Latest in the Middle East as US secretary of state meets with leaders in region

Mohamed Bashir, who is now the Syrian caretaker Prime Minister, holds a press conference in the northwestern Syrian city of Idlib on November 28.

When Syria’s rebel-appointed prime minister sat down with officials from the ousted Assad regime for the first time on Tuesday, the backdrop included the flag of the Syrian revolution alongside another bearing the Islamic declaration of faith that is often displayed by jihadists.

The choice of optics for the rebels’ first publicized cabinet meeting to discuss the transition of power since the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime sparked controversy, with sceptics taking to social media to criticize the move.

The rebels may have taken note. In a later televised interview with Al Jazeera, caretaker Prime Minister Mohammad Al Bashir, who until this week ruled the small, conservative province of Idlib on the rebels’ behalf, appeared only with the new Syrian flag.

How the rebels governed Idlib, in northwest Syria, offers insight into how they might rule the country. Experts and residents of Idlib describe their governance as pragmatic and influenced by both internal and external pressure, with efforts to distance themselves from a jihadist past and gain international acceptance. However, their rule was far from democratic or liberal. Governing a large, diverse nation like Syria, they warn, will be an entirely different challenge.

Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, the leader of Hayat Tahrir Al Sham (HTS), the Islamist group that led the rebel offensive to topple the Assad regime, has opted to rule from the shadows, and picked a technocrat – Bashir – to lead Syria in the interim. He has said that his officials gained valuable experience while governing Idlib but acknowledged that that may not be enough.

Read more about how the rebels’ rule of Idlib may offer clues to how they will govern Syria.

Syrians chant slogans and wave the new Syrian flag as they gather for Friday prayers at the Umayyad mosque in Damascus, Syria, on December 13.

People across Syria have been celebrating the fall of the Assad regime on the first Friday since Bashar al Assad fled the country.

Thousands of people gathered after Friday prayers in the center of the capital, Damascus, as well as in Homs, Aleppo and Hama, cities that fell to the opposition forces over the past two weeks.

Friday is a holy day for Muslims, often marked by communal worship, as well as protests and celebrations following the noon prayer.

There were also celebrations in Suwayda in the south of Syria, and in Idlib in the north, from where the campaign to oust Assad began in late November.

The leader of the forces that overthrew the regime, Mohammad al Jolani, issued a video statement earlier Friday, saying: “I would like to congratulate the great Syrian people on the victory of the blessed revolution. I call upon them to take to the squares and express their joy over this achievement, but without firing bullets or causing fear among the people.”

Jolani, who is also referred to by his real name, Ahmad al Sharaa, added: “Afterward, let us turn our efforts toward rebuilding this country. As we have said from the beginning: Victorious with the help of God.”

Israeli forces operate at a location given as Mount Hermon region, Syria, in this handout image released on December 9.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz has instructed the military to prepare to remain in control of Mount Hermon, on Syrian territory Israel seized this week, according to a defense ministry spokesman.

Israeli troops moved to the strategic height in the aftermath of the ousting of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, in what the Israeli government described as a temporary security move.

Katz instructed the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to prepare for winter deployment at the summit, saying: “Due to developments in Syria, it is of immense security importance to maintain our control over the summit of Mount Hermon.”

“Due to the harsh weather conditions, it is necessary to set up appropriate facilities and make special preparations for the soldiers’ stay at the summit of Mount Hermon,” the IDF spokesman said.

On Friday, Katz posted on X a photograph of himself and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the occupied Golan Heights, with the caption: “Overlooking the Syrian peak of Mount Hermon, which returned to Israeli control after 51 years.”

He added: “An exciting historical moment.”

Key context: Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 war. The territory is considered occupied Syrian land under international law.

Earlier this week, the IDF said that “a brigade-level operation in the Syrian Hermon region” within the buffer zone was underway.

On Sunday, Netanyahu ordered the IDF to seize the buffer zone between Israel and the rest of Syria and said on Tuesday that the military should also control “positions close to it. This includes the summit of Mt. Hermon.”

