Jumblat to meet Jolani as nations reach out to new Syria

Former Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat will travel Saturday with a delegation to Syria to meet with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham leader Abu Mohammed al-Jolani who now prefers to be called Ahmad al-Sharaa, a local media outlet said.

Al-Jadeed TV channel said Jubmlat, along with MPs from the Democratic Gathering bloc and Druze religious figures, will congratulate al-Sharaa for ousting Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.

Jumblat had called al-Jolani over the weekend following al-Assad's ouster.

Assad fled Syria just over a week ago, as his forces abandoned tanks and other equipment in the face of a lightning offensive spearheaded by the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.

The collapse of Assad's rule on December 8 stunned the world and sparked celebrations around Syria and beyond, after his crackdown on democracy protests in 2011 led to one of the deadliest wars of the century.

Across Lebanon, the Middle East, and beyond, the fall of Syria’s authoritarian government set off waves of jubilation, trepidation and alarm.

Many Lebanese exulted at the overthrow of the Syrian leader while others worried about more instability rocking a region in turmoil.

Jumblat, for his part, celebrated Assad's ouster "after a lengthy wait." He told former PM Saad Hariri that by Assad's fall "justice was achieved" for his slain father Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and other March 14 figures.

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati called for a strict control of the border with Syria and for distancing Lebanon from the developments there. He urged the Lebanese "of all affiliations" to be "wise" and "avoid emotional reactions."

Mikati met Wednesday with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara. The two leaders will reportedly discuss "the future of the Syrian-Lebanese relations" after Assad's fall and the fate of Lebanese thought to be detained in Syrian prisons since Lebanon's civil war.

- Syria rebels' past in Lebanon -

Rooted in Syria's branch of Al-Qaeda, HTS is proscribed by several Western governments as a terrorist organization, though it has sought to moderate its rhetoric and pledged to protect the country's religious minorities.

IS militants and Al-Nusra, which later became HTS when al-Jolani broke ranks with al-Qaeda, attacked and executed in 2014, during Syria's civil war, Lebanese security forces in the Lebanese border town of Arsal.

Lebanon got involved in Syria's civil war, as Hezbollah fought alongside Assad's troops in Syria against the rebels who carried out in return bomb attacks inside Lebanon in Tripoli and in Hezbollah's southern Beirut stronghold.

- Jumblat declares support for Syrians -

Jumblat declared Tuesday his support for Syrians. "We cannot but deal positively with the new Syrian regime," he said, adding that he is not worried about an Islamic rule in Syria. "Give the Syrian people a chance to breathe. They've just been freed after 61 years in prison."

Jumblat went on to say that some mistakes made in the past must be fixed and that a "diverse and democratic Syria" is now needed. "Let's support Syrians as much as we can," he said.

- Lebanon 'shouldn't fear' new Syria -

The Lebanese "should not have fears," Syria's new government spokesman Obaida Arnaout, told Lebanon’s LBCI television last week.

He said "the goal of the Syrian revolution was the ouster of Bashar al-Assad" and that "Syria will be a civil state" and will "respect Lebanon's sovereignty."

- HTS steps up world engagement -

Syria's new rulers have stepped up engagement with countries that deemed al-Assad a pariah, with the French flag raised Tuesday at the embassy for the first time in over a decade.

The EU will reopen its mission in Syria following "constructive" talks with its new leadership, the bloc's foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said, describing it as a "very important step".

Turkey and Qatar, which backed the anti-Assad opposition, have reopened embassies in Damascus, while U.S. and British officials have launched communications with Syria's new leaders.

France, an early backer of the uprising, sent a delegation to Damascus on Tuesday, with special envoy Jean-Francois Guillaume saying his country was preparing to stand with Syrians during the transitional period.

An AFP journalist saw the French flag raised in the embassy's entrance hall for the first time since the mission was shuttered in 2012.

After meeting Syria's new leaders, the United Nations humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher said on Tuesday he was "encouraged", and that there was a "basis for ambitious scaling-up of vital humanitarian support".

German diplomats were also in Damascus on Tuesday, while Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni said her country was ready to engage with the new leadership.

Syria came under international sanctions over Assad's crackdown on protests, which sparked a war that killed more than 500,000 people and forced half of the population to flee their homes.

Assad left behind a country scarred by decades of torture, disappearances and summary executions, as well as economic mismanagement that has left 70 percent of the population in need of aid.

The EU's Kallas said the lifting of sanctions and removing HTS from its blacklist would depend on "when we see positive steps, not the words, but actual steps and deeds from the new leadership".

The United Nations expects one million people to return to Syria in the first half of 2025, after the war pushed six million people to seek refuge abroad.