MEDI1TV Afrique : LE GRAND JOURNAL MIDI - 09/12/2024
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00:00Welcome to Mediain TV, it's time for the big news of the afternoon.
00:20We start with the headlines.
00:22A turning point in the history of the Middle East.
00:25The Syrian president has fled the country, chased by a spectacular offensive of the rebels.
00:30An offensive that ended yesterday a half century of rule of Bashar al-Assad.
00:39The pre-Bashar al-Assad at the heart of an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council.
00:45Today, discussions are scheduled after the fall of the Syrian president.
00:52Consultations have been requested by Russia.
00:58And it is certain that 2024 will be the hottest year above the threshold of 1.5 degrees of warming.
01:07Even hotter than the record of 2023.
01:11More details in this newspaper.
01:15So it's the end of 24 years of rule in Syria.
01:24Bashar al-Assad fled his country yesterday, chased by a spectacular offensive of the rebels.
01:30A real turning point in the history of the country, but also of the region.
01:35According to Russian press agencies, Bashar al-Assad is with his family in Moscow.
01:41In Syria, there are scenes of jails that have invaded the streets of Damascus since the arrival of the rebels in Damascus.
01:50Damascus, Syria
02:05There was no fighting in most parts of Damascus.
02:08Now many anti-government uniforms are celebrating with guns.
02:11This is the news of the apology and destruction of public institutions.
02:19The Kremlin refuses to confirm the presence of Bashar al-Assad in Russia.
02:24The Kremlin refuses to confirm the presence of Bashar al-Assad in Russia.
02:29And on his side, the Kremlin refuses to confirm the presence of Bashar al-Assad in Russia.
02:35Russian press agencies announced last night, citing a source from the Kremlin,
02:43that Bashar al-Assad and his family were in Damascus after leaving Syria,
02:49questioned if Vladimir Putin had personally taken the decision to give refuge to Bashar al-Assad.
02:57The Kremlin spokeswoman said that such decisions could not be taken without the head of state,
03:05while emphasizing, I have nothing more to say to you on this point.
03:13The Kremlin spokeswoman said that such decisions could not be taken without the head of state,
03:18while emphasizing, I have nothing more to say to you on this point.
03:22The Kremlin spokeswoman said that such decisions could not be taken without the head of state,
03:27while emphasizing, I have nothing more to say to you on this point.
03:35Russia has called for an emergency meeting at the Security Council.
03:41In this context, the Kremlin has called for an emergency meeting at the Security Council.
03:49According to Russian agencies, the rebels have guaranteed the security of Russian military bases in Syria.
03:55After these fighters, Abu Mohammed al-Jolani arrived in Damascus earlier.
04:02He asked his militants not to approach public institutions,
04:07adding that they remained under the control of the Prime Minister until the official passage of power.
04:14And the fall of the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad marks a major turning point in the recent history of the Middle East,
04:37thus deeply redrawing the geopolitical map of the region.
04:42Arrived in power in 1970, Hafez al-Assad and his son Bashar, from 2000,
04:48have ruled the country for exactly 54 years.
04:53Back on this period with Souheil Jalil on this subject.
05:00A long chapter in the history of Syria and the Middle East closes with the fall of the al-Assad regime.
05:08The president in power in Syria since 2000, after succeeding his father Hafez,
05:13fled the capital Damascus and the country on Sunday, December 8, according to the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights.
05:19His departure marks the conquest of the country by the coalition led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham,
05:24a former branch of Al-Qaeda in Syria, and probably marks the end of the regime.
05:29For several days, the rebels multiplied the advances.
05:32Everything accelerated on Saturday, December 7, then on the night of Saturday to Sunday.
05:36The Syrian army withdrew from the airport in Damascus after the flight of Bashar al-Assad
05:41and a few minutes before the rebels claimed to have entered the capital.
05:45If the Syrian president has not yet reacted, this is not the case of his Prime Minister,
05:49Mohammad Rezi al-Jalili, who says he is ready to cooperate with the new leadership chosen by the Syrian people.
06:00These are the regime's soldiers, we guarantee their safety,
06:03and they are now under the control of the military administration.
06:06Currently, we are on the road to Homs, Damascus.
06:10We send a message to all the communities of Syria,
06:15we tell them that Syria is for everyone, without exception.
06:20Syria is for Druze, Sunnis, Alawites and all communities.
06:25We will not treat people like the Assad family did.
06:32Our happiness is immense, thanks to God we have no loss and no one has hurt anyone.
06:37We are simply happy with this victory.
06:40We are also happy for the prisoners who have been released after years of confinement.
06:44May God protect them and grant them victory.
06:51In power since 2000, Bashar al-Assad had since 2011 repressed the Arab Spring movement
06:56which had affected other countries and contributed to the overthrow of several leaders,
07:01notably in Tunisia and Egypt.
