The latest in Syria as man thought to be US citizen found in Damascus

U.S National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan speaks during a news conference in Tel Aviv, Israel, on December 12.

White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters in Jerusalem that parties are “looking to close” a Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal following meetings with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and top Israeli officials as he projected cautionary optimism about the potential for a deal in the next month.

Sullivan added that he will be traveling to Doha, Qatar, and Cairo, Egypt, to continue negotiations with other mediators involved in the talks as they seek to finalize a deal before President Joe Biden leaves office.

When asked by CNN’s Jeremy Diamond about reports over potential concessions that both sides have indicated they would make to secure a deal, Sullivan declined to provide any further details: “I can’t negotiate in public on the terms of the hostage deal.”

But Sullivan did stress that amid the seismic geopolitical shifts in the region following the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria and Israel’s ceasefire deal with Hezbollah have helped shift Hamas’ previous negotiating posture.

Sullivan also stressed that the outgoing administration has been in close contact with president-elect Donald Trump’s team to send a “common message” amid the ongoing political transition in the US as they work to finalize a ceasefire and hostage deal.

“We’ve had, as I said in my opening comments, very good consultation and coordination with them, including on this issue, where we keep them apprised of how the negotiations are unfolding. We talk to them about how we can send a common message that the United States, no matter who is sitting in the Oval Office, no matter who’s parties is in charge, wants to see this ceasefire in hostage deal and see it now,” he said.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks to reporters on the tarmac before his departure from King Hussein International Airport, Jordan, on December 12.

The US is speaking with Israel directly about its military actions in Syria in the wake of the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, according to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, saying it is “really important… that we all try to make sure that we’re not sparking any additional conflicts.”

“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.,” Blinken said to reporters before departing Jordan for Turkey.

Israel sent troops into the “buffer zone” between Israel and Syria and has struck Syrian air bases, ports, and weapons stockpiles across the country.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has 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.”

“We do have every expectation that it will be temporary,” Sullivan added. “And we take them at their word that that is the intention here, as we work through a new arrangement that can ensure that Israel is secure.”

This post has been updated with comments from Sullivan.

Dozens of Syrians have taken to the streets of Damascus mourning prominent activist Mazen al-Hamada, whose body was found in a prison in the city after rebel forces swept through.

Hamada was a well-known face of the Syrian protests during 2011’s Arab Spring. He fled to the Netherlands, where he testified on the torture he had been subjected to under Assad’s regime for nearly two years for his involvement in the demonstrations.

He was arrested in February 2020 at the Damascus airport upon his return to Syria and had not been seen since.

In the video, obtained by Reuters, people chant: “Syria is national unity” and “we are the Syrian revolutionaries.”

See how people turned out to celebrate his life here:

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Procession for Mazen al-Hamada, a Syrian activist found dead in a Damascus prison

00:25 - Source: CNN

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that he will meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan to coordinate on Syria and to focus on “preventing any actor inside or outside the country from putting their narrow self-interests ahead of the interests of the Syrian people.”

Blinken said he spoke with Jordanian King Abdullah and Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi while in Jordan “to build up and build out that unified approach” toward Syria.

“I’ll continue those conversations with President Erdogan and Foreign Minister Fidan in Turkey as we head there going forward,” said Blinken.

Blinken reiterated the US commitment from stopping ISIS from growing in Syria in the wake of the rebellion that took down the dictatorship of Bashar al-Assad.

“I think as we’ve demonstrated, the United States is determined to prevent that from happening,” said Blinken, referring to ISIS regrouping.

A joint delegation from Turkey and Qatar has arrived in Damascus for talks with the caretaker Syrian government.

The group included Turkish foreign minister Hakan Fidan, the head of Turkish intelligence Ibrahim Kalin and Qatari state security chief Khalfan Al-Kaabi.

Syria’s interim government said the delegation was due to meet the rebel commander Mohammad al-Jolani, whose real name is Ahmed al-Sharaa, the de facto leader of the new administration. They will also meet caretaker Prime Minister Mohammed Al-Bashir.

The Syrian information ministry said the meeting aims to “encourage the new Syrian leadership to engage with the Arab, regional, and international environment.”