The Israeli military’s move into the buffer zone, which was established after the 1973 Middle East war, has been condemned by Egypt and other Arab nations.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks during a press conference at the Foreign Ministry headquarters in the Turkish capital Ankara on December 13.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken stressed to Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on Friday the need for continued efforts to stop a resurgence of ISIS in Syria.

In their meeting in Ankara, the top US diplomat said he raised the “imperative” of such efforts continuing, noting the work done by both nations over many years “to ensure the elimination of the territorial caliphate of ISIS.”

In his remarks following the meeting, Blinken did not explicitly mention the spate of fighting between Turkish-backed fighters and the US’ key anti-ISIS partner, the Syrian Democratic Forces.

Key background: On Thursday, Blinken noted that Turkey “has real and clear interests, particularly when it comes to the PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party) and terrorism,” calling it “an enduring threat.”

“At the same time, again, we want to avoid sparking any kinds of additional conflicts inside of Syria at a time when we want to see this transition to an interim government into a better way forward for Syria,” he told the press in Jordan. “And part of that also has to be ensuring that ISIS doesn’t rear its ugly head again.”

“And critical to making sure that doesn’t happen is the so-called SDF, the Syrian Democratic Forces, that we’ve been supporting,” added Blinken.

“They’ve been critical in making sure that ISIS is kept at bay; critical also to guarding the detention facilities where thousands of foreign terrorist fighters have been detained for years, keeping them off of the battlefield, keeping them away from rejoining ISIS. That’s a critical mission, and it’s one that we have to see be pursued going forward.”

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, right, with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, during a meeting in Ankara, Turkey, on December 13.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan have discussed the opportunity “to finally try to complete” a hostage and ceasefire agreement in Gaza.

Speaking after their meeting in Ankara Friday, the top US diplomat said they’ve “seen in the last couple of weeks… More encouraging signs that that is possible.”

“In my discussions with President Erdogan and with Minister Fidan, we talked about the imperative of Hamas saying yes to the agreement,” Blinken said, noting that the US appreciates the role Turkey can play in using its influence with the group “to try to bring this to conclusion.”

A number of Hamas officials have traveled to Turkey recently after being expelled from Qatar.

Blinken’s cautious optimism follows similar sentiments from US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, who on Thursday said the US was “looking to close” a hostage and ceasefire deal in the remaining weeks of the Biden administration.

CNN reported this week that the current administration is working increasingly closely with Trump officials to try to secure the agreement.

Palestinians wait in a queue to receive food outside a distribution center south of Khan Younis, Gaza, on December 6.

The hair color of displaced Palestinian children has turned “much lighter” from protein malnutrition over the past few months, according to a British doctor who volunteered in Gaza, as Israel’s siege severely depletes stocks across the strip.

Dr. Mahim Qureshi, a London-based vascular surgeon, said the hair color of young children in and around medical facilities had become “much lighter” between her first deployment in April and her second from October 21 to November 21.

“This is a consequence of protein malnutrition, starvation and deprivation,” Qureshi told reporters at a news conference in London on Thursday.

Protein malnutrition causes a reduction in the amount of melanin in the body, the chemical that gives hair its color, according to Qureshi, who was deployed to Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, in central Gaza, and then in Nasser Hospital, further south.

Israel’s 14-month war in Gaza since the Hamas-led October 7 attacks has eviscerated entire communities and compounded civilian suffering. Human rights advocates have warned that Palestinian children are bearing the brunt of the campaign. At least 17,712 children have been killed, according to Gaza’s Government Media Office (GMO). Of those, at least 44 children have starved to death, the GMO reported on Tuesday.

CNN’s Kareem Khadder contributed reporting.

Mohammed al-Jolani address a crowd at the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, Syria on December 8.

Syrian rebel leader Mohammad al-Jolani urged the public to celebrate the fall of the Assad regime without firing shots after accidental gunfire caused deadly chaos in the northern city of Raqqa.

Jolani, head of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group, delivered a video message on Friday wearing a white shirt and vest – a departure from his usual military fatigues.

