Syria updates: Assad makes first statement since ousting

Donald Trump on Monday suggested Turkey was responsible for the recent removal of Bashar al-Assad from power in Syria.

Assad fled to Russia after a swift offensive spearheaded by the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) wrested city after city from the control of the now deposed president until the rebels reached Damascus earlier this month.

"I think Turkey is very smart," Trump told reporters at a news conference at his residence in Florida. "Turkey did an unfriendly takeover, without a lot of lives being lost. I can say that Assad was a butcher, what he did to children."

"Turkey is a major force, by the way, and Erdogan is somebody I got along with great," Trump said. "But he has a major military force. And his has not been worn out with war... He's built a very strong, powerful army."

Germany’s Michael Ohnmacht has been tasked with opening channels of communication between the European Union (EU) and Syria’s new leadership, German new agency dpa reported, citing sources in Brussels.

The French AFP news agency appeared to confirm that and reported that Ohnmacht was due to arrive in Damascus on Monday as Western states try to establish contact with Syria’s new rulers.

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas made no mention of who would be heading up the bloc’s contact efforts when she spoke to reporters on the sidelines of an EU foreign ministers meeting.

Ohnmacht has been head of the EU's Syria delegation since September.

He has been at the German Foreign Office since 1988 and previously served as ambassador to Libya, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia, among other posts.

Western governments have been weighing up how best to engage with Syria’s new leadership considering the leading force behind it is the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which is under EU sanctions and a designated terrorist group.

In his first statement since leaving Syria over a week ago, ousted President Bashar Assad claimed his departure was "neither planned nor did it occur in the final hours of the battles."

The statement was released on the social media accounts of the Syrian presidency on Monday.

Assad claimed that he moved to Latakia in coordination with the Russians when the rebel forces, whom he called "terrorists," entered Damascus on the morning of Dec 8.

"As the field situation in the area continued to deteriorate, the Russian military base [in Latakia] itself came under intensified attack by drone strikes," Assad said. "With no viable means of leaving the base, Moscow requested that the base's command arrange an immediate evacuation to Russia on the evening of Sunday, 8 December."

On the afternoon of Dec 8, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Syrian leader Bashar Assad had left his post and the country, hours before Russian media began reporting that he had arrived in the country with his family and was granted asylum.

"When the state falls into the hands of terrorism and the ability to make a meaningful contribution is lost, any position is void of purpose, rendering its occupation meaningless," Assad said.

German Foreign Ministry spokesman Christian Wagner called on Israel to "abandon" its plan to double the population living in the occupied and annexed Golan Heights in Syria.

Speaking at a regular press briefing, Wagner said "it is perfectly clear under international law that this area controlled by Israel belongs to Syria and that Israel is therefore an occupying power."

"It is absolutely crucial now, in this phase of political upheaval in Syria, that all actors in the region take into account the territorial integrity of Syria and do not call it into question," he added.

Alluding to Israeli strikes in Syria, Wagner said that while Germany understood the desire to prevent Syrian weapons from falling into the wrong hands, "Syria has been a plaything of foreign powers for far too long" and that all parties to the conflict now needed to exercise "restraint."

On Sunday the Israeli government approved a plan to invest more than $11 million (€10.5 million) in the occupied Golan Heights and double the population in the region.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the plan is a response to the "new front" with Syria.

"Strengthening the Golan means strengthening Israel, and it is particularly important at this time," Netanyahu said. The area would be "held on to, made to flourish and settled in," he added.

Leaders of Syria's semi-autonomous Kurdish region in the northeast have issued a statement calling for "a stop to military operations over the entire Syrian territory in order to begin a constructive, comprehensive national dialogue."

Although HTS rebel leaders have promised to respect religious and ethnic minorities, their extremist roots have left many doubting that they will make good on these vows.

Kurds are the largest ethnic minority in Syria, and represent about 10% of the population. Following widespread repression of their language and culture under Assad's regime, they joined the fight against government forces in the Syrian Civil War.

Since the fall of Assad, there has been also sporadic fighting between Kurds and Turkish-backed militias in northeastern Syria in the past week. 

Although Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan opposed Assad, Turkey also sees some Kurds as its enemy because of Kurdish separatist movements within its own borders.

Due to colonialism and international treaties following World War I, Kurds have become minorities in Syria, Turkey, Iraq, and elsewhere, with many advocating for the creation of their own homeland.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that Israel has launched its "most violent strikes" in Syria since 2012 on what it says are missile warehouses.

After decades of hostilities and conflicts over territory, Israel has ramped up its attacks on Syrian military installations after former President Assad and his family dramatically fled to Russia last week.

Israeli troops have seized control of a UN demilitarized buffer zone between Syria and the Israeli occupied Golan Heights.

The Israeli government has denied accusations of taking advantage of the situation to make a major land grab, and of leaving the buffer zone to advance further into Syria.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that he had spoken to US President-elect Donald Trump over the phone late on Sunday to reaffirm what he called Israel's peaceful intentions in the region.

"We have no interest in a conflict with Syria," Netahyahu said, as Israeli strikes have prompted fears that Israel will continue its attacks in Syria in addition to the fighting against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The prime minister added that "we will determine Israeli policy regarding Syria according to the reality on the ground," saying that the military was targeting Syrian army outposts because the Assad regime had "allowed Iran to arm Hezbollah through its territory."

For years, Iran supported former President Assad due to religious affinity and to maintain its sphere of influence.

Kaja Kallas, the new foreign policy chief of the European Union, confirmed that the bloc had sent an envoy to Damascus for talks with the interim government led by rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).

The EU's decision comes after the US and the UK made similar moves over the weekend.

Western allies largely cut diplomatic ties with the regime of former President Bashar Assad over a decade ago following his violent crackdown on pro-democracy protests.

"Our top diplomat in Syria will go to Damascus today. We'll have the contacts there," Kallas told journalists ahead of a meeting of EU foreign ministers.

"We can't leave a vacuum," she added, as regional and global powers begin vying for influence over how Syria moves forward.

At the same time, many Western countries are wary of dealings with the new government due to HTS' roots as an off-shoot of al-Qaeda in Syria. 

"For us, it's not only the words, but we want to see the deeds going to the right direction. So not only what they are saying, but also what they are doing," Kallas said of the group's attempts to soften their image.

"I think the coming weeks and months will show whether it goes to the right direction. And I think then we are also open to discuss next steps," she added.

es/lo (AP, AFP, dpa, Reuters)