Agreement reached to disband rebel groups and integrate them to Syrian Defense Ministry: Live updates from Syria

Thank you for following our live coverage of developments in Syria. We’ll be back with more updates tomorrow morning.

Turkey is aiming to strike a maritime demarcation agreement with Syria after a permanent government is formed in Damascus, Turkish Transport Minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu said today, according to Reuters.

Turkey, which backed Syrian rebels who toppled President Bashar al-Assad, has been in close contact with the new interim administration of its neighbor.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan last week said Ankara would improve ties with Syria including in trade, energy and defense. Turkey is also planning to start negotiations with the new Syrian administration on a possible maritime demarcation agreement, Transport Minister Uraloglu told reporters.

"Of course an authority must first be established there... It will be on our agenda for sure, but it's hard to say that it's on today's agenda," Uraloglu said.

The maritime demarcation agreement would be in line with international law and would allow two countries to determine authorities for oil and hydrocarbon exploration, the minister also said.

Qatar called today for the quick removal of sanctions on Syria following the ousting of president Bashar al-Assad by Islamist-led rebels.

"We call for intensified efforts to expedite the lifting of international sanctions on Syria," foreign ministry spokesperson Majed al-Ansari told a regular briefing the day after a large delegation met the new Syrian leader Ahmad al-Sharaa in Damascus

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🔴 Syria's de facto leader, Ahmad al-Sharaa, has reached an agreement with rebel faction leaders to disband all groups and integrate them under the Defense Ministry, according to a statement from Syria's new general administration cited by Reuters.

U.S. group Hostage Aid Worldwide said today it believed senior cleric Yohanna Ibrahim, a Syrian-American dual citizen, had been held by Assad's government. The group did not elaborate on whether it believed Ibrahim was still alive.

"He is a US citizen," Zakka said, adding that Ibrahim "was seen in 2018 in Branch 291" of the security forces.

The senior Aleppo cleric of the Syriac Orthodox Church was kidnapped in April 2013. Assad's government had claimed that Ibrahim was kidnapped by jihadists.

U.S. group Hostage Aid Worldwide said today that it believes journalist Austin Tice, who went missing in Syria in 2012, is still alive, though it did not offer concrete information on his whereabouts.

"We have data that Austin is alive till January 2024, but the president of the U.S. said in August that he is alive, and we are sure that he is alive today," Hostage Aid Worldwide's Nizar Zakka said. 

Iranian flights to Syria will remain suspended until late January, local media reported today, two weeks after the ousting of longtime ally president Bashar al-Assad.

"In order to fly to a country, the destination country must grant entry and admission permits," the head of Iran's Civil Aviation Organization, Hossein Pourfarzaneh, was quoted as saying by the ISNA news agency. "Currently, flights to Syria will not be allowed until Jan. 22, after the New Year holidays," he added.

It was not clear exactly when Iran suspended flights to Syria.

More than 25,000 Syrian refugees have crossed back into Syria from Turkey in the past two weeks, Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said, according to AFP.

Earlier figures from Turkish authorities reported 7,621 returns between Dec. 9 and 13, shortly after the Assad regime.

A senior Saudi delegation met Syria's new leader, Ahmad al-Sharaa in Damascus yesterday. The meeting marked the first official contact between the Saudi government and the new Syrian administration, following the ousting of Assad. 

The Saudi delegation discussed the "Syria situation and captagon," a source told AFP, referring to the illegal-synthetic stimulant which has flooded the region from Syria under the Assad regime. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated Monday that Israel would not permit "terrorists to settle on the borders," in a remark seemingly aimed at Syria, AFP reported.

Hours after Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was ousted on Dec. 8, the Israeli army seized the buffer zone separating the two countries on the Syrian Golan Heights. The U.N. condemned the move as a violation of the 1974 disengagement agreement between Syria and Israel.

Protests erupted in Christian neighborhoods of Damascus on Tuesday following the burning of a Christmas tree near Hama, central Syria, according to an AFP journalist. Demonstrators marched through the streets chanting, "We demand the rights of Christians," as they headed toward the Orthodox Patriarchate in Bab Sharqi.

The spontaneous gatherings drew participants from various areas, united in expressing their fears and discontent more than two weeks after an armed Islamist-led coalition toppled Bashar al-Assad. The ousted president had positioned himself as a protector of minorities in the predominantly Sunni country.

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Good morning! 

Thank you for following our live coverage of the developments in Syria after the fall of the Assad regime.