hawkplay Syrian Rebel Leader Calls for Lifting of Sanctions, as al-Assad Defends Exit

Ahmed al-Sharahawkplay, the leader of the rebel coalition that swept into Damascus last week and ousted the Assad regime, urged the United States and other nations to remove sanctions imposed on the country, saying in an interview on Monday that all constraints needed to be lifted so that Syria could rebuild.

The rebel leader spoke in Damascus, the Syrian capital, on the same day that Syria’s deposed dictator, Bashar al-Assad, seemed to break his silence about his decision to flee to Russia. In a statement posted to social media accounts he had used while in office, Mr. al-Assad said he had wanted to stay and fight, but was evacuated by Russian forces as the rebels bore down on the city.

Mr. al-Assad said that Syria was now in the “hands of terrorism.”

The comments by the two men, the past and present faces of a country decimated by a 13-year civil war, came as the rebel alliance sought to fill the power vacuum left by the collapse of Mr. al-Assad’s authoritarian government, and foreign governments and Syria’s minorities looked for indications of the country’s new direction.

Mr. al-Shara appears to be making rapid progress toward international recognition, with a parade of officials from the United Nations, Europe and the Middle East descending on Damascus to meet with him or reopen embassies.

He met on Sunday with the United Nations special envoy to Syria, Geir O. Pedersen. France’s foreign ministry said on Sunday that a team of diplomats would travel to Syria on Tuesday. And Turkey and Qatar were in the process of reopening their embassies in Damascus.

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Overall, violent crime fell 3 percent and property crime fell 2.6 percent in 2023, with burglaries down 7.6 percent and larceny down 4.4 percent. Car thefts, though, continue to be an exception, rising more than 12 percent from the year before.

But the move backfired in a way that few supporters expected. Californians in 2021 actually tossed nearly 50 percent more plastic bags, by weight, than when the law first passed in 2014, according to data from CalRecycle, California’s recycling agency.

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