Syria's de facto leader has reached an agreement to dissolve and consolidate rebel groups under the defence ministry. Also on the programme, is Israel nearing a hostage deal with Hamas? And, a Nasa spacecraft has made history with the closest-ever approach to the Sun. (Photo: A child looks on next to a flag adopted by the new Syrian rulers, during a protest against the burning of the Christmas tree in Hama, in Damascus, Syria December 24, 2024. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh)
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Hello and welcome to NewsHour from the BBC World Service.
Coming live from London, this is Owen Bennett Jones.
Now, Christians in Syria are celebrating Christmas for the first time since the fall of Syrian President Bashar Al Assad.
But it is a worrying time for Syria's minorities who had some sort of protection under Assad and must now worry about what's ahead.
With the country.
Under the control of the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir Al Sham, worshippers in Damascus attended a Christmas Mass at Our lady of Damascus church in the Syrian capital.
Well, the degree of sensitivity that's out there at for signs of intolerance was very much in evidence when the burning of a Christmas tree in a Christian majority town near Hama in Syria became a world news story.
So what does 2025 hold?
A strong government or a weak one?
Persecution or protection?
Some degree of law and order or more civil conflict?
Well, Syria's new administration says there has been an agreement among rebel factions to dissolve Greece groups and merge them under the Defence Ministry.
And presumably that will be very hard to do.
But might it happen?