Qatar sends aid to Syria post-Assad's fall

Qatar sent two cargo planes carrying humanitarian aid to Syria as part of its airlift for the country following the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime.

The Qatari Foreign Ministry said a plane carrying technical and humanitarian aid to the Syrian people arrived at Damascus Airport.

The ministry said the technical aid will be used to re-operate the airport to ensure the flow of aid into Syria.

“The aid comes as part of Qatar’s air bridge to provide relief to our brothers in Syria and contribute to addressing their humanitarian conditions,” it added.

The Qatar Red Crescent Society also said another aid plane arrived in the Lebanese capital Beirut to be transferred to Damascus.

The society said the plane is loaded with 33 tons of humanitarian aid, including blankets and food parcels.

Meanwhile Holding elections in Syria could take several years, the country's de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa has said, in his first comments on a possible electoral timetable since Bashar al-Assad was ousted early in December.

In an interview, Sharaa said it would take about a year for Syrians to see drastic changes, after the fall of Assad family rule and the end of 13 years of civil war.

“Election infrastructure in Syria at this time is ailing. It needs rebuilding. Today we are talking about the displacement of more than 15 million people from Syria, between displaced and refugees. Most do not have a fixed registration. No one knows what the population of Syria is today.”

"Drafting a new constitution or making amendments will take experts a long time, maybe two or three years, God knows."

Sharaa leads the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group that toppled Assad.

It was once affiliated with Islamic State and al-Qaeda but has since renounced both.

And the new government has sought to reassure Syrians and neighboring countries that it has left Islamist militancy behind.

Sharaa said HTS, formerly known as the Nusra Front, would be dissolved at a national dialogue conference.