• First commercial flight takes off from Damascus after the removal of former regime
• 43 people onboard, including a journalist in what was the first successful civilian flight since the fall of the genocidal regime
As part of a massive symbolic gesture to demonstrate the restarting of the Syrian economy and the return to norm, the first civilian flight has taken off from Damascus since the revolution.
The flight landed in Aleppo in the country’s north today with 43 passengers on board including numerous journalists.
This comes after the former head of the rebel movement, Ahmed al-Sharaa, also known as Abu Mohammad al-Julani who is now the leader of Syria, had met with UN special envoy Geir Pedersen along with multiple western officials.
Pro-Assad forces abandoned the airport on December 8 as rebel fighters closed in on the capital following the lightning offensive that began on November 27.
Earlier this week videos circulating on social media had shown airport staff painting a pro-opposition three-start flag on aeroplanes, a symbol of the start of the uprising in 2011.
AFP news had reported that an anonymous airport official had said that flights would resume on December 24 following maintenance work.
The economy
In neighbouring Jordan the Jaber border crossing has reopened for trade, allowing goods to resume flowing between the two countries.
The Syrian economy is still devastated even after the removal of Assad with some Syria watchers warning it could take nearly 10 years for the country to return to 2011 GDP levels with a total of two decades to be fully rebuilt.
From 2010-2020 the countries GDP halved with staple food products and local industrial and agricultural production collapsing.
Syria, once the largest oil exporter in the Eastern Mediterranean, lost its key position in oil production and oil exports because of sanctions, corruption and having its oil taken by other groups like ISIS and the Kurds.
With increasing oil and gas prices in Europe since the start of the Russia-Ukraine war it benefits Europe to have access to Syrian oil in the European market with the European Union announcing on Monday that they would be willing to lift sanctions if certain conditions are met.
At a meeting in Brussels, the EU’s top diplomats have said they want guarantees from members of Syria’s government that they are preparing for a peaceful political future involving all minority groups, one in which extremism and former allies Russia and Iran have no place.
The new governments reputation since takeover has already seemed promising with very few reports of revenge killings or sectarian violence.
At a meeting with reporters, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said: “Syria faces an optimistic, positive, but rather uncertain future, and we have to make sure that this goes to the right direction”.
The UN envoy for Syria has already pressed for the removal of sanctions which already puts the Syrian government at a far less isolated state then the Taliban once they took over Afghanistan.
Time will tell if western powers continue to allow the continued starvation of much of an entire population because of dislike of the new Syrian government.
