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Live updates: Assad regime ends in Syria as rebels claim Damascus

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2 weeks ago

December 8, 2024

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Live updates: Assad regime ends in Syria as rebels claim Damascus

Hadi al-Bahra, president of the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, spoke to NBC News in Doha, Qatar, in the wake of the Syrian opposition forces’ stunning capture of Damascus to discuss a potential future path for the transfer of power in Syria.

“We want a united Syria, we don’t want it to be divided,” al-Bahra said. His group does not have a formal relationship with HTS, the rebel group that led the capture of Damascus and other key Syrian cities, though he says they are in contact.

The opposition forces plan to form a transitional civilian government that, according to al-Bahra, would not include members of the HTS. It would lead the country until free elections can be held, providing a provisional timeline of 18 months.

He also said that their goal is to have all foreign militaries — including the U.S., Russia, Iran and Turkey — withdraw from Syria in the same 18-month transition period. Foreign ISIS fighters should be deported, and according to al-Bahra, they plan to establish a special commission to investigate the forcibly disappeared prisoners, including kidnapped American journalist Austin Tice.

“The U.N. has approximately 1 million files for crimes committed in Syria, war crimes,” al-Bahra said. “We will either establish as national court or it will be part of the ICC.”