Mourning for Sufi teacher: Al-Vailai is honored in Damascus!

Sheikh Sariya al-fogai, a prominent freestely oriented preacher, died in Turkey on Monday at the age of 77. His funeral took place in Damascus and was visited by high -ranking representatives of the new Syrian government. Al-Frei was a critic of the Assad regime and had lived in exile in Turkey for over a decade. The ceremony was held in the Umayyaden mosque, where Ahmed al-Sharaa, the factual leader of Syria, as well as the newly known ministers of foreign affairs and defense were present.

Ahmed al-Sharaa, the top official of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), an Islamist rebel group with previous connections to al-Qaida, led the efforts to replace the Assad regime in December. Since then, HTS has promised to establish moderate administration. Al-Sharaa described Rifai as "one of the flags of the Levante" and called for national unity in post-warseeyre. Großmufti Osama Rifai, the brother of Sariya, also took part in the funeral after returning from Turkey.

connections between the opposition troops and the new government

Osama and Sariya Rifai have been influential Islamic scholars and critics of the Assad regime since the protests began in 2011. Osama Rifai was taken to the hospital in August 2011 after an attack on the Rifai mosque, a center of the protests, while Sariya was forbidden to preach. Both brothers left Syria after the opposition was followed. Osama Rifai was appointed Grand Mufti Syria in 2021 after the regime had abolished the position.

In the meantime, the Syrian opposition fighters trained by the USA are faced with an uncertain future. Salim Turki al-Anteri, a commander of the Syrian Free Army (SFA), led his troops in a fight against his former tank unit on December 7th. He ordered artillery warning shots to flee the regime troops without taking their lives. Al-Anteri sees the regime's soldiers as "sons" and sees the tanks as equipment that should be preserved for the future Syrian army.

Anteri commands around 600 fighters and is waiting for instructions on the role of his unity in the new security forces organized by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham. A former US special forces base, Al-Tanf, is about 200 miles from Damascus and played a key role in the training of Syrian opposition troops. The US troops in Syria operate without legal authority and under the pretext of the US-Isis coalition.

In addition, the former opposition groups are faced with the challenge of defining their new role after the regime has been overthrown. Anteri and his followers found equipment in an abandoned Russian military base in Syria. Russia is expected to make concessions to the new Syrian government to secure its strategic port in Tartus.