctions.”
In a statement in August 2012, US President Barack Obama said Bashar “has lost legitimacy (and) needs to step down. So far, he hasn’t gotten the message, and instead has doubled down in violence on his own people.”
He added: “The international community has sent a clear message that rather than drag his country into civil war he should move in the direction of a political transition. But at this point, the likelihood of a soft landing seems pretty distant.”
Today, with Bashar in hiding and Damascus in the hands of the rebels, Syrians can only pray that, with the Assad dynasty seemingly out of power after half a century of tyranny, their traumatized country’s long overdue soft landing is, finally, imminent.


UN special envoy cautiously optimistic over possibility of ‘a new Syria’

UN special envoy cautiously optimistic over possibility of ‘a new Syria’
Updated 08 December 2024
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UN special envoy cautiously optimistic over possibility of ‘a new Syria’

UN special envoy cautiously optimistic over possibility of ‘a new Syria’
  • Geir Pedersen: Fall of President Bashar Assad a ‘watershed moment’ after a ‘dark chapter’
  • ‘I stand ready to support the Syrian people in their journey towards a stable and inclusive future’

NEW YORK: The UN on Sunday expressed cautious optimism over the possibility of a new chapter for Syria following more than a decade of brutal conflict.

However, it also acknowledged that the road to peace and reconciliation will be fraught with immense challenges and complicated by shifting political realities on the ground.

Early Sunday morning, rebel forces entered the capital Damascus without resistance and declared it free of long-time ruler Bashar Assad.  

The militant group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham and its allies declared: “The tyrant Bashar Assad has fled.”

The Assad family had ruled Syria for 54 years with an iron fist. Bashar Assad took power in 2000 after his father Hafez Assad had run the country for three decades.

In 2011, Bashar Assad brutally crushed a peaceful, pro-democracy uprising, which turned into a devastating civil war. More than half a million people were killed and over 12 million were forced to flee their homes.

In a press briefing in Doha, UN Special Envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen referred to Sunday’s developments as a “watershed moment,” highlighting the country’s 14 years of “relentless suffering and unspeakable loss.”

He extended his “deepest solidarity” to the Syrian people, acknowledging the profound human toll the conflict has taken.

“This dark chapter has left deep scars,” he said, “but today we look forward with cautious hope to the opening of a new time — one of peace, reconciliation, dignity and inclusion for all Syrians.”

Pedersen said this moment should offer renewed hope for displaced Syrians hoping to return to their homes, for families separated by war anticipating reunions, and for the unjustly detained who may soon see justice. “The opening of the prisons reminds us of justice’s eventual reach,” he added.

But Pedersen warned that Syria still faces significant obstacles on its path toward peace, saying: “The challenges ahead remain immense, and we hear those who are anxious and apprehensive.”

However, he stressed that “this is a moment to embrace the possibility for renewal,” adding that the resilience of the Syrian people offers a path to “a united and peaceful” country.

Pedersen called for the desire of millions of Syrians for a “stable and inclusive transitional arrangements” to be put in place urgently.

He said it is critical for the country’s institutions to remain functional, and for Syrians to begin shaping a future that meets their “legitimate aspirations,” with “the support and engagement of the entire international community.”

Pedersen stressed the importance of maintaining law and order, particularly by armed groups. “I’ve heard from many Syrians, including armed groups and civil society, both women and men, and have noted public statements underlining a will to protect their fellow Syrians and state institutions,” he said.

“This is important, and let me also echo these statements and issue a clear and unambiguous appeal at this hour that all armed actors on the ground maintain good conduct, law and order, protect civilians and preserve public institutions.

“Let me urge all Syrians to prioritize dialogue, unity, and respect for international humanitarian law and human rights as they seek to rebuild their society.

“Let me stress that there must be a collective effort to secure peace and dignity for all, and that I stand ready to support the Syrian people in their journey towards a stable and inclusive future decided and shaped by the Syrian people themselves.”

Asked about the prospects of Bashar Assad being tried for war crimes, Pedersen said: “We all know that the long arms of justice will continue to work, but how this will develop, I have no easy answer.”

Pedersen is in Doha for urgent talks aimed at averting a collapse into chaos and bloodshed in Syria.

He discussed the complexities of international involvement, noting the differing positions of major powers such as Iran, Turkey and Russia, each with competing interests in Syria.

“This isn’t only about Iran and Turkey and Russia; it’s also about the Arab states,” he said. “My message to all of them was: This is the time for making sure that we have inclusive transitional arrangements that include all communities in Syria.”

The offensive against the government was launched by a coalition of opposition forces, including HTS and an umbrella group of Turkey-backed militias called the Syrian National Army.

While HTS’s status as a listed terrorist organization complicates its inclusion in peace talks, Pedersen acknowledged the shifting dynamics on the ground.

“Let’s be honest, the situation has changed dramatically,” he said. “We’re following extremely closely what’s happening with all armed factions.

“But what I think is important to stress is that we avoid bloodshed, that there’s a dialogue, an inclusive process and a preparation for transitional arrangements.

“This is now my key message to all: Avoid bloodshed, make sure … that all communities in Syria are included, and that the nervousness that some are facing, are fearing, that we can address this and move forward to peace and stability. And as I said, it could be the beginning really for a new Syria.”