“Efforts will also focus on promoting internal political dialogue among all opposition parties and contributing to the political and economic revival of the country,” it said.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks to reporters on the tarmac before his departure from King Hussein International Airport in Jordan on December 12.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the US is working to bring home the American found in Syria Thursday.

The top US diplomat did not provide any further details about the man, believed to be Travis Timmerman, citing privacy considerations.

Travis Pete Timmerman, a U.S. citizen who went missing in Syria, speaks to press after being found following the fall of the Assad regime in Damascus, Syria on December 12.

Syria’s new caretaker government said it is ready to cooperate with the United States in trying to locate Americans who went missing in Syria during the Assad regime.

The government announced Thursday that one US citizen, Travis Timmerman, who was found south of Damascus on Thursday, was safe.

It added that efforts were ongoing to locate American citizen Austin Tice, a journalist who was abducted in 2012 and was believed held by the Syrian government.

The Free Syrian Army (FSA), a Turkey-backed rebel coalition in northern Syria, says it is beginning a four-day ceasefire around the city of Manbij — northeast of Aleppo — where it has been fighting the mainly Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

The ceasefire began at 5 p.m. local time Thursday (9 a.m. ET) and will last until Monday, the FSA said.

According to the group, the agreement will include the withdrawal of the SDF from Manbij city and its surroundings, and their handover to a local council.

“We emphasize the importance of all parties adhering to the agreement to ensure security and stability in the region during this period,” the FSA added.

The SDF has now withdrawn from Manbij following what it described as a fragile ceasefire with the Turkey-backed group, which was brokered with the help of the United States on Tuesday.

Fighting has continued elsewhere, however. The SDF said that its forces were repelling attacks near the Tishreen dam southeast of Manbij on Thursday. It said that “fierce clashes continue amid fears for the dam – as a result of intensive bombardment by Turkish warplanes, tanks, and mercenaries,” the term the SDF uses to describe Turkish-backed groups.

The US has been concerned that the battles in northern Syrian could imperil efforts to ensure that the Islamic State terror organization does not find a foothold in the region.

Four days after Syrian president Bashar al-Assad fled the country for Russia, neither him nor any of his entourage have been spotted in the capital.

One Moscow neighborhood seems like a possible landing spot for the former dictator: the Moscow City area, the financial district of the Russian capital, with its glitzy, sprawling skyscrapers, home to the headquarters of many of Russia’s large banks, as well as high-end residential buildings and luxury apartment complexes.

A 2019 investigation by the anti-corruption organization, Global Witness, found that members of Assad’s extended family had bought at least 19 apartments worth around 40 million dollars in the Moscow City area. Neither the Assad family nor Russian authorities are known to have ever commented on the on the purchase.

It is not clear whether Assad is staying in any of these apartments or elsewhere in Russia, but his family has had ties to the Russian capital for years. His eldest son Hafez, who carries the same first name as Bashar’s father and founder of the Syrian Arab Republic, has been studying at the Moscow State University whose campus is in a bombastic Stalin-era building atop an area named Sparrow Hills.

CNN found Hafez al-Assad doctoral dissertation on the website of the Russian ministry for science and higher education. The title of the known mathematics buff’s work is: “Arithmetic Issues of Polynomials in Algebraic Number Fields.” It was submitted in late October for a PhD in Physics and Mathematics.

According to the document, Hafez al-Assad defended his thesis on November 29, 2024, the day rebel forces stormed Syria’s second largest city, Aleppo, ringing in the lighting-fast demise of the Assad family’s more than 50 year rule over Syria.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, center left, meets with Jordan's King Abdullah in Aqaba, Jordan on December 12.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken discussed the US’ support for “an inclusive transition” to a new government in Syria in a meeting with Jordanian King Abdullah II Thursday.

The meeting in the coastal city of Aqaba comes days after the shocking collapse of the Assad regime and as the international community grapples with how to respond.

Blinken, according to a State Department readout, “reiterated the importance of all actors in Syria respecting human rights; upholding international law; taking all precautions to protect civilians, including members of minority groups; facilitating humanitarian access across Syria; preventing Syria from being used as a base for terrorism or posing a threat to its neighbors; and ensuring that any chemical weapons stockpiles are secured and safely destroyed.”

Blinken and Abdullah also discussed Gaza and “the urgent need to conclude a ceasefire that secures the release of all hostages.”

