Assad Receives Lebanese Druze Delegation

Assad receives the Lebanese delegation on Sunday. (Syrian presidency)
Assad receives the Lebanese delegation on Sunday. (Syrian presidency)
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Assad Receives Lebanese Druze Delegation

Assad receives the Lebanese delegation on Sunday. (Syrian presidency)
Assad receives the Lebanese delegation on Sunday. (Syrian presidency)

Syrian President Bashar Assad received in Damascus on Sunday head of the Lebanese Democratic Party MP Talal Arslan and a large Druze delegation that included spiritual leader of the sect in Lebanon Nasseredine al-Gharib.

The delegation also included various Lebanese political and partisan figures, including former minister Wiab Wahhab and Saleh al-Gharib.

Assad said the delegation “represented the true face of Lebanon,” reported the state news agency SANA.

They represent the majority of Lebanese “who believe in the need and importance of the relationship with Syria and who have been loyal to it throughout the years of war,” he added.

Ties between the neighboring countries should not be affected by changing conditions on the ground, rather they must be strengthened, he continued.

“Syria will always stand by the Lebanese people and support it on various levels,” he stressed.

For his part, Arslan said the suffering of the Lebanese and Syrian people is the result of “new colonialism that is trying to violate the rights of people and dignities of nations.”

Sides that are hostile to Syria are hostile to Lebanon and Arabism, he declared.

No one in Lebanon agrees to the severing of relations between Lebanon and Syria, he claimed.

Wahhab underscored the importance and standing of Syria in the region, saying the “Arabs won’t find a place among regional powers except with the return of Syria.”

The Lebanese delegation later visited the Druze-majority city of Jaramana in the Damascus countryside. They met with various political and Druze officials from the southern Sweida and Golan regions.

Sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that Druze spiritual leader in Sweida, Hikmat al-Hajiri, did not attend the meeting. No reason was given for his absence.

Activists from Sweida, however, attributed his absence to tensions and concerns over the eruption of infighting in the region.

The tensions stem from ongoing negotiations taking place between the counter-terrorism force, affiliated with the Syrian al-Liwa Party, and National Defense Forces (NDF) over returning military vehicles that were seized by the force.

In return, a member of the counter-terrorism force, who is being held by the state security forces, would be released.

Clashes had erupted on Saturday between the Syrian al-Liwa Party and NDF in al-Harisa town in eastern Daraa on Saturday.

Six members of the NDF were wounded. The NDF was forced to retreat from the town and they set up checkpoints inside Sweida city on the road leading to the provinces’ eastern countryside.

The NDF also brought in more members and harassed pedestrians in regions held by the counter-terrorism force. People were assaulted and four civilians were kidnapped, forcing their relatives to surround the headquarters of the NDF in Sweida city to demand their release. They threatened to resort to force if their demands are not met.



Blinken Says Syria's HTS Should Learn from Taliban Isolation

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken delivers a statement to the press after the meeting with the foreign ministers of the Arab Contact Group on Syria in Jordan's southern city of Aqaba on December 14, 2024. (Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken delivers a statement to the press after the meeting with the foreign ministers of the Arab Contact Group on Syria in Jordan's southern city of Aqaba on December 14, 2024. (Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP)
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Blinken Says Syria's HTS Should Learn from Taliban Isolation

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken delivers a statement to the press after the meeting with the foreign ministers of the Arab Contact Group on Syria in Jordan's southern city of Aqaba on December 14, 2024. (Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken delivers a statement to the press after the meeting with the foreign ministers of the Arab Contact Group on Syria in Jordan's southern city of Aqaba on December 14, 2024. (Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP)

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called Wednesday on Syria's triumphant HTS opposition group to follow through on promises of inclusion, saying it can learn a lesson from the isolation of Afghanistan's Taliban.
The movement supported by Türkiye has promised to protect minorities since its lightning offensive toppled strongman Bashar al-Assad this month following years of stalemate, AFP reported.
"The Taliban projected a more moderate face, or at least tried to, in taking over Afghanistan, and then its true colors came out. The result is it remains terribly isolated around the world," Blinken said at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.
After some initial overtures to the West, the Taliban reimposed strict restrictions including barring women and girls from secondary school and university.
"So if you're the emerging group in Syria," Blinken said, "if you don't want that isolation, then there's certain things that you have to do in moving the country forward."
Blinken called for a "non-sectarian" Syrian government that protects minorities and addresses security concerns, including keeping the fight against the ISIS group and removing lingering chemical weapons stockpiles.
Blinken said that HTS can also learn lessons from Assad on the need to reach a political settlement with other groups.
"Assad's utter refusal to engage in any kind of political process is one of the things that sealed his downfall," Blinken said.