Wassim Nasr EN

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00:00France 24 has learned that three French children whose mother was killed in Baghouz,

00:06Syria have been repatriated and brought back here to French soil. Baghouz was the last bastion of

00:12the Islamic State group in Syria before the group fell and until recently the children had been held

00:18in an orphanage in Damascus. Now we know about their case thanks to France 24's Waseem Nasser

00:25who's obtained this exclusive information is with me here in the studio now. Look Waseem,

00:30this is an interesting case and it is a unique case because these children were not being held

00:35in the northeast of Syria where like jihadists have been held in the past and the families of

00:41jihadists but in the capital in Damascus. So tell us first of all what more we know about

00:47the children and the circumstances of their return to France. Well actually it's a unique case as you

00:52said there's no other known case of French children being held in Damascus in an orphanage

00:59of course under the rule of Bashar al-Assad. So the story is really particular as you said

01:05their mother was killed in Baghouz which was a huge battle between the Islamic State and many

01:10other parties at the time. They have two fathers we are talking about three kids so the youngest

01:16girl is six years old and the eldest boy he's a boy is 12 years old. So both fathers were killed

01:23the mother was killed and then they were taken by a Belgian national a woman and while she was

01:30fleeing Baghouz she was arrested we are in 2019 she was arrested by the Syrian regime because as

01:37many jihadis and families tried to flee toward the deserts which was controlled by the Syrian regime

01:43so she was arrested. We don't know how did the regime know that they were French but I guess

01:49she said it because it creates a kind of leverage for her. We don't know if she was killed or if

01:57she was arrested and then released or if she left Syria we don't have this information but what you

02:02know for sure is that those three kids were held in two institutions in Damascus one for girls and

02:07the boy in institution for boys with fake IDs. Okay. And we know that France never accepted to

02:15reach out even that we knew the case existed to the Syrian regime in order to prevent him from

02:20using them as leverage but we know that their family was working on it that they had contact

02:25with their family here in particular one of the aunts that was seeking actually to to get them

02:32back and we know that journals from RFE, Neo Pignet in particular of the fall of the regime

02:39went to Damascus and got to know some details how they were helped and they were told that they were

02:44French actually in the in the orphanage but the story stopped there and French authorities were

02:49started working on them once the regime fell on taking them back and it is actually a

02:55first where the new authorities in Syria accept to deliver French nationals to French authorities

03:02so it was discussed between French authorities and the new authorities in Damascus they were

03:07taken to the Lebanese border at the Lebanese border it was the French police and Lebanese

03:12authorities that took them to the airport and then they reached Paris yesterday night they

03:17will be taken in charge by French authorities as a first phase and then maybe transferred

03:25to the to the family and to the to the aunt actually. And it seems like diplomatically

03:29there's been these shifts now because the regime has fallen in Damascus Bashar al-Assad's regime is

03:35out of power so does this suggest now a sort of a warming of relations good diplomacy even between

03:43Paris and the new authorities in Damascus? Well actually you have to remember that a few days ago

03:47there was the Paris conference the the minister of foreign affairs of the new Syrian authorities

03:53was received in Paris and it was the first to be received in European country after the Davos

03:58summit of course but also a permanent member of the security council and that has a real importance

04:05we know that France has a special envoy to Damascus a very very efficient diplomat who knows

04:14the region who knows his dossiers if I may say so and of course this makes it easier to discuss

04:22with the new many issues with the new authorities but as I said this is a first from Damascus but

04:27it's not a first for the new Syrian authorities because they also transferred an American citizen

04:33which was found in the suburbs of Damascus in Ghouta roaming hours after the fall of the regime

04:39so inhabitants found him there he is and he is here with Obaida Arnaout which I met in Damascus

04:45in in December he's a member of the political bureau of HTS at the time and we'll see that

04:51they would transfer them actually all through Syria and we are talking really days after the

04:56fall of the regime so they crossed very dangerous areas to reach the Tanaf base area which was held

05:04by the American authorities and we'll see on the next on the next picture actually they delivered

05:09him to the commander of American forces in Syria directly and here he is Obaida Arnaout the

05:16American citizen and of course the commander of the Syrian of the American forces in Syria and

05:22that was really the first actually of delivering Western citizens to the authorities and as you

05:28said it's a big shift in relations between Syria and Western countries knowing for example that

05:36up to now we don't know yet where are the whereabouts of Austin Tice an American journalist

05:43and we know that his mother went to see Shara a few weeks ago in order to see if they can find

05:49him actually and look beyond Austin Tice just a final thought from you do you think we will see

05:53the release of I don't know more Westerners who've been held in Syria in in the months ahead is it

05:58possible well but you could imagine uh regarding those who were in the Syrian regime areas I don't

06:07know if we'll still maybe find the living uh Westerners yeah but regarding the families and

06:13the children of for example jihadi families who are held under Kurdish authority of the

06:19syrian democratic forces northwest Syria we can imagine because since yesterday Mazloum Abdi the

06:25head of the syrian democratic forces acknowledged for the first time the presidency of Ahmad Shara

06:30and and uh and uh and like praised his his new presidency so this is a real uh also a real step

06:38beyond knowing that the French are actually really working on the issue of getting closer

06:43on the negotiations between the Kurdish parties and the new Syrian government so if and only if

06:50the same democratic forces go under the rule of Damascus all the camps and the prison facilities

06:56that are in northwest Syria will be under the authority of the new Syrian administration

07:01meaning many Westerners either men women or children and we can hope for easier or more swift

07:10maybe uh relations in this regard knowing that in the opposite case if there is no accord between

07:16the Kurdish party and Damascus Turkey will step in and all those camps will be under the rule of

07:22Turkey and then it's another ball game but it could make put into play what you are called the

07:28Kaznav agreement between Turkey and France and which works very well since 12 2015. Okay so we

07:34could see the release possibly uh you know quite far ahead of uh some of those prisoners who've

07:40been held getting them back in the Kurdish areas that really could be a fascinating diplomatic

07:45moment to watch. Thank you very much indeed Waseem Nasser reporting for us there.

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