The National Times - Syria's Jolani says rebel factions will be 'disbanded'

Assad fled Syria on December 8, as rebels led by Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) captured the capital Damascus, ending decades of brutal dictatorship and years of civil war.

HTS leader Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, now using his real name Ahmed al-Sharaa, has sought to reassure minorities at home and governments abroad that the country's interim leaders will protect all Syrians, as well as state institutions.

Meeting Monday with members of the Druze community, he said all rebel factions would "be disbanded and the fighters trained to join the ranks of the defence ministry."

"All will be subject to the law," he added, according to posts on the group's Telegram channel.

He also emphasised the need for unity in the multi-ethnic and multi-confessional country.

"Syria must remain united," he said. "There must be a social contract between the state and all religions to guarantee social justice".

The comments came shortly after Assad broke his silence for the first time since fleeing Syria to Russia, claiming he had been evacuated from a military base at Moscow's request.

Russia, along with Iran and Lebanon's Hezbollah, helped prop up Assad's rule.

"My departure from Syria was neither planned nor did it occur during the final hours of the battles, as some have claimed," said a statement from Assad on the ousted presidency's Telegram channel.

"Moscow requested that the base's command arrange an immediate evacuation to Russia," he added.

"When the state falls into the hands of terrorism and the ability to make a meaningful contribution is lost, any position becomes void of purpose."

However, five former officials have told AFP that Assad departed Syria hours before rebel forces seized Damascus.

- 'Massive flow' -

The collapse of Assad's rule stunned the world and sparked celebrations around Syria and beyond, after his crackdown on democracy protests in 2011 led to one of the deadliest wars of the century.

But he leaves behind a country scarred by decades of torture, disappearances and summary executions, as well as economic mismanagement that has left 70 percent of the population in need of aid.

United Nations aid chief Tom Fletcher on Monday urged a "massive flow of support" into Syria.

The international community should "rally around" the Syrian people, he added.

Syria's economy remains constrained by punishing US and European sanctions, and Western powers are still determining how to engage with HTS.

The group is rooted in Al-Qaeda's Syrian branch and designated a terrorist group by several governments.

Meeting Monday with a delegation of British diplomats, Jolani stressed the need to end "all sanctions imposed on Syria so that Syrian refugees can return to their country", the group's Telegram channel said.

Foreign governments have begun cautious engagements with Syria's new interim rulers.

Turkey and Qatar have reopened embassies in Damascus, while US and British officials have launched communications with Syrian officials.

And the EU's top diplomat arrived in Damascus on Monday for meetings.

"We can't leave a vacuum," EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said in Brussels about the trip, warning that Russia and Iran "should not have a place in Syria's future."

However she said lifting sanctions and removing HTS from an EU blacklist would depend on "when we see positive steps, not the words, but actual steps and deeds from the new leadership."

- 'We lived in misery' -

At the coastal port of Tartus on Monday, Russian troops loaded a truck at the entrance to the port they control.

HTS fighters manned a nearby checkpoint and said they were under orders not to approach the Russians, whose flag still flies over a military enclave in the terminal.

Far from the carefully stage-managed diplomatic discussions in meeting rooms, thousands of Syrians are still engaged in the desperate search for information about loved ones who disappeared during Assad's rule.

Some emerged from days, months or even years of imprisonment as rebel forces threw open prisons during their advance. But others remain ghosts for now.

"We want our children, alive, dead, burned, ashes, buried in mass graves... just tell us," Ayoush Hassan, 66, told AFP at the notorious Saydnaya prison.

She travelled to the prison in Damascus from her home in northern Syria, but could find no trace of her missing son.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor says more than 100,000 people died in Syria's jails and detention centres from 2011.

The war sparked by Assad's crackdown on the revolt killed more than 500,000 people and forced more than half the population to flee their homes.

His departure has allowed ordinary Syrians a look at the lavish lifestyle enjoyed by the ruling elites even as the country sank into poverty.

"To think that he spent all that money and we lived in misery," said Mudar Ghanem, 26, an ex-prisoner who was touring Assad's white-marbled home in Latakia.

Assad's fall has not brought all conflict in the country to an end however, with both Israel and Turkey carrying out strikes since his ouster.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Monday that Israel has carried out more than 470 strikes on military sites in Syria since Assad fled.

The United States also said it carried out air strikes in Syria on Monday that killed a dozen Islamic State group fighters, as it tries to prevent the group from capitalising on Assad's fall.

F.Hammond--TNT