The Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, José Manuel Albares, announced this Monday that 26 Spaniards and Syrian relatives, including the staff of the Spanish Embassy in Syria, have left the country and They are in Lebanon after the fall of Bashar al Assad’s regime. In addition, he has guaranteed that they are “fully operational” for those who want to go out.
According to what the minister indicated in statements to RNE reported by Europa Press, this is a convoy that left very early this morning and is currently on the Lebanese border carrying out administrative procedures.
“And we hope that once this paperwork is finished they can be safe in Lebanon, where staff from our Embassy in Beirut are waiting for them on the Lebanese side of the border, which was fully activated since yesterday we decided to launch this evacuation from Damascus” , he pointed out.
The minister has detailed that The operation was carried out by road because the border with Lebanon had been reopenedbut “the Damascus airport was not open and remains unopened.”
“Therefore, it has been an operation that we have carried out to be able to evacuate Damascus, which is where the bulk of our colony is located, but there are Spaniards in much more remote areas of the country who obviously could not, it was physically impossible to reach a point meeting in Damascus,” he said.
As specified, in addition to the Spanish Embassy, ”other European embassies, Latin American embassies and a United Nations vehicle were involved in the evacuation operation.”
The minister wanted to emphasize that the Government remains “fully operational for the Spaniards who may remain in Syria”, of whom he has not given a precise figure. “I want to tell these relatives, so that they can rest assured, that from the information I have first-hand from our chargé d’affaires in Damascus, everything is taking place in an orderly manner within the circumstances,” he added.
Possible air evacuation if the airport reopens
On the other hand, Albares has specified that “some told us that they did not want to leave the country at this time” and he continues to be in contact with them by telephone “while waiting for the Damascus airport to reopen and an operation to be carried out. more breadth for those who want it.
Regarding the latest developments in Syria, where An offensive by rebel and jihadist forces managed to remove Bashar al Assad from power this Sunday after more than fourteen years of civil war. Albares has acknowledged that “it is good news that a dictatorship has ended, it is good news for the Syrian people.”
“We hope that the Syria of the future, starting today, will be a Syria without external interference, a sovereign Syria, but we will also see the first steps because that Syria, in addition to being sovereign, has to have all effective control of its territory and above all it must include everyone within what is a very plural society,” he confided.
Albares has admitted that “there are still many uncertainties” and has stressed that what is important now is that “as soon as possible this military movement gives way to a political movement and that any decision, any step taken by the Syrians is peaceful.”
Al Golani will have to be judged for his actions
In this sense, it has opted to wait Let’s see what positions the rebels adopt and jihadists who, led by Hayat Tahrir al Sham, have taken Damascus, and “see if they actually control the entire territory.” “I assume that very quickly (…) they will try to get in touch with the international community and we have to be very clear with them about what is expected,” he noted.
Regarding the past linked to Al Qaeda of HTS and its leader, Abu Mohamed al Golani, he has insisted that they will have to “be judged by their actions.” “At the moment everything is happening calmly, without violence and the first signs are that a part of the administration of the Al Assad regime is going to work and collaborate with the new de facto government,” he highlighted.
That said, he stressed that what is expected is “a Syria that includes everyone, that is plural (…) that guarantees its territorial integrity and that guarantees stability and that does not become a militarized Syria, that send refugees to border countries to destabilize them. “Not that it is a threat to anyone,” he pointed out.
As indicated, in the last few hours he has maintained contacts with several counterparts in the region, including those from Jordan, Türkiye and Saudi Arabia. He has conveyed to all of them the need to “work together” given that “Syria is a very important piece within the Middle East chessboard and the Middle East already has too much war and too much instability to add to it.”
