News Mania Desk / Piyal Chatterjee / 15th December 2024
Students returned to classes in Syria on Sunday after the country’s new authorities ordered schools to reopen, a powerful message of normalcy a week after rebels stormed the capital in the dramatic fall of President Bashar al-Assad. Ahmad al-Sharaa, the country’s new de facto leader, confronts a monumental job in rebuilding Syria following a 13-year civil war that killed hundreds of thousands of people. Cities were blasted to pieces, the economy was devastated by international sanctions, and millions of refugees continue to live in camps outside Syria.Officials said most schools throughout the nation will start on Sunday, the first day of the working week in most Arab countries.
“Everything is good. We are fully equipped. We worked two, three days in order to equip the school with the needed services for the students’ safe return to school,” Nasser said, adding the Jawdat al-Hashemi school had not been damaged. In one classroom, a student pasted the new flag on a wall. “I am optimistic and very happy,” said student Salah al-Din Diab. “I used to walk in the street scared that I would get drafted to military service. I used to be afraid when I reach a checkpoint.”
However, several parents did not take their children to school owing to uncertainty about the scenario. On Sunday morning, students waited enthusiastically in the courtyard of a boys’ high school in Damascus, applauding as the school secretary, Raed Nasser, hung the new authorities’ flag.As Syria begins to rebuild, its neighbors and other international countries are still negotiating a new posture on the country, a week after the Assad regime, which was supported by Iran and Russia, collapsed.
Sharaa, also known by his rebel name Abu Mohammed al-Golani, is the leader of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the Islamist militia that deposed Assad last week. HTS is a former ally of al Qaeda that has been declared a terrorist organization by various states and is also subject to United Nations sanctions.Geir Pedersen, the United Nations’ Syria envoy, said on Sunday that he hoped the sanctions will be lifted soon to boost economic recovery. Top diplomats from the United States, Turkey, the European Union, and Arab states gathered in Jordan on Saturday and agreed that a future Syrian administration must safeguard minority rights, according to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
