▲ Kurds displaced from Syria flee the fighting along the Aleppo-Raqqa highway.Photo Afp
Afp, Europa Press, Sputnik and Afp
La Jornada Newspaper
Tuesday, December 3, 2024, p. 22
Beirut. The president of Syria, Bashar al Assad, denounced yesterday an attempt to redraw the map of the Middle East, after the lightning offensive of rebel groups that managed to take large areas of the north of the country from the government forces to attend to the interests and goals of the United States and other Western powers.
Al Assad warned in a call with his Iranian counterpart, Masud Pezeshkian, that this terrorist escalation transcends Syria and seeks fragment the entire area, although he insisted on his government’s commitment to eliminate terrorism in the country, according to a statement from the presidency.
The president of Iran agreed that the attempts to damage the unit from Syria they suppose a blow for the stability of the entire area, the result of a plan which Pezeshkian attributes to Israel and the United States. For this reason, he reaffirmed Tehran’s support for the Al Assad regime’s efforts to contain potential threats.
In this context, Russia and Iran stressed their support unconditional to President Al Assad, in a telephone call made between the leaders of both countries. Meanwhile, Türkiye expressed that it will continue to support the territorial integrity of Syria, as it has always done, declared yesterday the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hakan Fidan.
The Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, was alarmed by recent escalation of violence in northwestern Syria and urged immediate cessation of hostilitieswhen the clashes have left more than 50 thousand displaced, according to the world organization.
The United States urged all countries to work for one de-escalationwhile the European Union condemned Russian bombings against densely populated areas in Syria.
The offensive by rebels and jihadists, led by the pro-Turkish group Hayat Tahrir Sham (HTS), has led to fighting mainly in the Aleppo region. Damascus has responded by relying on allied countries and even the Syrian Defense confirmed the involvement of Russian forces in the offensives.
The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed intense bombing of Syria and Russia against rebel-controlled areas in Idlib, Aleppo and Hama, and stated that Syrian fighter jets had returned to the use of bomb barrelsas they did in previous stages of the war.
The Observatory put the death toll at around 450 since the start of the offensive, 57 of them civilians. According to the Syrian Ministry of Defense, more than 400 terrorists were eliminated in the last 24 hours.
The Syrian army repelled an attack in northern Hama province and regained control of several settlements, the Syrian agency Sana reported, while Iranian-backed militias entered Syria from Iraq and headed north to reinforce forces. of the army fighting the rebels, two military sources reported.
