Fall of Assad sparks new hope in Syria but minority groups remain concerned

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• Amna Nawaz:

  The sea change toward tenuous hope in Syria over the last two weeks has been tempered with a grim accounting of the last 14 years of war, not to mention the more than half-a-century of authoritarian rule under the Assad family.

  We have two teams there now. We will have more reporting from around the country in the coming days.

  Tonight, I'm joined by special correspondent Leila Molana-Allen from Damascus.

  Leila, Western journalists have largely been banned from entering regime-held Syria for years now, but you did manage to get in under cover last year. What has changed now and what has the mood been like in Damascus over these last couple of days?

• Leila Molana-Allen:

  Amna, it's like night and day. I can't tell you what it's like to walk the streets here and have people freely running up to you saying: "Take my picture. Let me tell you what I think."

  Previously working here, for those of us who have been reporting on Syria, it was always about fear, secrecy, constantly looking over your shoulder for the Mukhabarat, the secret police, terrified about keeping your contacts safe, those people who were brave enough to speak out. And, of course, most people didn't.

  That mood is so different now, people so keen to share their views. And, of course, what's so clear is that so many people who said they supported the Assad regime very clearly didn't, the number of people out on the streets now telling the stories of the horrific experiences they have endured, not just during Bashar al-Assad's regime, but his father as well.

  And there's so much joy about that. Coming into Damascus, the streets were full of people holding their children in the air, celebrating with HTS fighters, beeping their horns, holding the revolutionary free Syria flag, saying, Syria's for everyone, this country is free.

  Now, we're already seeing a lot of moves towards trying to reintegrate this country that has been so split in recent years. And, of course, the issue there was that so many people will tell you Syria's diverse, that it's not sectarian, and Assad made it so because he told people in minorities that the Sunni Muslims in this country, who are the majority, they're all ISIS, and they're going to come and kill you.

  And that's how he stayed in power, because he scared them. As one Alawite man in Damascus said to me today, that's not true. Look at these wonderful people who've come here and liberated us. Thus far, HTS are trying to make that point. They're very loudly saying, look, women can be uncovered. They don't have to dress the way that we would in our communities. That's absolutely fine, and also trying to integrate people from the northwest, from rebel-held territory.

  Already, today, we were at a phone shop. And for the first time ever, people could use their Idlib I.D.s, rather than just their regime-held I.D.s, to buy a phone SIM. So, just a few examples of the way things are already moving forward here.

• Amna Nawaz:

  Leila, you mentioned that joy. We have been watching those scenes of joy unfold over the last few days. But there's also so much uncertainty ahead.

  What are the biggest challenges now facing both Syria as a country and its people in the coming days and months ahead?

• Leila Molana-Allen:

  Well, there are, of course, so many challenges, the most immediate being getting this country up and running again.

  Firstly, the economy has been in utterly dire straits for years because of the sanctions imposed on Syria. No one here has been able to rebuild their homes. When I was here last year, I traveled across the regime-held area and many of the buildings there are still bombed, infrastructure not working.

  And, of course, here in the last few days, since HTS rebels swept into Damascus, the services have gone out there. Hasn't been phone signal, Internet, water, electricity. And that is because so many of those services are locked into the government. They're quickly trying to change that because, of course, patience will last a while, but it won't last that long.

  And then, across the country, there are so many issues because the country has been divided for so long. In the northwest, where the rebels live, even though many people now can return to their homes in Damascus and Aleppo and Homs, so many of their homes have been destroyed by Russian airstrikes and by Syrian regime shelling that they don't have a place to go to.

  So that's going to be a process. Also trying to get kids back into school, trying to make a deal with the Kurds in the northeast of Syria, who are very afraid that this chaos could lead to ISIS rising up in the desert there again because that's an opportunity for them.

  And then, of course, the fear over what HTS wants to do. Right now, as I said, they're making so many noises about a liberal Syria for everyone. Will that continue or will we see a move towards a more Islamist structure? People are concerned. They're waiting to see. Some believe it. Some don't.

  And, of course, those who were loyal to the regime fleeing to try and get out of the country. The Lebanese border is full of people trying to escape because they simply don't trust the amnesty that HTS has declared for army conscripts, saying it wasn't their fault, they were forced to fight.

  So, many fears in this country, many hopes as well for what a free Syria could look like, but what they need is investment. What they need is support. They're saying, please, Western powers, come in now and help us while we can rebuild this country. And, most immediately, so much joy for this liberation, but so much loss as people across the country find their homes destroyed, find family members they hoped might be in jails or in another part of Syria are dead or forgotten forever.

  So it's mixed feelings, but much hope that perhaps the Syria people have dreamed of for 14 years at civil war could come.

• Amna Nawaz:

  That is special correspondent Leila Molana-Allen reporting from Damascus, Syria, tonight.

  Leila, thank you.