Syria - live: US man Travis Timmerman found after months in Assad prison as rebels set to suspend constitution

After more than half a century of the Assad family ruling over Syria, a little-known local politician has been named as the country’s interim leader and tasked with ushering in a stable government.

Three days on from rebels completing a sweeping offensive forcing Bashar Al-Assad, who succeeded his father as ruler, out of Syria and out of office, the country is looking to ensure a peaceful transition of power.

Mohammed al-Bashir, a politician who has been governing the rebel-controlled province of Idlib in northwest Syria, from which the offensive began, from January this year, has been made responsible for that transition.

In a brief address on state television on Tuesday, he announced that representatives of the rebels and the ousted government had agreed for him to act as caretaker until 1 March.

Tom Watling reports:

As debate swirls over what to do with millions of displaced Syrian refugees seeking asylum in Western nations, Human Rights Watch said earlier today no government should send Syrian refugees back forcefully.

The statement comes after several European nations, including the UK and Germany, this week announced plans to pause asylum applications for Syrian citizens.

“Every citizen has the right to return to their home country, safe or not. But because one refugee chooses to repatriate is no justification to forcibly return another who remains fearful, as many Syrian refugees do, especially given the country’s unstable and possibly dangerous conditions,” the group said.

“This approach carries real risks, especially given how keen some European states are to declare Syria safe and begin returns,” it said, adding that Syria remains “inherently volatile”.

Foreign ministers in the European Union will discuss a common position on how to approach Syria’s transformation as the country embarks on a new era.

France’s foreign ministry spokesperson Christophe Lemoine told a news conference on Thursday that it is too early to discuss lifting the sanctions imposed on Syria.

The EU first issued sanctions against Syria in May 2011.

An American who spent seven months in a Syrian prison after crossing into the country on foot on a Christian pilgrimage has been found.

Travis Timmerman, who was found in the town of Dhiyabiya, says he was one of thousands of people released from Syrian prisons after rebel groups ousted the brutal regime of Bashar al-Assad after a 13-year civil war on the weekend.

Speaking with CBS, Mr Timmerman revealed that he was freed by two men with AK-47s on Monday, after being detained when he entered Syria for “spiritual purposes”. He told Al-Arabiya TV network that he crossed into Syria on foot from the eastern Lebanese town of Zahle.

After being detained and spending seven months in prison, Timmerman’s “door was busted down”, he told CBS. “I thought the guards were still there, so I thought the warfare could have been more active than it ended up being.

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Israel’s incursion into the Golan Heights buffer zone is logical and in keeping with its right to self defence, the US national secuity adviser Jake Sullivan said on Thursday.

Mr Sullivan, who met with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday, is visiting the Middle East to discuss the situation in Syria and a ceasefire deal in Gaza.

He told reporters that the US is in deep consultation with Israel over its actions in Syria, adding that the US expects Israel’s seizure of the buffer zone to be temporary.

Israel seized the buffer zone separating the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights from Syria proper on Sunday, hours after Bashar al-Assad’s regime was deposed by Syrian rebels.

Israel described reports that it had moved beyond the buffer zone as “false”, before later stating troops had been deployed beyond the buffer zone into Syria to create a “sterile defence zone”.

The funeral of Syrian activist Mazen al-Hamada, whose dead body was found inside the notorious Sednaya prison after the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, took place on Thursday.

Mr Hamada, who escaped Syria after months of torture and abuse - physical, mental and sexual - in Syrian prisons, sought Asylum in the Netherlands.

But upon returning to Syria in 2020, Mr Hamada disappeared. One going theory posed that Mr Hamad was lured back to Syria with the promise of other detainees being released if he did so.

A symbol of the brutality of Assad’s dictatorship, Mr Hamada is believed to have been executed days before his body was discovered on Monday.

Turkey’s foreign minister, intelligence chief, and Qatar’s head of state security will meet with Syrian rebel leader Abu Mohammed al-Golani and caretaker prime minister Mohammed al-Bashir in Damascus, the Syrian information ministry said.

The Turkish foreign ministry has confirmed that minister Hakan Fidan is in Damascus.

It comes after Turkish intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalin was revealed to be in Damascus by two sources speaking to Reuters.

Turklish media outlet Yeni Safak said Mr Kalin was at the Ummayyad Mosque in Damascus, where a Reuters reporter saw at least one car moving towards the mosque amid heavy security and large crowds.

It was not immediately clear who was in the car.

The newly formed administration in Syria will suspend the existing legislature and constitution after president Bashar al-Assad was topped, a source close to the government told Reuters on Thursday.

A committee of experts will be created to make amendments to the current constitution, the source indicated.

Thousands of Syrians are stranded on the Masnaa border crossing with Lebanon, looking to flee the country in fear for their futures after Islamist rebel groups ousted Bashar al-Assad’s brutal regime.

Minority groups in Syria, including Christians and Alawites, are among those concerned that the new Syria’s future may not be tolerant of their communities, many of whom opposed the revolution in 2011 and the subsequent 13-year civil war.

The Masnaa border point - the only operational crossing between Syria and Lebanon - has been inundated with huge queues of Syrians attempting to travel in both directions, with many hoping to return to a freed homeland after years of displacement in Lebanon.

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