Google Cloud Speech-to-Text API (Chirp) + Gemini 2.5 Flash Non-Thinking. Treat it as a searchable index of what was broadcast, not a quotation record.
00:00:00Isn't this
00:00:00the political and diplomatic contrary to what he was proposing,
00:00:03that the advisor should be hierarchical and that he should
00:00:07progress in the ministry until he reaches this position?
00:00:11In short, the hierarchy of the advisor is not
00:00:14necessarily I said experience, and I didn't say
00:00:17hierarchy. I mean, you are repeating the word hierarchy, which I didn't say.
00:00:21I only said experience.
00:00:23I mean progressive employee
00:00:26from the beginning of my entry into the ministry
00:00:36Wait, wait a minute. What I want to get at
00:00:39is that the word "advisor" does not necessarily
00:00:42refer to an administrative position or
00:00:46an absolute advisory position, but rather
00:00:49it is a position that combines
00:00:52references in law kinship ties
00:00:55and the bonds of affection among
00:00:59the components of the Syrian people.
00:01:02It also deals with solving complex problems
00:01:05on the ground. This is the basis of this story,
00:01:09and our assessment is that this appointment is
00:01:12a political appointment with
00:01:14social backgrounds,
00:01:18due to major complex problems now, especially after the Jordan
00:01:21crisis. We don't want to go into too much detail
00:01:24and escalate the problems so that
00:01:28it is
00:01:33positions, including member of
00:01:36believed that the executive scope and the files entrusted to Ms. Muzna
00:01:40are not only related to Sweida, meaning Jordan
00:01:42and other than Jordan and relations with Israel, or are they only for Sweida
00:01:46as I mentioned at the beginning? Yes, I believe that the selection
00:01:50of this personality, regardless
00:01:51and international scene. of the controversy that occurred, can play
00:01:55multiple roles in many
00:01:58Well, in many files, and I repeat
00:02:02that the essence of this appointment is that she is from Sweida
00:02:05and from the Al-Atrash family. Why don't you take this into
00:02:09meetings took place last account, and she is also Asmahan's granddaughter?
00:02:12Thank you very much. Okay, okay. Okay, thank you very much, Dr.
00:02:16Ahmed Toumeh, politician and academic from Damascus, and my thanks to Professor Bassam
00:02:20Al-Amadi, former Syrian Ambassador to Sweden.
00:02:22especially in the legal You were with us from Rome.
00:02:26Pakistan? What is the danger of that We continue with you on Syria Today, and after the break, we will discuss
00:02:28how Damascus will build
00:02:32any army in the world, or at its military capabilities in light of escalating tensions.
00:02:44and if the alliances at the
00:02:51oh homes in After that, Al-Kuzbari decided to work in
00:02:56offered by these allies homes in
00:03:12Israeli aircraft flying in
00:03:15What does that mean
00:03:33adapt to
00:03:35so bad that they cannot
00:03:42Now to this
00:03:54in is broader
00:04:07it get S-400 missiles from
00:04:13We are sitting inside, and someone is spinning around here. We cry over him, by God.
00:04:17We hear the pain of the bones that are breaking.
00:04:18تتكسر
00:04:27Every blanket I smell, I feel like there's
00:04:32to form a complete picture
00:04:35before the great Syrian torture. You don't know if you'll come back alive or
00:04:39dead.
00:04:45I remember hearing the gray hairs cracking
00:04:47in my head.
00:04:52towards its Arab The soul that is tormented is the one that does not
00:04:56have radars, go away.
00:05:03We reap these fruits. Do you rely on
00:05:19Questions are increasing regarding the country's security
00:05:22and military future and the opportunities to build the Syrian army's capabilities,
00:05:25especially with the increase in foreign air violations,
00:05:28particularly the violations by the Israeli
00:05:31occupation, which has increased its air sorties
00:05:34and ground incursions. Despite the lifting of American
00:05:38sanctions, there is ambiguity regarding
00:05:41the paths that Damascus is following in building
00:05:44its defensive and military capabilities,
00:05:47as well as regarding the challenges facing Syria, with the exception of the relationship with
00:05:51Turkey and its support for security capabilities. It is not yet
00:05:54clear that there are other countries that can be relied
00:05:58upon to arm
00:05:59Syria.