Jolani’s message comes after hundreds of people took to the streets of Raqqa on Thursday to celebrate the ouster of longtime dictator Bashar al-Assad, when a man lost control of his machine gun and mistakenly opened fire on bystanders, according to witnesses and activist group Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently.

After the gunfire, skirmishes broke out between young men and Iocal security affiliated with the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). It led to stone-throwing, and the local security responded with gunfire.

At least one person was killed and 15 wounded, according to a local journalist and witnesses.

CNN cannot independently verify the circumstances of the incident.

Tensions have been high in Raqqa between the Kurdish-led SDF and the Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA), with some residents calling on the SDF to hand over control of the city to the FSA. Raqqa is predominantly Arab, with a Kurdish minority.

Nadia’s eyes were full of tears as she crossed the border from Syria to Lebanon. She was finally going to see her son. A 14-year-old boy the last time she saw him; he is now 22 and living in Germany.

Her son left the family home in Hasaka in northern Syria in 2013 during one of the many escalations of the war which had at that point been raging for more than two years. Nadia, her husband Saiman and their daughter Sydra stayed in Syria, never imagining it would be so long before they’d see Mohammed again.

With a couple of suitcases in tow, Nadia and Saiman finally made it to Masnaa on the Lebanese side of the border on Wednesday afternoon. They were headed to Beirut to board a flight to Germany.

The fall of Syria’s longtime dictator Bashar al-Assad over the weekend triggered a wave of jubilant celebrations, with many Syrians rushing home after years in exile. But the astonishing speed with which the rebels took over the country and the subsequent Israeli attacks against Syrian government targets also sparked worries about what’s next for the battered country.

At the crossing in Masnaa, hundreds of people were streaming in both directions, a sense of nervousness and chaos in the air.

Beeping vehicles were trying to weave their way through the traffic jam of cars and vans loaded to the roof with people and their possessions. Taxi drivers flocked to the crossing, offering rides to those on foot – some asking for extortionate amounts of money for a transfer to Beirut or Damascus.

Diaa, his wife Amani and their three children were heading from Syria to Lebanon on Wednesday.

Related article At Syria’s border with Lebanon, refugees return home while others flee fearing the worst

Palestinians inspect the targeted building and surrounding structures that were struck after an Israeli attack on Nuseirat refugee camp in Gaza, on December 13.

The death toll from an Israeli airstrike on a residential block in central Gaza has risen to 33, officials in the Palestinian enclave said on Friday.

Images of the aftermath of the attack on the Nuseirat refugee camp Thursday showed people with flashlights searching the rubble of a destroyed building.

More than 84 people remain missing or injured, according to the Gaza Government Media Office. At least nine children were killed, health officials said earlier.

The strike targeted a “senior terrorist” who led attacks against Israeli civilians and troops, the Israeli military said.

People gather at the Saydnaya prison in Damascus on December 9, as rescuers searched inside.

In the days following the fall of President Bashar al-Assad, Syrians have crowded his regime’s notorious detention facilities in a desperate search for loved ones who were jailed or forcibly disappeared.

Thousands of prisoners have now been freed, many after decades of incarceration in brutal conditions. Yet many more of the missing have yet to be found, and hopes are fading with each passing hour.

Nearly half a million people were killed during Syria’s 13-year civil war, and up to 100,000 of those victims may have died in government-run prisons, according to UK-based monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

After five decades of Assad family dictatorship was swept away in the past two weeks, one prisoner story has been shared online perhaps more than any other, that of Mazen al-Hamada.

Pictures of al-Hamada’s body surfaced on social media this week after his remains were found at a Damascus hospital, believed to have been dumped there by officials from Saydnaya prison, a notorious facility that was nicknamed “the slaughterhouse.”

The image of his hollowed eyes and beaten face permanently etched in horror made the activist yet again a symbol of the country’s suffering and the regime’s brutality, even in its final hours.

al-Hamada meeting Senator Marco Rubio during his time in Washington DC advocating for the rights of Syrians under the Assad regime

Related article The dead, the missing and the reunited: Three tales of Syria’s tortured prisoners

Foreign ministers from the Middle East and beyond will gather in Jordan over the weekend to discuss ways to support a smooth transitional process in Syria “led by Syrians,” according to Jordan’s foreign ministry.