07:03The repression turned into a ten-year civil war,
07:06causing several tens of thousands of deaths.
07:09The president was accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity by the UN.
07:15And on these international reactions that we have just heard,
07:20I propose to listen to the comment and analysis of the expert in international relations,
07:25Mohamed Rajahi Barakat.
07:27We listen and watch.
07:29In fact, what is happening now reminds me of the moment of the return of the Taliban to power in Afghanistan.
07:36Everyone hoped that the Taliban would change their policy
07:42and that relations between the Taliban and the West would improve
07:47and that the West would allow them to return to the international scene.
07:52But we can see that the situation has not changed in Afghanistan.
07:56The same thing is happening here in Syria.
07:58The question is whether the United States, France and the European Union
08:04will accept to work with someone who is always on the blacklist
08:10and on the list as a terrorist member.
08:13This will be a problem for Western countries.
08:18I don't think this will change overnight.
08:23Some are calling for the creation of an Islamic state.
08:30Others are already starting to wage war with the Kurds of PKK.
08:40There are many problems that are emerging.
08:45All we want is for the Syrian people to regain their dignity and calm
08:50and that they can, after the years of war and destruction they have experienced,
08:55that the militias and the leaders of these groups, especially the Syrian opposition,
09:01can come to an agreement and that the same situation in Libya does not happen again.
09:09In Libya, everyone was happy at the beginning of the fall of Muammar al-Ghazafi.
09:15But now, since 2011, Libya is even worse than before.
09:21We can see that there is never an agreement between the different factions.
09:26The East and the West are fighting at the end of the war so far.
09:31There is no political agreement.
09:34Can we fear the same thing in Syria?
09:37I hope that the Syrian people will be stronger and more reasonable
09:44and that this situation will change for the good of the Syrian people.
09:52The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, on its part,
09:56made it known that Israel had made several nocturnal strikes
10:00against military positions and weapons depots belonging to the Syrian army
10:04in several regions of Syria,
10:07especially in the regions of Latakia and Tartus,
10:11but also in the regions of Israa,
10:16in the province of Deraa, near the Golan Plateau,
10:21as well as Tal Al-Hara.
10:23Other Israeli strikes destroyed warehouses containing anti-tank weapons
10:28in the region of Qalamoun,
10:30still according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
10:35Yesterday, the Israeli army imposed a curfew
10:40on the inhabitants of five towns
10:43located in the Tampon area of the Golan Plateau.
10:47On the eve of the departure of this occupied and annexed Syrian plateau by Israel,
10:53earlier in the day, the Israeli Prime Minister had announced,
10:57after the fall of the Syrian president,
11:00that he had ordered the army to take control of the Tampon area of the Golan Plateau,
11:04as well as in the Syrian southwest.
11:11Donald Trump also made it known
11:14that the United States would leave NATO
11:17unless the allied states
11:19contribute more financially to the alliance.
11:23Donald Trump's statement to NBC News
11:29the future US president
11:33states, I quote,
11:35if they pay their bills and treat us fairly,
11:39the answer is absolutely
11:41I will stay in NATO.
11:43End of quote from the future US president.
11:50And the news is also the presidential election in Ghana
11:54where Vice President Mahamadou Baoumia,
11:57candidate of the new patriotic party in power,
12:00admitted his defeat yesterday
12:02and announced that he had called his opponent, John Maham,
12:05to congratulate him.
12:06The latter confirmed on X
12:08that he had received the call of congratulation from Vice President Ghana.
12:12Mahamadou Baoumia stated that John Maham
12:16had won the presidency in a decisive matter
12:20and that the opposition party
12:22had also won the legislative elections
12:26according to the internal account of the party's votes in power.
12:33So who is the elected president
12:35who signs his return to power
12:37after having been evinced in 2017
12:41and having tried twice to regain the post?
12:44Is it a vote of sanction that has been preferred?
12:46Let's find out with the analyst Cheikh Sadi Boundiaye.
12:50Yes, we can talk about your sanction,
12:52but it is also a logical victory
12:54because, as you know, John Maham
12:56is an aggressive man in the Ghanaian political scene.
12:59As you said, he has already been in power.
13:02John Maham had a brilliant political career.
13:05He was a deputy, he was a minister,
13:07he was vice president until the death of John Attarmus,
13:12who replaced him during these presidential elections
13:14to become president of the Ghanaian community.
13:16And finally, with a slightly mixed score,
13:18he had to leave power for the benefit of the opposition.
13:21But now, as you said,
13:23John Maham has participated in presidential elections
13:25that he has lost,
13:26but he really missed that he had to be resilient
13:30and come back to the forefront of the political scene
13:32and make new proposals to the Ghanaians.
13:35Because currently the country is going through an economic crisis,
13:38a crisis that is really hitting the country hard.