00:06:02Unknown aircraft are flying in southern Syria, and sounds of
00:06:06unknown explosions. No one knows what happened on Sunday evening
00:06:10and at different times.
00:06:13I swear by Almighty God, with the absence of official statements explaining
00:06:17some events, narratives
00:06:20and stories compete on social media after every sound is heard,
00:06:24but this brings many questions to the forefront
00:06:27about Syrian defensive capabilities
00:06:30and what it possesses in terms of detecting and tracking
00:06:33attacks.
00:06:36The series of Israeli attacks that targeted
00:06:40airports and military air bases in Syria,
00:06:43the latest of which was in August when the runway of
00:06:46Abu al-Duhur military airport in the eastern Idlib countryside was targeted,
00:06:50as well as the recent Jordanian attacks in southern Syria,
00:06:54all of this puts Syria in a difficult predicament that is difficult to resolve with
00:06:58the complexities of the regional
00:07:04On the political front, diplomacy is moving to Ankara,
00:07:07Riyadh, and Arab and Western capitals,
00:07:11and once reached Pakistan. Although its goals are vague
00:07:15to the public, reports indicate that
00:07:18among its objectives is to search for a solution to the armament and defense
00:07:22crisis.
00:07:25In the face of the equation of rapprochement between Damascus and Washington, and between
00:07:29Damascus and European capitals, the complexities of
00:07:32any military rapprochement with Moscow and Beijing emerge, while
00:07:36Israel fights to prevent any Turkish military presence or support
00:07:39for the new Syria. So how does Damascus
00:07:43move to overcome these complexities? What are the most appropriate options
00:07:46for building defensive capabilities, and what are the repercussions of
00:07:50failing to build these capabilities on the future
00:07:52of the country?
00:07:55For discussion, I have Colonel Hisham Mustafa, military
00:07:59and strategic expert, live from Aleppo. Welcome. And I have Dr.
00:08:03Muhammad Bakr, writer on political affairs, live
00:08:06from Berlin. Welcome to you too. I'll start with Colonel
00:08:10Hisham Mustafa. Yesterday, we heard about unknown air sorties,
00:08:13and so far, no one knows who is behind
00:08:17them over Daraa. This is in addition to repeated Israeli
00:08:21incursions and violations, and also
00:08:25Syrian airspace.
00:08:28militarily for Syrian air defenses, Colonel
00:08:31Hisham?
00:08:34Good evening, Ms. Alaa, and good evening to the viewers of
00:08:37Syria TV and my esteemed guest. Of course, we know well
00:08:41that Israel, after the fall of Bashar
00:08:44al-Assad's regime, within hours, launched
00:08:47a fierce air campaign
00:08:50that aimed to destroy
00:08:54the largest part of the army's
00:08:57capabilities. It targeted airports,
00:09:00air defense systems, and many weapons
00:09:04and ammunition storage centers that the fallen
00:09:08regime's army possessed and that
00:09:11belong to the Syrian people. These attacks
00:09:14were continuous and occurred with frequency
00:09:18after the fall of Bashar al-Assad's regime. Consequently,
00:09:21they stripped the Syrian Arab Republic of its defensive
00:09:25capabilities to a great
00:09:27extent. This led to Israeli
00:09:31recklessness without
00:09:34the Syrian army being able
00:09:38to counter Israel's air
00:09:41superiority.
00:09:45We all know that all anti-aircraft missiles were destroyed or before the Assad regime fell it had
00:09:49been smuggled in one way or another
00:09:52to Hezbollah through the Lebanese-Syrian
00:09:56border. Also,
00:09:59what... I mean, does this mean that Syria today is unable
00:10:03to detect enemy aircraft and track them? I mean, it doesn't
00:10:09meaning in simpler popular terms. It does have radars, but
00:10:13Madam, what is the use of radars if there are no air defense systems?