Top US diplomat Antony Blinken, the European Union’s foreign policy chief and Turkey’s foreign minister will convene with diplomats from Arab countries including Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

The talks come as dozens of competing factions vie for control in different parts of Syria. In Damascus, Syria’s caretaker prime minister has reiterated that the interim government will serve until March.

Here’s what you need to know.

More than 1.1 million people have been displaced across Syria since the country was plunged into unrest after the collapse of the Assad regime, according to United Nations estimates.

Tens of thousands of displaced people are staying at about 200 centers in northeast Syria, where aid organizations are distributing food, cash, hygiene kits and other supplies, said the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) in a Thursday update.

It added that food shortages are widespread in Aleppo, the country’s second-largest city, and fuel prices remain high. Nearby fighting has disrupted access to water and caused power outages affecting more than 400,000 people in the area since Tuesday, it said.

The UN and its partners are working to deliver aid, with 26 trucks carrying food aid crossing from Turkey into northwest Syria on Wednesday, UNOCHA said. However, conditions remain tough in that region due to checkpoints, security issues and reports of looting.

Travis Pete Timmerman, a U.S. citizen who went missing in Syria, speaks to press in Damascus, Syria on December 12.

The parents of an American man who was found in Syria after going missing earlier this year said they were relieved he was safe following a difficult seven months in which they feared “the worst.”

Travis Timmerman, 29, was discovered by locals as he walked barefoot in the streets of southern Damascus on Thursday. He said he was kept in prison for months after entering the country as a pilgrim.

“Tears, started bawling, it was so emotional,” Timmerman’s stepfather Richard Gardiner told CNN affiliate KYTV. “I’m thinking the worst, after seven months you just think he’s gone.”

Gardiner said he called Timmerman’s mother, Stacey Timmerman, to break the news. “I called her up and said, ‘It’s him, and he’s alive!’ So we both cried on the phone,” Gardiner said.

Thousands of people have been released from prisons across Syria this week, after rebels toppled the country’s longtime dictator Bashar al-Assad.

Speaking to CBS News, Timmerman said he had been detained in a Syrian prison after entering the country without permission for “spiritual purposes,” having crossed its border with Lebanon.

He said his cell door was broken down on Monday by two men armed with AK-47s, CBS News reported, and left the prison with a large group to try and reach Jordan.

Battered bodies inside the morgue of Mujtahid Hospital. Part of this image has been obscured by CNN.

The bruised and battered bodies inside the morgue of Mujtahid Hospital are hard to look at — tangible evidence of the brutal regime of toppled Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad.

But crowds of desperate people wait to see them, hoping finally for an answer to what happened to a loved one.

The 35 or so bodies were found in a military hospital in the Syrian capital of Damascus, days after the regime fell. They are believed to be among the last victims of Assad. A man points to their tattered clothing and suggests they were detainees at the notorious Saydnaya prison.

The bodies are identified only by number inside the fluorescent-lit morgue. But there isn’t enough room, so a makeshift area has been set up outside where families gather, using their cellphone lights to look at the faces of the dead, hunting for features they recognize.

But they also see the horrific wounds that seem to be consistent with torture. A woman searching among the bodies retches as she leaves the morgue.

Dr. Ahmed Abdullah, an employee at the morgue, condemns the people who left these marks, accusing the Assad regime.

Related article Battered corpses show the horrors of life and death under Syria’s Assad

Antonio Guterres speaks during an interview at the United Nations headquarters in New York on September 16.

The United Nations chief said he is deeply concerned about “extensive violations of Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” after Israel launched hundreds of strikes and deployed ground troops in the country following the collapse of the Assad regime.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres said he is “particularly concerned over the hundreds of Israeli airstrikes on several locations in Syria,” stressing “the urgent need to de-escalate violence on all fronts, throughout Syria,” according to a statement from his office Thursday.