“The Secretary expressed his appreciation for Jordan’s continued leadership in providing life-saving humanitarian assistance to Palestinian civilians in Gaza,” the readout said.

An Israeli protester holds a placard during a demonstration outside the Ministry of Defense, in Tel Aviv, Israel, on September 3.

Hamas and Israel are “talking seriously” about a hostage and ceasefire deal in Gaza, a diplomatic source familiar with the matter told CNN.

“Both sides are talking seriously and negotiating in good faith,” the source said, adding that Hamas negotiators are back in the Qatari capital Doha.

The latest efforts toward a ceasefire came after US President-elect Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff met with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani on November 22, and Israeli Prime Minister BenjaminNetanyahu the day after, the source said. Al Thani then met Mossad chief David Barnea in Doha on November 24 and againon Wednesday, the source added.

Israeli strikes on Gaza: It comes as health authorities in Gaza say nearly 40 people have been killed in Israeli airstrikes overnight and early Thursday.

Among those who died were 15 people at two locations in southern Gaza, they said. The health ministry in the territory said they were guarding aid convoys; the Israeli military told CNN they were Hamas members intent on hijacking aid.

One strike in central Gaza killed seven children, according to a hospital in Nuseirat. A leading orthopedic surgeon was also killed Thursday, his hospital said.

Additional reporting from Mohammad Al Sawalhi in Gaza, Ibrahim Dahman, Abeer Salman, Dana Karni and Tim Lister.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has met in Jerusalem with US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan to discuss events in Syria and “regional developments,” according to the prime minister’s office.

The prime minister’s office said Netanyahu made it clear that Israel will do “whatever is necessary to defend its security from any threat” and that he had instructed the Israeli military to temporarily take control of the buffer zone in Syria “until an effective force is established to enforce the 1974 disengagement agreement.”

Israeli strikes in Syria: The collapse of the Assad regime in Syria has prompted a punishing military response from Israel, which has launched airstrikes at military targets across the country and deployed ground troops both into and beyond a demilitarized buffer zone inside Syria for the first time in 50 years.

In the meeting with Sullivan, the Israeli prime minister also raised what the prime minister’s office described as “the critical need to assist minority groups in Syria and prevent terrorist activity from Syrian territory against Israel.”

The meeting was also attended by the Israeli defense and foreign ministers and the heads of Israel’s intelligence services.

Travis Timmerman speaks to press after being found following the fall of the Assad regime in Damascus, Syria, on December 12.

A man thought to be a missing US citizen has been found in Damascus, Syria, telling reporters he had recently been freed from jail.

The man is believed to be 29-year-old Missouri resident Travis Timmerman, who was found by residents wandering barefoot in a neighborhood just south of Damascus.

Speaking to CBS News, the man identifying as Timmerman said he had been detained in a Syrian prison for seven 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.

His time being held in the Syrian prison “wasn’t too bad,” he said, according to the outlet.

Timmerman made similar comments to the Al-Arabiya TV network Thursday.

CNN has approached Timmerman’s family and friends for comment.

Just beyond the Masnaa border crossing, in the no man’s land between Lebanon and Syria, thousands of people were waiting on Thursday to get permits to enter Lebanon.

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.

One of those people crossing was Nadia, her 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.

Read more from people crossing the border to reunite with their families here.

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.

A man identifying himself as a US citizen, believed to be a missing Missouri man, has been found in Damascus, Syria.

Travis Timmerman, age 29, was reportedly found by residents wandering barefoot in a neighborhood just south of Damascus.

In video posted Thursday, the man says only: “My name is Travis,” and adds that he is from the United States.

Timmerman is said to be from Missouri. An alert that he had gone missing was posted by Hungarian police in June.

It is unknown how he reached Syria, or whether and by whom he was detained after entering the country.

CNN has approached Timmerman’s family and friends for comment.

The U.S. is “aware of reports of an American found outside of Damascus and seeking to provide support,” a U.S. official told CNN Thursday. “Out of respect for his privacy, we have no further information to provide at this time.”

This post has been updated with additional information.

CNN’s Jennifer Hansler contributed reporting to this post.