00:10:17The air defense systems that the Syrian Arab
00:10:20Army currently possesses are systems that
00:10:24cannot reach the level of protecting
00:10:27Syrian airspace from Israeli
00:10:30air sorties. No,
00:10:34we cannot think that Syria has air defense capabilities
00:10:37that enable it to confront
00:10:41Israeli aircraft that violate
00:10:44Syrian airspace almost
00:10:47repeatedly. No, we cannot
00:10:50imagine that there are capabilities that can
00:10:54deter them. There are capabilities that can deter
00:10:58these violations, but the question is what are the available capabilities?
00:11:02Well, the available capabilities,
00:11:05as far as I know, are
00:11:09simple capabilities, meaning air defense anti-aircraft
00:11:12that do not rise to being advanced anti-aircraft
00:11:16that can confront the Israeli air force, which
00:11:19is a very advanced American weapon. Even
00:11:22countries that possess an arsenal
00:11:25of air defense systems failed to shoot down these
00:11:29aircraft or prevent
00:11:32them from penetrating. The question is not about Syria's ability to shoot down these
00:11:36aircraft, Colonel Hisham, but the question is
00:11:40about where the
00:11:42capabilities of the Syrian army have
00:11:46reached, or where they are now. What does the Syrian army possess?
00:11:49I know these questions are difficult to answer,
00:11:52but these questions are also being raised: What is
00:11:55left today? What should be built upon for the
00:11:58capabilities of the Syrian army? Madam, these answers
00:12:01are not difficult to answer. Any expert can
00:12:05answer them. We all know that the Syrian army,
00:12:09after the fall of Bashar al-Assad's regime, had all its power
00:12:13centers destroyed, which were
00:12:16considered somewhat advanced weapons,
00:12:19such as MiG aircraft and helicopters,
00:12:22and also some missiles that remained
00:12:26from the era of the defunct regime from the era of the defunct regime
00:12:30after cutting off artillery, after cutting off tanks, I mean, but
00:12:34today, if we want to speak precisely,
00:12:37even the capabilities of the regime's army were not
00:12:40those good
00:12:44capabilities. The support was Russian, and the combat doctrine in
00:12:48Syria was the doctrine of the former Soviet Union, and later the doctrine of
00:12:51Russia. And Russia is known for not giving
00:12:57least let's say it was not giving the Syrian army, the regime's army,
00:13:01advanced capabilities that would enable
00:13:04it to overcome Israel. I mean, there was a veto
00:13:07on giving certain types of weapons, and therefore all the weapons that were given to the regime's
00:13:11army during the era of the fallen regime of the criminal Bashar al-Assad
00:13:14were considered to be of the third or
00:13:17fourth level, and therefore could not confront Israeli
00:13:20aircraft. In recent times, Syria even received
00:13:24S
00:13:26missiles, but despite this delay and shortcomings in arming
00:13:30the Syrian army of the former regime,
00:13:33Israel or the Israeli occupation state was keen to destroy and target
00:13:37many military locations. Why, or what
00:13:40was being targeted?
00:13:43Of course, I am not saying that the capabilities were so bad
00:13:47that they were non-existent, otherwise
00:13:50Israel would not have bothered
00:13:53to destroy them. These are capabilities that are not
00:13:57good, but also not
00:14:00confront them. Today, we can confront aircraft
00:14:03and raise their altitude if they try to fly
00:14:06low. The army can
00:14:09raise this aircraft and
00:14:12force it to fly at high
00:14:16altitudes with ground anti-aircraft,
00:14:19such as medium machine guns. Madam, I want to get to
00:14:22a point. You had a question.
00:14:26I did not answer it. You
00:14:29asked how we can develop this capability.
00:14:33I will come to the issue of development in a moment, Dr.
00:14:36Muhammad. My guest mentioned that the Syrian
00:14:40army was previously armed by Russia and also
00:14:44had a Russian doctrine, or
00:14:47rather, an Eastern one, as they say. Today, how can
00:14:50the absence of Russia from the equation of arming
00:14:53the Syrian army be compensated? Where should
00:14:56Damascus turn?
00:14:58Yes, first of all, greetings to you, your guest, and the viewers of
00:15:02Syria TV. I believe that today, after almost two years of liberation,
00:15:05and after the Syrian presidency has taken a specific political
00:15:09stance, and this is its right, it was not
00:15:13natural for it to remain in the same positions that the former
00:15:16or fallen regime was in. However, today,
00:15:20I believe that after two years, things have become clear.