The Israeli military on Tuesday said it had carried out about 480 strikes across Syria over two days, hitting most of the country’s strategic weapon stockpiles. Defense Minister Israel Katz also said the Israeli navy had destroyed the Syrian fleet.

Israel, which said it is trying to make sure military equipment does not fall into the hands of adversaries, has also deployed ground troops both into and beyond a demilitarized buffer zone for the first time in 50 years.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, left, shakes hands with Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erodgan during their meeting at Ankara Esenboga Airport on Thursday, December 12.

The coalition fighting to defeat ISIS must be able “to execute its critical mission” in Syria, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, amid a spate of fighting between Turkey-backed militants and the US-supported Syrian Defense Forces (SDF).

The roughly hour-long meeting in Ankara Thursday also focused on the need for a “Syrian-owned political transition to an accountable and inclusive government,” and the continued protection of displaced Syrians, according to a US State Department statement.

Some context: The primarily Kurdish SDF is a key ally of the US in preventing the resurgence of ISIS in northeast Syria. Top SDF Gen. Mazloum Abdi said this week that attacks by the Turkish-supported groups had forced his forces to halt their anti-ISIS operations.

Speaking earlier, Blinken said Turkey “has real and clear interests, particularly when it comes to the PKK and terrorism,” referring to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, which is classified as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the US and the European Union.

“At the same time, again, we want to avoid sparking any kinds of additional conflicts inside of Syria at a time when we want to see this transition to an interim government into a better way forward for Syria,” he said. “And part of that also has to be ensuring that ISIS doesn’t rear its ugly head again.”

A missing US man has been found in Syria, where he says he was kept in prison for months after entering the country as a pilgrim.

Travis Timmerman spoke to several outlets Thursday, after locals saw him walking barefoot in the streets of southern Damascus.

Thousands of people have been released from prisons across Syria this week, after rebels toppled the country’s former president Bashar al-Assad.

Speaking to CBS News, Timmerman said he had been detained in a Syrian prison for several months after entering the country without permission, having crossed its border with Lebanon.

He had decided to travel to Syria for “spiritual purposes,” he told the network.

He said that his cell door was broken down on Monday by two men armed with AK-47s, CBS News reported, and left the prison with a large group to try and reach Jordan.

Timmerman’s time in the Syrian prison “wasn’t too bad,” he said, according to CBS News.

Travis Pete Timmerman, a U.S. citizen who went missing in Syria, speaks to press after being released from the Sednaya Prison in Damascus, Syria, on December 12.

Related article Missing US man found in Syria says he was kept in prison after entering country as a pilgrim

Jordan will host a summit on Syria over the weekend with foreign ministers from Western and Arab nations, the foreign ministry in Amman announced in a statement Thursday.

Top diplomats will meet on Saturday in the Jordanian coastal city of Aqaba to discuss ways to support a smooth transitional process “led by Syrians,” the statement said.

Top diplomats from numerous Arab nations will be there, including:

They will convene with:

The summit will focus on reconstructing Syrian state institutions in a way that “preserves Syria’s unity, territorial integrity, sovereignty, security, stability, and the rights of all its citizens,” the statement said.

Antony Blinken speaks to reporters at King Hussein International Airport in Jordan's southern Red Sea coastal city of Aqaba on December 12.

Israel has “been clear” about the reasons for its military actions in Syria following the fall of the Assad regime, the top US diplomat said on Thursday.

Israel has sent troops into the “buffer zone” between Israel and Syria and launched hundreds of strikes on Syrian air bases, ports and weapons stockpiles across the country this week.

It is “really important… that we all try to make sure that we’re not sparking any additional conflicts,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters before departing Jordan for Turkey.

“The stated purpose of those actions from the Israelis is to try to make sure that equipment that’s been abandoned — military equipment that’s been abandoned by the Syrian army — doesn’t fall into the wrong hands, terrorists, extremists, etc.

US-Israel talks: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met in Jerusalem with White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan to discuss events in Syria, according to the prime minister’s office.

Sullivan said later during a news conference that the US is “in deep consultations with the Israeli government about where this goes from here, what that will look like in the days and weeks ahead.”