Women look at photos of people reported to be missing by members of ousted Syrian President Bashar Assad's army, or a pro-government militia, in the Marjeh square in Damascus, Syria, Sunday, Dec. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

BEIRUT (AP) — A prominent Lebanese politician held talks on Sunday with the insurgent who led the overthrow of Syria's President Bashar Assad, with both expressing hope for a new era in relations.

Druze leader Walid Jumblatt is the most important politician from Lebanon to visit Syria since the Assad family’s 54-year rule ended two weeks ago. Jumblatt was a longtime critic of Syria's involvement in Lebanon and blamed Assad's father, former leader Hafez Assad, for the assassination of his own father.

Ahmad al-Sharaa led the Sunni Islamist rebels who swept into Damascus this month. Now wearing a suit and tie, he has been meeting diplomats and others as Assad's fall reshapes alliances and gives many long-stifled Syrians hope after more than 13 years of civil war and international sanctions.

Jumblatt, a key figure in Lebanon’s Druze minority, expressed hope that Lebanese-Syrian relations “will return to normal.” His father, Kamal, was killed in 1977 in an ambush near a Syrian roadblock during Syria's military intervention in Lebanon's civil war.

“Syria will no longer be a case of negative interference in Lebanon," al-Sharaa said.

He also repeated longstanding allegations that Assad's government was behind the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, which was followed by other killings of prominent Lebanese critics of Assad.

Last year, the United Nations closed an international tribunal investigating that assassination after it convicted three members of Lebanon's Hezbollah — an ally of Assad — in absentia. Hezbollah denied involvement in the bombing.

“We hope that all those who committed crimes against the Lebanese will be held accountable, and that fair trials will be held for those who committed crimes against the Syrian people,” Jumblatt said.

Separately on Sunday, al-Sharaa said the former insurgent factions have agreed on creating a unified military leadership and establishing a defense ministry, adding that there should be no weapons outside the state’s control.

“The logic of a state is different from the logic of a revolution,” he said, and called again for sanctions relief.

Iran's leader predicts trouble for new Syrian rulers

Separately, Iran's supreme leader asserted that young Syrians will resist the new government emerging after Assad's ouster, as he again accused the United States and Israel of sowing chaos in the country.

Iran provided crucial support to Assad throughout Syria's civil war, which erupted after he launched a violent crackdown on a popular uprising. Syria had long served as a key conduit for Iranian aid to Hezbollah.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in an address on Sunday that the “young Syrian has nothing to lose" and suffers from insecurity following Assad's fall.

“What can he do? He should stand with strong will against those who designed and those who implemented the insecurity," Khamenei said. He also accused the United States and Israel of plotting against Assad's government in order to seize resources.

Iran and its militant allies in the region have suffered major setbacks over the past year, with Israel battering Hamas in Gaza and landing heavy blows on Hezbollah before they agreed to a ceasefire in Lebanon last month.

Khamenei denied that such groups were proxies of Iran, saying they fought because of their beliefs. “If one day we plan to take action, we do not need proxy force,” he said.

Preserving evidence of crimes

The head of a U.N.-backed team investigating crimes committed during the civil war said they are working with the country’s new authorities in hopes of preserving evidence uncovered after Assad’s ouster.

“We welcome the fact that we were invited to come and to engage with the authorities,” Robert Petit said Sunday, describing the meeting as “constructive.”

As journalists, researchers and the public stream into former detention centers and mass grave sites, many express fears that evidence is taken or destroyed.

Wafa Mustafa, a Syrian activist whose father, Ali, disappeared in 2013 in Damascus, said that "no one gets to tell the families what happened without evidence, without search, without work, without effort.”

Returning Syrians search for shattered homes

Syria's civil war created millions of refugees, and thousands have begun returning. In a gray field of rubble outside Damascus, returnee Alaa Badawi worked with a shovel, looking for traces of his home.

His community, Qaboun, was an anti-government center and many of its buildings were flattened under Assad's administration.

“Which is our house? Which is our alley? There is nothing visible,” Badawi said.

He and others decided to dig a little here and there to look for the house's distinctive tiles. “We finally discovered that this is our house,” he said. "I do not know by then if I was happy to have located the house amid the rubble or upset because the house did not exist.”

Ziad Al-Hilli, one of the many people freed from prison as Assad fled to Russia, could not find his house, or his family.

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Associated Press writers Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran, and Abby Sewell in Qardaha, Syria, contributed to this report.

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News from © The Associated Press, 2024