00:15:23النقاط على الحروف.
00:15:26The options have become clearer for the Syrian presidency.
00:15:30When the Syrian presidency went towards Washington
00:15:33and opened
00:15:38horizons with President Trump specifically,
00:15:40these visits did not reflect anything on the ground.
00:15:44Their political and even military
00:15:48outcome was zero. All the American blessings
00:15:51for President Ahmed Sharra's arrival to the presidency and all the descriptions
00:15:55that Trump used for President Sharra ultimately
00:15:58had no effect on the ground. Today, you
00:16:01asked how we can compensate for the absence of Russia.
00:16:04I believe that after this political experience that
00:16:08the Syrian presidency has gone through, the biggest compensation
00:16:10for the absence of Russia is to return to the Russians,
00:16:14because today you are talking about major
00:16:16challenges.
00:16:19Of course, this is the only option, and I will
00:16:22tell you why it is the only option. Today,
00:16:25Turkey played an important regional
00:16:28role in helping the current Syrian state and in
00:16:32helping President Sharra personally reach the presidency.
00:16:35However, this also did not
00:16:37have real effects in the equation of confrontation with
00:16:41Israel, and you know that Turkey, Pakistan,
00:16:44and Saudi Arabia signed the Mecca alliance agreement, and today
00:16:48Saudi Arabia is being shelled by Iran,
00:16:51and Iranian missiles are reaching inside
00:16:54Saudi Arabia. What did the Mecca alliance do?
00:16:57Nothing. I mean, it is not expected, even if it was said
00:17:00that Syria joined the Mecca alliance, what will
00:17:04be the effects of this alliance inside Syria? There is no talk, as
00:17:07I mentioned, about this point, what is the point of talking about the possibility of Syria joining
00:17:11the Mecca alliance in order to build its military
00:17:15capabilities? Today, we are talking, as your
00:17:19guest said, about Israeli recklessness in the fullest
00:17:22sense of the word. Complete recklessness. Today,
00:17:26Syrian sovereignty has become violated. If all
00:17:29that happened was patience within the framework of strategic patience,
00:17:32then I believe that the time has come for this patience to
00:17:36run out. The Syrian presidency must today move
00:17:39towards effective options towards Russia, and it
00:17:42knows this well, and you know that military
00:17:47year, specifically in October, in December 2025,
00:17:51how the Syrian Chief of Staff, Ali Al-Naasan, met. But what is the danger of turning
00:17:54to Russia or to China as well,
00:17:58as was reported in some news, through a mediator, which is
00:18:03also to the political relations that Syria tried to weave in the previous period?
00:18:09I mean, we are talking, does the matter amount to a
00:18:12danger if the current alliances of the Syrian
00:18:15presidency were with the United States of America,
00:18:18specifically with Trump,
00:18:22regional and Arab levels had borne fruit during
00:18:25the past two years, we would be talking about
00:18:29a level of deterrence and great "no's"
00:18:34whom we rely on to position ourselves in alliance
00:18:37with. If they had borne real deterrence against Israel,
00:18:41we would have talked about the danger if the Syrian
00:18:44presidency had turned to other options. But as I told you,
00:18:47this relationship and this American praise cannot deter
00:18:50Israel with strong political
00:18:54speeches. It cannot deter Netanyahu and deter
00:18:57this very important thing. Colonel Hisham, I want to conclude with
00:19:00you and hear your comment on
00:19:03all this political flirtation between the new Syria
00:19:07and the United States of America. It's all for nothing, so we must return
00:19:11to Moscow. What do you think?
00:19:15Madam, there is a proverb that says, "What the bald woman took, the hairy woman will take too,"
00:19:19as our Egyptian brothers say. What
00:19:21did the former regime, which was
00:19:24considered a very important pillar
00:19:31power for 14 years, achieve despite all the massacres
00:19:35because of Russian and Iranian support?
00:19:37What did it get? Did
00:19:41it get advanced weapons? Did
00:19:44the Russians? Did it get very advanced aircraft?
00:19:48No, it didn't. Yes, there was support, and because of international
00:19:51understandings, it was able to remain in power
00:19:55for 50 years, him and his father. This cannot
00:19:57be denied. But I am talking here from a military
00:20:01perspective. I was an officer in the former
00:20:05regime's army before I defected from it.
