Ammon News - Ahmed al-Shara, the leader of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham 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 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, al-Assad said he had wanted to stay and fight, but was evacuated by Russian forces as the rebels bore down on the city.

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

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.

NY times