FOR 54 long years, Syrians yearned for their country to be free from the brutal reign of the Assad dynasty.
On Dec 8, the yearning turned real when a lightning offensive led by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and allied opposition forces sent president Bashar al-Assad fleeing to Moscow.
Now that Syria is free, it must stay free. Two things must happen for it to remain so: one, the freedom fighters made up of a miscellany of opposition forces — in one media count they are said to number 26 under as many commanders — must work together to build a new Syria for all Syrians, and two, foreign powers must stop their meddling ways in Syria. Both are huge challenges for Damascus.
Begin with the first challenge. For sure, 26 is a big number. It is like a coalition of 26 political parties being elected into power, all vying for the preferred cabinet positions.
A first lesson for them is to learn that fighting for freedom isn't the same as keeping freedom.
Keeping freedom means just governance of Syria for all. A new Syria isn't possible any other way.
But there is cause for hope, with newly appointed caretaker Prime Minister Mohammed al-Bashir telling Al Jazeera in an interview of his pledge to protect minority rights and bring security to the country.
He also pledged to bring to justice "those whose hands are stained with blood". The right thing to do, but the new government must ensure that no "kangaroo" court is set up to dispense "justice" as the United States (US) did in Iraq.
The new Iraq that the Iraqis yearned for post-Saddam Hussein never happened because it was what the US and its allies ordered, not one chosen by the Iraqis.
Seeking justice isn't the same as seeking revenge. Will the New Syria be a replay of the US-designed post-Saddam Iraq?
That depends on the willing surrender of the meddling ways of foreign powers — our second challenge for the new government.
If all the foreign interference that has happened since Dec 8 is anything to go by, there are more perils than promises on the road to Damascus.
Consider the shady Israeli schemes, the threat-spinner of the Middle East.
Having illegally occupied the Golan Heights in 1967, the Zionist colonial settler regime is seizing more Syrian territories by bullets and bombs in Golan Heights.
If that is not enough, media reports say that Israeli forces are bombing weapons depots all over Syria, saying they pose a threat to the security of Israel.
Call it Zionist nonsense on stilts. By that reasoning every military installation in the Middle East is a threat to its existence, illegal though it is.
Here is the lying ways of threat-spinner Benjamin Netanyahu: the new seizures are to protect adjacent Israel. As the Zionist regime goes on bombing its way into Arab countries, every territory in the Middle East will be adjacent to Israel.
Blame it on Israel's impunity booster forever, the US, which on its part, is also bombing "terrorist" sites there.
On Thursday, the G7 rightly called on all parties to preserve the territorial integrity of Syria, but wrongly elected not to practise what it preaches as one of its members and its ally chose to disrespect Syria's sovereignty.