Live: Over 100,000 bodies found in mass grave near Damascus

Bahrain is ready to work with Syria's new transition government led by Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), according to a letter sent from the Gulf state's ruler to HTS leader Abu Mohammad Jolani (whose real name is Ahmed al-Sharaa).

HTS released a text of a message on Thursday sent from King Hamad Bin Isa Al Khalifa of Bahrain to Shara.

"We are fully prepared to consult with you continuously and provide support in regional and international organizations to achieve what is in the interest of the brotherly Syrian people and we look forward to Syria regaining its authentic role in the Arab League," the letter said. 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told US Secretary of State Antony Blinken that Turkey reserves the right to take preventive measures against the People's Protection Units (YPG) and Islamic State group in Syria, according to a Turkish statement on Thursday. 

Erdogan's comments raise the stakes on the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, the bulk of whose fighters belong to the YPG. 

Turkey considers the YPG a terrorist organisation. The YPG is the Syrian wing of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which Turkey, the US and EU consider a terrorist group. 

Jordan will host a Syria crisis summit over the weekend with the participation of foreign ministers from numerous western and Arab nations, Amman's foreign ministry announced on Thursday.

The Saturday summit "to discuss developments in Syria" will include top diplomats from Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Lebanon, Egypt, the UAE, Bahrain and Qatar. They will also convene with their Turkish and US counterparts, the EU's foreign policy chief and the UN envoy for Syria, the statement said.

Turkey will reopen its embassy in Syria, and on Thursday, it appointed ambassador Burhan Koroglu as temporary charge d’affaires to Damascus, the Anadolu Agency reported. 

The move comes after Turkish intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalin was filmed in Damascus on Thursday. 

However, the decision to appoint a charge d’affaires rather than an ambassador to Damascus could signal Turkey is stopping short of taking the formal step of recognising Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham as the legitimate government of Syria. 

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan after landing in Ankara on Thursday, a US official said. 

According to a US official, Blinken headed straight into talks with Erdogan "in the VIP lounge" at Ankara's Esenboga airport. 

Blinken was earlier in the Jordanian Red Sea resort of Aqaba meeting with King Abdullah II, as the collapse of the Assad government sparked a furious pace of regional diplomacy. 

Jordan and Turkey are both US partners. But the latter, a Nato ally, is backing Syrian rebels attacking the US-backed Kurds in northeast Syria. 

UN chief Antonio Guterres said he is deeply concerned by “the recent and extensive violations of Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity” by Israel, according to his spokesperson Stephane Dujarric.

“The secretary-general is particularly concerned over the hundreds of Israeli air strikes on several locations in Syria, stressing the urgent need to de-escalate violence on all fronts throughout the country,” Dujarric said. 

Israel seized a buffer zone in the Golan Heights after the toppling of the Assad government and launched wide-scale air strikes on Syrian military targets. 

The Assad family’s bedrooms are a graveyard of designer clothes boxes. Chanel here, Givenchy there, and a large package from Aishti, the upmarket Lebanese department store.

Assad had so many villas and palaces in Damascus that he could have stayed in a new one every day of the week. Middle East Eye visited the palaces of the Assad family and the Russian diplomatic mansion next door. 

The Assad palace was ransacked by Syrians. MEE saw pictures of Bashar as a baby, his brother Basel - the heir to the throne who died in a car crash aged 31 - at an equestrian event and their father Hafez: austere, suited and surrounded by his sons.

“I never expected to find this level of luxury in Assad’s palaces,” one Syrian touring the house told MEE.  “But it doesn’t make me angry. It just exposes how he was a thief while we were poor.”

Read More: A tour of Assad’s homes with the Syrians who stormed them

The World Food Programme (WFP) said it is increasing its food assistance programme in Syria. 

The WFP said “humanitarian needs are growing” in Syria, which is witnessing a “dire food security situation”.