13:41That's why maybe the Ghanaians decided to put in place an experimental man,
13:45a man who really knows the roots of the Ghanaian Republic,
13:49a man who has international experience,
13:51even at the African level.
13:53So that's why the Ghanaians chose John Maham.
14:00Even hotter than the 2023 record,
14:03it is now certain that 2024 will be the hottest first year
14:09with more than 1.5 degrees of warming
14:13compared to the pre-industrial period.
14:16November, in particular, was marked by a succession of devastating typhoons
14:22in Asia and the pursuit of historical drought in Africa
14:26or in the Amazon with 1.60 degrees more,
14:31so a month of November that was abnormal
14:35according to the latest UN calculations.
14:39What is the situation in Syria?
14:59And now to the guest of the Grand Journal du Midi,
15:03and it is the situation in Syria
15:06that we will talk about after the departure of President Bashar al-Assad
15:10after almost half a century of reign,
15:12a turning point for the political evolution of the country,
15:16but also that of the region,
15:18especially in the context of the war that Israel is waging in Gaza and Lebanon.
15:23With us to talk about it live from Rabat,
15:26the expert Hassan Saoud, political analyst
15:29and security and strategy specialist.
15:32Welcome to you.
15:34Thank you, Madam. Hello to you and your listeners.
15:39So the departure of Bashar al-Assad,
15:42it is history that is written in this country and in the region as well.
15:47What is your first comment, Hassan Saoud,
15:50on the flight of the Syrian president chased by the offensive of the rebels in the region?
15:57We have never seen such a fast and vigorous offensive
16:03to come to the end of a regime that has reigned for half a century in Syria.
16:10No one expected it,
16:12but things have accelerated,
16:15resulting, as you just said,
16:17at the departure of the fallen president Bashar al-Assad and his family
16:23to Russia,
16:25certainly as indicated by a Kremlin statement,
16:29for humanitarian reasons.
16:31Today, I think that this rapidity
16:36has been, of course, encouraged by a popular alliance
16:40in all the regions,
16:42up to the capital, Damascus.
16:45Today, I think that this coalition of opposition
16:50has shown significant political gestures
16:56to reassure the population,
17:00to free all the prisoners in the old regime's prisons
17:05and to call people to calm.
17:09But we are really entering the hard part.
17:16So, precisely, Hassan Saoud,
17:19how could the cards be redistributed in this context,
17:24in this difficult transition that you have just described,
17:29in this country, without sinking into chaos?
17:33Because that is the most important thing.
17:38It is the will of this coalition of opposition,
17:43through what would be today the leader,
17:48the former Daesh,
17:51the former Al-Qaeda,
17:57who has taken on a new dress
17:59and who has taken on his former name, Ahmad al-Sharaf.
18:04I think that this country must first be stabilized.
18:09And then the will of this transition
18:13to hand over the current affairs
18:15to the government that has been established since September
18:18and that would have been accepted.
18:20The transition, from my point of view,
18:23if it wants to succeed, must be inclusive.
18:26It must include all communities,
18:31whether they are tribal, ethnic, religious,
18:35and minorities, so that it is successful.
18:38It will be necessary to monitor this new architecture
18:41that will certainly be put in place
18:45to judge the inclusiveness of this new coalition of opposition
18:52that has taken power.
18:53Naturally, there are still snails somewhere,
18:57a little bit everywhere,
18:58but things tend to stabilize.
19:01It will be necessary to monitor that.
19:04So, while we are waiting for this new architecture
19:09of power to arrive in New Syria,
19:12the Syrian Prime Minister, Jalal al-Said Ibrahim,
19:16has cooperated with all the leadership chosen by the people.
19:20And according to the head of Hayat al-Tahrir al-Sham,
19:23the institutions of the state will remain,
19:26or will remain, under the supervision of the former Prime Minister.
19:30In this context, how to achieve an inclusive transition,
19:34as you say,
19:35and a transfer of power without violence, Hassan Saoud?
19:40I think that, from my point of view,
19:42right now, it is happening in calm.
19:45The government continues to manage.
19:50The population, I think, calmed down after this lease.
19:55We are going to enter a reality that may be a little complicated.
20:00As long as the coalition of opposition is heteroclite,
20:04everyone will have to be included in this system of transition
20:09to lead the country.
20:12It will also be necessary, from my point of view,
20:15to operate a national reconciliation,
20:18because that's what it's about.
20:20All the communities, during 13 years of war,
20:25with all the suffering, 500,000 dead,
20:2913 million refugees and displaced people,
20:34all this leaves traces.
20:36It will be necessary, from my point of view,
20:38to carry out a kind of national reconciliation.
20:43I think that the Moroccan example should be inspiring
20:47to try to solve a past and a passive left by the old regime.
