The Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Karim Khan, met with Syria's new leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, on Friday, state media reported.

The meeting comes in the wake of last month's ousting of Bashar al-Assad, sparking renewed hopes for justice for victims of the country’s long-running conflict.

According to the state news agency SANA, Sharaa and Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani welcomed a delegation from the ICC, led by Khan. Images of the meeting were also published by the agency.

Ahmed al-Sharaa, whose Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group led the rebel alliance that toppled Assad on December 8, now heads Syria's transitional government. Assad’s removal ends more than 13 years of brutal conflict that began with the violent suppression of anti-government protests in 2011. The war claimed over 500,000 lives and left millions displaced.

The Assad regime has been widely accused of crimes, including the use of chemical weapons such as sarin gas and the torture of tens of thousands of detainees in government-run jails.

Syria's new authorities have pledged accountability for these atrocities. They have vowed not to pardon officials involved in torture and called on other nations to extradite suspected war criminals who may have fled.

The ICC, based in The Hague, had previously been unable to address crimes committed in Syria due to the country's refusal to ratify the Rome Statute, its founding treaty. Efforts to refer the situation to the ICC were stymied in the United Nations Security Council, where allies of the Assad regime, Russia and China, vetoed resolutions in 2014.

Khan’s visit signals potential progress in holding perpetrators accountable and delivering justice for the victims of Syria's devastating civil war. Further developments are anticipated as discussions continue. (ILKHA)