UN special envoy calls for orderly transition as insurgents reach Damascus

The UN’s special envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, has called for urgent talks in Geneva to ensure an “orderly political transition” in Syria.

Speaking to reporters at the annual Doha Forum in Qatar, he said the talks in Switzerland would discuss the implementation of a UN resolution that called for a Syrian-led political process.

Resolution 2254, adopted in 2015, called for the establishment of a transitional governing body, followed by the drafting of a new constitution and ending with UN-supervised elections.

Mr Pedersen said the need for an orderly political transition “has never been more urgent” and said the situation in Syria was changing by the minute.

His call came as Syrian insurgents were reported to have reached the suburbs of Damascus as part of a rapidly moving offensive that has seen them take over some of Syria’s largest cities.

It was the first time that opposition forces reached the outskirts of the Syrian capital since 2018, when Syrian troops recaptured the region adjacent to the capital following a years-long siege.

It came after the Syrian army withdrew from much of southern Syria on Saturday, leaving more areas of the country, including two provincial capitals, under the control of opposition fighters.

Later, on Saturday evening, a Syrian opposition war monitor and a pro-government media outlet said government forces have withdrawn from much of the central city of Homs.

The pro-government Sham FM reported that government forces took positions outside Syria’s third-largest city, without elaborating. Rami Abdurrahman, who heads the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said Syrian troops and members of different security agencies have withdrawn from the city, adding that rebels have entered parts of it.

Losing Homs is a potentially crippling blow for Syria’s embattled leader, Bashar Assad. The city stands at an important intersection between Damascus and Syria’s coastal provinces of Latakia and Tartus – the Syrian leader’s base of support and home to a Russian strategic naval base.

Its capture is a major victory for insurgents, who have already seized the cities of Aleppo and Hama, as well as large parts of the south, in a lightning offensive. Analysts said Homs falling into rebel hands would be a game-changer.

The rapid advances by insurgents is a stunning reversal of fortunes for Mr Assad, who appears to be largely on his own, with erstwhile allies preoccupied with other conflicts.

His chief international backer, Russia, is busy with its war in Ukraine, and Lebanon’s powerful Hezbollah, which at one point sent thousands of fighters to shore up his forces, has been weakened by a year-long conflict with Israel.

Iran, meanwhile, has seen its proxies across the region degraded by Israeli airstrikes.

Amid the dramatic developments, Syria’s state media denied rumours flooding social media that Mr Assad has left the country, saying he is performing his duties in the capital, Damascus.

Rami Abdurrahman, who heads the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, said insurgents are now active in the Damascus suburbs of Maadamiyah, Jaramana and Daraya.

He added that opposition fighters on Saturday were also marching from eastern Syria toward the Damascus suburb of Harasta.

A commander with the insurgents, Hassan Abdul-Ghani, posted on the Telegram messaging app that opposition forces have started carrying out the “final stage” of their offensive by encircling Damascus.

He added that insurgents were headed from southern Syria toward Damascus.

Syria’s military, meanwhile, sent large numbers of reinforcements to defend the key central city of Homs, Syria’s third largest, as insurgents approached its outskirts.

The shock offensive began on November 27 led by the jihadi Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group, or HTS, during which gunmen captured the northern city of Aleppo, Syria’s largest, and the central city of Hama, the country’s fourth largest city.

The group has its origins in al-Qaida and is considered a terrorist organisation by the US and the United Nations.

HTS leader Abu Mohammed al-Golani told CNN in an exclusive interview on Thursday from Syria that the aim of the offensive is to overthrow Assad’s government.

In the gas-rich nation of Qatar, the foreign ministers of Iran, Russia and Turkey were scheduled to meet to discuss the situation in Syria. Turkey is a main backer of the rebels seeking to overthrow Assad.