20:54So, the fall of Bashar al-Assad
20:58redraws the map of the Middle East,
21:01already prey to other wars and uncertainty.
21:04So, what is the future for Syria?
21:08But also, what is the future for the region?
21:12A region where Syria and the stability of Syria
21:16is decisive.
21:19So, what consequences, what impact on regional powers?
21:23And above all, Hassan Saoud,
21:25will regional powers have a say in this future or not?
21:33Certainly.
21:35You know that in Syria,
21:39which is an important global strategic node,
21:42all the powers are there.
21:45So, Russia,
21:47which allowed the resurrection of the former president.
21:51You have Turkey,
21:53which, thanks to it and the Syrian National Army,
21:59was able to overcome this regime.
22:03You have Iran,
22:05which is, in my opinion, the great loser in this region.
22:09You have, of course, Russia,
22:13where you have to see what will become of the bases of Tartus and Khmeimim,
22:18which were taken back when Russia was re-established.
22:25You certainly have the Gulf countries,
22:29which have a position in relation to this conflict.
22:33But you have the United States,
22:36where there are still 900 soldiers
22:39in the framework of the anti-Daesh coalition,
22:42of which they have the leadership,
22:44who are present and continue to bombard the positions of Daesh.
22:50So, you have, of course, the whole environment that is explosive.
22:55Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq,
22:59all of this means that Syria,
23:02unstable, will contribute to further incitement.
23:06I hope that these new leaders will come back to reason to try to calm down
23:13and that Syria, which is an old country of 5,000 years,
23:19regains its notoriety, its stability in this region,
23:25because it is important in regional and international stability.
23:32And in this context, Hassan Saoud,
23:34you have spoken of international reactions
23:38and of the replays, respectively, by some great regional powers.
23:44Can the flight and departure of Bashar al-Assad
23:49be seen as a turning point,
23:52a bloody turning point for Russia, for Moscow?
23:57Certainly, it is Russia that has allowed to perpetuate this regime
24:03while it was in the abyss.
24:06It has strengthened its bases in the Mediterranean
24:10and it has continued to cause deaths,
24:15to move, to injure,
24:17and then poverty and a catastrophic economic situation.
24:23Today, it would seem that Russia,
24:28which houses the former dictator,
24:31is talking about the future of these two important bases in the Mediterranean.
24:37We will see how this will happen,
24:41but visibly, the former leader has been released by Russia
24:47for pragmatic reasons.
24:50As they say, success has many losses,
24:53but failure is an orphan.
24:56The former president is in this position.
25:00I would like to clarify that the Kremlin
25:04has not confirmed the presence of Bashar al-Assad
25:08and his family in Moscow.
25:11We will continue with one last question,
25:14if you please, Professor Saoud,
25:16on this issue of refugees.
25:19Syria remains the biggest displacement crisis in the world,
25:23with more than 13 million people who have fled the country
25:26or who have been displaced inside.
25:29What should we expect in this context?
25:32A massive return of refugees, according to you?
25:36I think that the returns have already begun
25:41and the Turkish president is making these refugees a national cause.
25:50They need to return to their country.
25:55But there are already returns.
25:57We will follow up.
25:58People are looking.
26:00There are even refugees in Europe
26:02who want to take flight tickets,
26:04we say, to return to their country.
26:07We have to wait for the situation to stabilize more.
26:11But I think there will be returns
26:14and everyone is interested in the return of the Syrian population
26:19to their villages,
26:21obviously devastated,
26:23after the problem of reconstruction
26:27that the United Nations and many countries have talked about.
26:32We still have a little time left, Professor Saoud.
26:35I will take this opportunity to ask you the last question.
26:42Donald Trump will be in power in a few months.
26:47Will the fact that he will be in power and in business in the United States
26:53change anything in relation to Joe Biden's management
26:57of this Syrian case and this Middle East case?
27:03We attended the president's interview,
27:09President Biden,
27:12who said that this situation in Syria is a great opportunity
27:17to return to an important stability for this country,
27:22and that things are getting better.
27:24But he said that it brings risks and uncertainties,
27:28alluding to this leader who seems to be the ex-Jewish leader Ahmadinejad.
27:36He said clearly that the Islamic State group should not return to Syria
27:44taking advantage of this instability.
27:47As for the elected president,
27:50I think there is a gap between business management and speech management.
27:56By saying that this is not our war, this is not our fight,
28:01let's not get involved.
28:03The elected president already has a position.
28:06Now, once in the Oval Office,
28:09will the position change?
28:12Wait and see.
28:15Wait and see, that will be the final word.
28:17Thank you very much, Hassan Saoud, for answering the questions of Mediain TV.
28:22I remind you that you are an expert political analyst in security and strategy.
28:29And I thank you, Madam.
28:32And thank you.
28:33This is the end of this newscast.