Syria reopens schools as country focuses on rebuilding

Students have returned to classrooms in Syria after the country's new leaders ordered schools reopened in a sign of some normalcy a week after rebels ousted President Bashar al-Assad.

The country's new de facto leader, Ahmad al-Sharaa, faces a massive challenge to rebuild Syria after 13 years of civil war that killed hundreds of thousands of people.

Mr Sharaa - better known as better known as Mohammad al-Jolani - leads the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the Islamist group that ousted Mr Assad from power last week.

Cities were bombed to ruins, the economy was gutted by international sanctions and millions of refugees still live in camps outside Syria.

Officials said most schools were opening around the country, which is the first day of the working week in most Arab countries.

However, some parents were not sending their children to class due to uncertainty over the situation.

Pupils waited cheerfully in the courtyard of a boys' high school in Damascus and applauded as the school secretary, Raed Nasser, hung the flag adopted by the new authorities.

"Everything is good. We are fully equipped. We worked two, three days in order to equip the school with the needed services for the students' safe return to school," Mr Nasser said, adding the Jawdat al-Hashemi school had not been damaged.

In one classroom, a student pasted the new flag on a wall.

"I am optimistic and very happy," said student Salah al-Din Diab.

"I used to walk in the street scared that I would get drafted to military service. I used to be afraid when I reach a checkpoint," the student added.

As Syria starts trying to rebuild, its neighbours and other foreign powers are still working out a new stance on the country, a week after the collapse of Mr Assad's government that was backed by Iran and Russia.

HTS is a group formerly allied with al Qaeda that is designated a terrorist organisation by many governments.

Top diplomats from the United States, Turkey, the European Union and Arab nations met in Jordan yesterday and agreed that a new government in Syria should respect minority rights, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.

Meanwhile Mr Sharaa said Israel is using false pretexts to justify its attacks on Syria, but that he is not interested in engaging in new conflicts as the country focuses on rebuilding.

Israel has since moved into a demilitarised zone inside Syria created after the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, including the Syrian side of the strategic Mount Hermon that overlooks Damascus, where it took over an abandoned Syrian military post.

Israel, which has said that it does not intend to stay there and calls the incursion into Syrian territory a limited and temporary measure to ensure border security, has also carried out hundreds of strikes on Syria's strategic weapons stockpiles.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Israel launched more than 60 strikes on Syrian territory over the past few hours.

Israel fired 61 missiles at Syrian military sites in less than five hours yesterday evening, it reported, maintaining a campaign which started after Mr Assad was overthrown.

Several Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Jordan, condemned what they called Israel's seizure of a buffer zone in the Golan Heights.

"Israeli arguments have become weak and no longer justify their recent violations. The Israelis have clearly crossed the lines of engagement in Syria, which poses a threat of unwarranted escalation in the region," Mr Sharaa said in an interview published on the website of Syria TV, a pro-opposition channel.

"Syria's war-weary condition, after years of conflict and war, does not allow for new confrontations. The priority at this stage is reconstruction and stability, not being drawn into disputes that could lead to further destruction," he added.

He also said diplomatic solutions were the only way to ensure security and stability and that "uncalculated military adventures" were not wanted.

On Russia, whose military intervention almost a decade ago helped tip the balance in Mr Assad's favour and which gave asylum to the ousted leader earlier this week, Mr al-Jolani said that its relations with Syria should serve common interests.

"The current stage requires careful management of international relations," he added.