00:20:08What were the capabilities of this army even
00:20:12revolution? So you don't agree with my guest, Dr. Muhammad, regarding
00:20:16No, it's not possible, and it's not possible
00:20:19for Russia today to support this army
00:20:23because the Ministry of Defense today
00:20:26has orientations
00:20:29surroundings. We should not think
00:20:32or judge that what happened through
00:20:36communication with the United States of America should immediately bear fruit.
00:20:41the path taken so far, Colonel Hisham Mustafa, military
00:20:44and strategic expert from Aleppo? Thank you very much. I thank Dr. Muhammad Bakr,
00:20:48the writer on political affairs. He was with us from
00:20:51Berlin.
00:20:53Our thanks to you, dear viewers, for your kind follow-up. Syria Today
00:20:57has ended. See you later.
00:25:50Maamoun al-Kuzbari, Maamoun
00:25:53al-Kuzbari, the academic lawyer, the interim
00:25:57president during the secession era,
00:26:00the prime minister who aligned with
00:26:03the military. Maamoun al-Kuzbari was born in
00:26:061914
00:26:09in Damascus. He belonged to an ancient Damascene family,
00:26:13many of whose members were religious scholars and hadith scholars.
00:26:16Al-Kuzbari studied in schools in Damascus
00:26:20and Beirut, then moved to the University of Lyon
00:26:24in France to study international law.
00:26:27After graduating, he returned to Beirut and worked in
00:26:31a lawyer's office until
00:26:341943,
00:26:37when he left Beirut for Damascus to practice
00:26:40law in his city. Al-Kuzbari taught at the Faculty of Law, Damascus
00:26:44University, in addition to his work as a lawyer,
00:26:48and authored many legal books,
00:26:51which are still
00:26:55and legislation studied by students
00:26:58and referred to by professors.
00:27:07Al-Kuzbari became involved in politics early on, alongside
00:27:11his academic and legal work.
00:27:14He worked with Colonel Adib al-Shishakli, who carried out
00:27:17his first coup in
00:27:191949.
00:27:22He then co-founded the Arab Liberation Party in
00:27:25the early 1950s and served as the party's
00:27:29Secretary-General during that period. He also held several
00:27:33important administrative
00:27:36Parliament, interim President of the Republic in
00:27:391954, and President of Damascus
00:27:42University in
00:27:441956.
00:27:46He then took over the Ministry of Justice in the mid-1950s.
00:27:49الخمسينيات
00:27:55Al-Kuzbari initially supported unity with Egypt
00:27:58and was among the delegation that went to meet
00:28:01Abdel Nasser in Cairo to agree on unity,
00:28:05but he later supported the coup against the unity
00:28:09state in
00:28:101961.
00:28:14After the secession coup, the coup leaders asked him
00:28:18to take over the presidency temporarily, then the premiership,
00:28:20due to his experience,
00:28:25field, as he had to amend
00:28:28the Syrian constitution to suit the new
00:28:31circumstances. Until the Ba'athists carried out their coup on March
00:28:358, 1963,
00:28:361963
00:28:39when he was forced to leave the country
00:28:42for France.
00:28:51Morocco, where he taught at its universities, and he is
00:28:55credited with Arabizing education there, after it used
00:28:59to be taught in French. In
00:29:031996,
00:29:06Al-Kuzbari returned to Lebanon and lived there until
00:29:09he passed away in
00:29:101998,
00:29:13where he was buried in the family cemetery in
00:29:16Damascus.
00:29:21Maamoun al-Kuzbari left an undeniable impact in the legislative
00:29:25and legal fields. However, the man, influenced by French
00:29:28law and constitution and the French
00:29:31political system, did not
00:29:36the prevailing military climate, so he dedicated
00:29:39the last quarter century of his life as an academic professor.
00:30:49When people's affairs are managed from a place far from them,
00:30:53solutions may be delayed, and the needs of cities
00:30:56and regions remain outside the circle of attention. From here,
00:30:59the discussion arises about centralization and decentralization
00:31:02of administration and about expanding the powers.