was always, i'm afraid, i'll never see him again. no, when, oh you lost on the scots, december 18th, on dw, the business day, double the news, live for berlin, another case, city falls. the syrian rebel forces who now stand at the gates of the capital celebrations in homes is rebel latest claim full control of strategic city. the capital of damascus comes under pressure as rebels entering the surrounding suburbs on the cell just said to be presenting it and a ceremonial reopening for an altered um cathedral party is up to the present. i. com. this webpage by fire, for an signatories joined french latest to celebrate and the success of its restoration. the

. i'm anthony. welcome to the program. syrian rebel latest have announced they are now in full control of the strategic city of homes. optic government forces withdrew these images on social media show celebrations in the center of product testers. tear down post is a long time president national. outside the cities calculates the road to damascus . i put into the main rebel offensive from the north. while i position factions in south have already arrived on the capital stores to reinstate many report, the president is still in damascus. although he hasn't been seen in dikes and other cities. recently captioned by the rebels residents. already celebrating in the facades, a decades long group. it's a that's a celebrate to be moved here and how much is only 2 days ago that is the misled

rebels, kept to the city from the syrian government forces residents a keen to reclaim the city from the gloss of president by shotwell, a saw the lightning pace of which levels of matching across the country has taken many by surprise in less than 2 weeks. opposition forces have taken control of fast spy is of the country, including major cities that collect. and how about that has been reports of mass defections in the city and army across the country, including in damascus. the shifting front lines of this civil war also bringing wide a g r political divide into focus. russia, one of syria's closest allies, denounced the rabbit advances. we are very much sorry for the syrian people. who came. we became a subject of another jo, political experiment we uh, absolutely convinced will female disability to use

various like fi up the who the shop to achieve jo political purposes. the president of neighboring taxi said change was in the truck because everyone must see and accept this truth. hopefully, there is now a new reality in syria here, the politically and diplomatically, you know, most people that up united nations reiterated the president of ends point to view the need for i'm ordering the political terms here for me has never been more than what it was with pro starting, we didn't work information all inclusive and credible transitional arrangements and cereals with the rebels to having down stuff chosen, damascus is southern suburbs. the city an army says it's created an impenetrable military code in around the capital event. so moving fast,

but momentum is on the insurgents side for by sell a side that looks increasing the likely that his days as president the number as well. aaron's ellen researches sunni arab heading groups in north africa and syria at the washington institute for near east caulsey. i asked him how much of syria is still under president assad's control? we only see now that 3 provinces of the country are under the control thursday and it's heart land and the coastal areas around talk to some i talk the a and then the city center in damascus. everything else has fall neither to the h t s. let offense of the affiliated southern ops room in the south, and then the triggers back steering national army controls north, central syria and then the us backed syrian democratic forces control the entire east. now, how do you explain that and that this rebel advance is progressing?

so incredibly quickly, especially now they are down into the areas that we relate to believe we're assad strongholds. yeah, i mean i'm just as surprised as anybody else. and i literally been following this every single day since the 2011 uprising. but it's clear that it's an illustration that the dire straits of the regime back in 2015 when the russians 1st went in, was that, that's been confirmed in many ways. and that if the russians and the writings had gone in, then at that time, it's likely the regime would have fallen 9 years ago. but now, because the russians have been distracted in your brain, the writings been having to deal with the aftermath of israel's. ready for a mazda in his bola, there just isn't anybody there to do it. and because it's been so lightning quick, and it's just been able to consolidate control and move on to the next cities each time, relatively swiftly,

it hasn't provided space for counter offensive. and instead it's created a momentum of its own where now you're hearing that h t, yes is facilitating the defection of senior regime officials and officers inside of damascus city right now. and so what are sounds, the allies that you, you bring up russia and, or ron, what are they doing at the prism of a i'm, i'm willing to help or are they just i'm able to help at this point. i think that in the beginning they thought maybe they would have more time to create some form of counter offensive. but because everything has been going so swiftly, you see kind of a fait accompli happening where in the last day or 2, you saw a russian calling for civilians from russian civilians to leave damascus. you see that their navy ships have left the ports in the coast so that they wouldn't get

hit potentially by the rebel forces. and then, or ron and its proxy networks of fled across the border in iraq as well as loving on. and so now it's just the show of the regime itself. and the question is, um, you know, how long will this taken whether it will be peaceful take over damascus, or will there be some level of fighting between now and then? and so just one more in this area without iran and rush or as you say, are assad's forces, then who i left a line of a number of i being out maneuvered. oh are they have so i'm willing to stand and lose they lost trying to hold on to hold on to ground in the name of a sides raising it's definitely all of the above. you see that? you know, it's important to remember that a sense regime ball on t himself is al, away they still need sunni is, but most soon he still disliked the regime. so now that it appears that it's all over, they don't want to have anything to do with it. anymore and so the aloe whites within the region have fled mainly to the coastal areas in the heartland and talk to some

a talk you. so it's, it's likely that a lot of the remnants of, of the region fighting force or the sunni is that the base in damascus and they have no interest in probably fighting against h t s. at this point, especially since east yes. now controls the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th largest cities in the country. there hasn't been much of a flight put up so far. are we expecting anything different that happened in damascus as well? when we did talk a week ago, i thought maybe once we got to hop on homes, that would be a little bit more of a fight. and you know, there's been services here and there, but it hasn't been anything large scale or nearly what we saw maybe a decade ago in the fighting. so at this point, it seems that there probably will be fighting to take the capital, but it likely won't be as, as big as maybe many would've imagined just a week ago when i have a few dies to observe the rebel grape around. i boom, how much al giovanni from a distance. what did they want?

