Abu Mohammed al-Jolani says those behind the country’s notorious prison system will not evade justice

Hello, welcome to our live coverage of events in Syria and around the Middle East. It’s a little after 10am in Damascus and here are the major developments.

The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, is headed for Jordan and Turkey on Thursday, where he is expected to rally regional countries to help advance efforts to reach an elusive Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal, and ensure a smooth transition in Syria, after the ousting of longtime authoritarian ruler Bashar al-Assad. His national security adviser Jake Sullivan is also scheduled to visit Israel, Qatar and Egypt in the coming days, US officials said.

Syria’s rebel leader Abu Mohammed al-Jolani has signalled he is seeking retribution, saying there will be no pardons for prison torturers. The rebel commander has vowed to dissolve Assad regime security forces, close its prisons and hunt down anyone involved in the torture or killing of detainees. He also said he would ask countries to hand over Assad regime officials who have fled the country.

At the Masnaa border crossing to Lebanon on Wednesday night, thousands of Syrians were trying to leave the country despite assurances from Jolani’s group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) that civil rights and sectarian differences will be respected. Rebel fighters appeared to be searching for members of the regime army and security services trying to get to Lebanon with their families. Syrian refugees residing in countries such as Turkey, have also been lining up at the border to return home.

Mohammed al-Bashir, who has been appointed by the rebels as Syria’s interim leader pledged that the rights or all people and sects in Syria would be guaranteed. The comments come as a mausoleum in Qardaha near Latakia that housed the remains of ousted president, Bashar al-Assad’s father, Hafez, who seized control of Syria in 1970, was burned by armed Islamist rebels.

Israel, which has been fighting both the Palestinian group Hamas in Gaza and the Lebanese militia Hezbollah for over a year, has deployed ground troops into and beyond a demilitarised buffer zone in the disputed Golan Heights, its first foray into Syrian-controlled territory for 50 years.

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has claimed the US and Israel acted as the command centre that engineered the downfall of Syria’s former president, Bashar al-Assad, and the ousting of Iran from the country.

The UN general assembly on Wednesday overwhelmingly adopted a resolution calling for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire, a symbolic gesture rejected by the United States and Israel. The resolution was adopted by a vote of 158-9, with 13 abstentions and urges “an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire,” and “the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages”.

The UN would consider taking the Syrian rebel group that toppled the regime of Bashar al-Assad off its designated terrorist list if it passes the key test of forming a truly inclusive transitional government, according to a senior official at the world body.

The tomb of ousted Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s father Hafez was torched in his home town of Qardaha, accoding to AFP footage taken on Wednesday. AFP said it showed rebel fighters in fatigues and young men watching it burn. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor told AFP the rebels had set fire to the mausoleum, located in the Latakia heartland of Assad’s Alawite community.

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