Wary of the credibility of the new Syrian transitional government, Western leaders are also concerned about the risk of Syria being partitioned, a week after the fall of Bashar al-Assad, who was overthrown by the Islamist rebels of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). The G7 heads of state and government, meeting by videoconference on Friday, December 13, expressed their concern about such a development, under the dual pressure of fighting between local factions and the intervention of Syria's two neighbors: Turkey, which is pushing its way into the north of the country, with the help of its Syrian auxiliaries, and Israel, which has occupied a new part of the Golan Heights in the south.

"We call on all parties to preserve Syria's territorial integrity and national unity, and respect its independence and sovereignty," the G7 countries had already warned the day before. Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, who visited Jordan on Thursday and Turkey and Iraq on Friday, said it was "really important" that all parties make sure they are not "sparking any additional conflicts," a reference to the military initiatives taken by Israel and Turkey.

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