Ambassador of the United States to Jordan Yael Lempert, center left, shakes hands with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, center right, upon his arrival in Aqaba, Jordan, on December 12.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Jordan Thursday for urgent meetings in the wake of the Syrian government’s collapse.

Blinken will meet with Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi and King Abdullah as the region and the US grapple with the potential repercussions of the sudden fall of the Assad regime.

Blinken plans to discuss US support for an “inclusive, Syrian-led transition to an accountable and representative government.”

Blinken on Tuesday for the first time pledged that the US “will recognize and fully support” a new Syrian government that is chosen by the Syrian people in an inclusive and transparent manner and adheres to those principles.

He called on “all nations” to “support an inclusive and transparent process and refrain from external interference.”

Blinken and the Jordanian leaders also expected to discuss the broader situation in the region, including efforts toward a ceasefire and hostage deal in Gaza.

Young families stood bristling in thick winter coats in the village of Oncupinar, in southern Turkey on Thursday, in photos showing streams of refugees waiting to cross the border into Syria.

More than 14 million Syrian people were forced to flee their homes under the torturous regime of President Bashar al-Assad, at least 3.2 million of whom coalesced in neighboring Turkey, according to the UN’s refugee agency. Many left unable to safely return to a country split by more than a decade of civil war and 50 years of authoritarian rule.

Then earlier this month, after an alliance of rebel forces collapsed the Assad dynasty and pledged a new era of rule, some Syrian refugees in neighboring countries have sought to return home — even with an unpredictable future on the horizon.

Syrians wait to cross into Syria from Turkey at the Oncupinar border gate, near the town of Kilis in southern Turkey, on December 12.

Syrians carry their belongings as they prepare to cross into Syria from Turkey.

Syrians wait to cross into Syria from Turkey at the Oncupinar border gate.

Syrian rebel leader Mohammad al-Jolani told Reuters in a written statement on Wednesday that he would dissolve the security forces of the toppled regime of Bashar al-Assad.

Separately, Syrian rebel-linked government leader Mohammad Al-Bashir, who has been appointed as the country’s prime minister, reiterated to Italian media that the interim government will only stay until March.

In an interview with the Corriere della Sera newspaper published Wednesday, Bashir said “we will only stay until March 2025,” according to Reuters.

He said the priorities were restoring security and state authority, bringing home millions of Syrian refugees, and providing essential services.

When asked whether Syria’s new constitution would be Islamic, he said “these details” would be clarified in the constitution-making process.

A torn portrait of Bashar al-Assad, which appears to have been arranged, is seen inside the Presidential Palace in Damascus, Syria, on December 10.

Slender shoulders, a limp handshake and soft-spoken lisp. Those were the most vivid memories from my meeting with Bashar al-Assad.

It was 2007 and the insurgency against US troops was raging next door in Iraq. Toppled Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, a fellow secular Baathist like Assad, had been executed just six months earlier.

But Syria’s then leader, who had succeeded his father Hafez seven years before, represented a stable contrast to the chaos engulfing neighboring Iraq.

Assad met us without a large entourage, folding his long body into a chair at the head of the room. At no stage were we physically searched.

His security team displayed absolute confidence, by staying mostly invisible.

The assumption was that the much-feared Syrian security services had eyes on us from the moment we landed in Damascus, while probably also searching our rooms and listening to us.

Little did I know then that this tall, thin man dressed in a suit would one day be the fiercest opponent of the Arab Spring, surviving where other regional strongmen fell by unleashing a ruthless crackdown that plunged his country into 13 years of civil war, only to then see his dynastic rule collapse in a matter of days.

Read more about Ivan Watson’s meeting with the dictator.

Smoke billows into the air following an Israeli drone strike on Al Mazzeh Airport in Damascus, Syria, on December 11.

Four days after the fall of dictator Bashar al-Assad, US officials are scrambling to prevent ISIS from regrouping in Syria, as dozens of competing factions vie for control in different parts of the country.

But the United States’ most important partner there, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), is under relentless attack from Turkey-backed fighters – raising concerns about the security of detention facilities holding suspected ISIS members and their families in northern Syria.

Meanwhile, Israel has been striking military sites across Syria for days, hitting the country’s strategic weapons in bombings that an Israeli official said were intended to prevent the stockpiles from falling “into the hands of extremists.”

Here’s the latest.