“During this critical time for Syria, WFP teams are on the ground ensuring that the country’s most vulnerable people receive the urgent food assistance they need,” Syria country director Kenn Crossley, said. 

Russia is nearing an agreement with Syria’s new government to keep two strategic military bases in the country, according to a report by Bloomberg. 

Russian forces are still at the naval port in Tartus and the air base at Hmeimim as talks continue, Bloomberg reported. 

According a source in Russia, "the Defense Ministry in Moscow believes it has an informal understanding with Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS)... that it can stay at the Syrian bases". 

Syria's interim government vowed on Thursday to institute the "rule of law" and said that new committees would be formed to weigh in on a constitution. 

The new government's spokesman told AFP on Thursday that the country's constitution and parliament would be suspended for the duration of a three-month transition.

"A judicial and human rights committee will be established to examine the constitution and then introduce amendments," The transitional government's spokesperson, Obaida Arnaout, said.

Speaking at the state television headquarters, seized by the new rebel authorities, Arnaout said they would institute the "rule of law".

"All those who committed crimes against the Syrian people will be judged in accordance with the law," he added.

Asked about religious and personal freedoms, he said "we respect religious and cultural diversity in Syria".

For our generation, the fall of the Assad regime marks the end of a historical chapter, coming more than a decade after the Syrian regime - backed by Russia and Iran - brutally suppressed the Syrian revolution, shattering the dreams of democratisation held by many young people across the Arab world.

But on Sunday, as Syrian opposition forces entered Damascus and ended the Assad family’s decades-long rule, we were reminded of a fundamental truth: no tyrannical regime or colonial entity can endure forever, as long as human resistance and the inherent desire for dignity and freedom persist.  

Naturally, the world is preoccupied with questions about Syria’s future, and with good reason. Will the country’s political transition lead to democracy, or will it spiral into endless sectarian and religious conflicts that threaten its very existence? 

Despite all possible scenarios, nothing can justify the horrors of Syria’s prisons, or the unimaginable suffering inflicted on men, women and even children born into a living hell. 

But more than a decade after the Arab Spring, hope has finally returned to our hearts. 

Read more: Syria after Assad: As a new era dawns, could there be hope for Palestine? Opinion by Abed Abou Shhadeh

Syria's new government has said it released detained US citizen Travis Timmerman, who was arrested when entering the country by foot on a Christian pilgrimage seven months ago.

Syria's new leadership said that it was ready to cooperate with US officials to identify other forcibly disppeared US citizens.

Timmerman went missing in Hungary earlier this year, but it was not known before today that he was being held in Syria.

He reported that he was not beaten and treated "decently" in detention.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that Washington is working to bring Timmerman home. He added that he had no update regarding American journalist Austin Tice who went missing in Syria 12 years ago, but said he was continuing work to find him.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Jordan's King Abduallah II in the Red Sea resort of Aqaba to discuss developments in Syria

Blinken said in a post on X after the meeting that the two discussed "the importance of an inclusive transition to an accountable, representative government in Syria chosen by the Syrian people".

State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said that Blinken pledged US support for "the stability of Syria's neighbours, including Jordan, during this period of transition".

He also reiterated the importance of “preventing Syria from being used as a base for terrorism or posing a threat” to the country’s neighbours.

France's foreign ministry spokesman has said that European Union foreign ministers will meet next Monday to discuss establishing a common position on how to engage with Syria following the fall of Bashar al-Assad.

Spokesman Christophe Lemoine said at a news conference that it is too early to discuss lifting sanctions imposed on Syria.

Reporting by Reuters

The semi-autonomous Kurdish administration governing an enclave in northern Syria said on Thursday that it will adopt Syria's independence flag used by the opposition.

In a statement, the authority hailed the flag as a “symbol of this new stage” that “expresses the aspirations of the Syrian people towards freedom, dignity and national unity”.

It pledged to raise the flag "on all councils, institutions, administrations and facilities affiliated with the Autonomous Administration”.