they want to be the new rulers of syria. of course, it will be in a different manner than what they aside or seem has been doing obviously this saturday and follows this baptist era of nationalistic ideology where as h t us, the acronym are conservative is list um, so they'll try and rule based off of their interpretations of islam, especially as it relates to minorities within the society. but generally speaking, we have an 8 and a half year track record of them governing it live in northwest syria now. and they've primarily just been focused on, you know, getting services and delivering goods as needed to the local population. and it hasn't been anything along the lines of what say we've seen with, you know, the, as long as the state or old kite or even, you know, governments like in the top, on the scanner stand. it's still a concern is the most regime, it's still has

a sore turn elements, but it's uh, you know, not quite as you know, it's not as extreme is the tall, blonde as long as theater outside of wil assad. still be president of syria. do you think at the end of the no, not at this point, i'd be surprised if he was the president by the end of next week, evans ellen with the washington institute. thanks so much for your time. appreciate it. thanks for having me. the fronts now where a ceremony has been taking place in paris to mock the reopening of knocked her down because they drew the president across, hosted dozens of well ladies and dignitaries in the french capital to celebrate the restoration. the cathedral in the heart of paris has undergone painstaking renovation to restore it, to its former glory off the flag of the 3 and would work in 2019,

causing its famous spots to collapse. the main structure only narrowly avoided the construction. the deputy correspondent liza louis was day for the grand reopening of the cookies as well. it's been a very moving ceremony with system ha said the ringing of the bells and other bells were ringing for the 1st time after 5 and a half years. and there was applause from inside the cathedral, the people here, 10000 people, thousands of people on the said were the bonds that have come here to watch the ceremony live on giants screens that i set up a loan. the said that was one talk then the arch richard knox on the do not so down the potty with a saw made of tim, but that mistake from the fire and there was this rate. so right. you knock 3 times then why?

onto that was repeated 3 times. actually the quiet sending so not saddam the parties on so to the archbishop who then into the cathedral, the very moving may but be, you know, that was a symbol of the catholic religion. re taking possession of the cathedral. there was also another part of the religious ceremony where the oregon, the, the great oil good with 80000 types was a 1st for the 1st time again, as someone was playing on that organ, the pipes were no damage to the 5, but they were polluted with lead, so they had to be a really cleans in a painstaking a process to be able to have a republican when they quote, a republican part of the ceremony. where, for example, the president, him on my call was speaking, holding a speech, said that the whole nation differentiation was expressing it's rough to 2 to 3 days

who i told you not for them to police from the fire, but also restore it. and these people, the people who were storage, the computer and who said that they were here tonight. i people then inside and outside of the funeral for a clock, praying for them in amazement of the roster to say how joyful it the video was, how happy everybody was. thought the computer is now reopening state deputies leisurely in paris. hope all's of closed and vote counting is underway in governance. presidential end parliamentary elections voted slots. the contests between the count vice president mohammed was good to me off of the building. probably new petros is probably brother and john vermani my how much of the 9, a physician, national democratic congress party, many can i ins fill the leading candidates sofa, little hugs to change the country, struggles with this with economic classes and the generation

they definitely correspondent in kamani is in the guidelines, capital acura, we have to one, when rather the results are expected. i can tell you for sure that it's not going to be tonight, and that's just because the voting, the vote count to process here is very low and tedious. and that's what's happening behind me. so the polling office says we'll take out the pallets one at the time and show them to the members of the public. were watching diligently in the on the other side. and to get the, the count, the votes. i don't if you can hear them from the background, that's what's happening. and once they've done, that's what the presidential results they move on to the fundamental the results. now give me this votes incentive, the 3 pulling stations, and this has to happen in 14000 voting, pulling stations across the gun. so it's a process that we don't expect to end tonight, but certainly between sunday and monday morning, we should be seeing some clear results of who's going to take the election. and after the debilitated kamani in ghana, you're up to date for this hour of next we made a venezuelan praise to persuading people to replace meet in the dots with the big

in tennessee. if that's on for, for coming up after practice doing it, you can catch data. but the news on a youtube channel has many have on the website. that's the found that the deputies does come down for now. the of the the untold story. i for detail. it just going to be find it here. repos every weekend on d. w is the most important stuff can be used across different jo, this is the real challenge. it softens, needs to be incredibly scarce. waste us.