BBCIt is important that Syria’s new management retains its guarantees to respect the rights of all of the nation’s numerous non secular and ethnic teams, in response to UN Special Envoy Geir Pedersen.
Mr Pedersen, talking to the BBC in Damascus, mentioned Syrians had been experiencing “quite a lot of hope and quite a lot of concern… on the similar time”.
He referred to as for all events, inside and out of doors Syria, to do all they may to create stability within the nation.
Bashar al-Assad’s regime was overthrown lower than two weeks in the past by a insurgent coalition led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, often called HTS, a Sunni Islamist group that claims to have disavowed its jihadist extremist previous because it cut up from al-Qaeda in 2016.
HTS is designated as a terrorist organisation by the UN, the US, the EU, the UK and others.
Symbolically, its chief has dropped his wartime pseudonym of Abu Mohammed al-Jolani and reverted to his actual title of Ahmed al-Sharaa.
Sunni Muslims are a majority in Syria, which has a powerful secular custom. Sharaa insists HTS is a non secular nationalist motion ready to tolerate different teams.
Mr Pedersen mentioned Sharaa has mentioned “many optimistic issues”. But some Syrians, he mentioned, didn’t consider the HTS chief, who till 2016 had a protracted historical past as a jihadist extremist.
“I have to be sincere. I’m listening to from many Syrians that they are asking questions whether or not this can really be carried out. They’ve received their doubts.”
That, he mentioned, was not shocking, given the velocity of change in Syria.
“If the transition is to succeed, this must be a course of that’s co-operative.”
“[Sharaa] must work with the completely different armed factions that went in along with him. He must work with a broader group of former opposition. He must be sure that he is working with a broad group of civil society girls. And as all of us agree with the broadest spectrum doable of Syrian society.”
Mr Pedersen, who has been the UN particular envoy since 2018, mentioned the worldwide neighborhood was prepared to assist and help Syria’s new management.
He emphasised that hopes of lifting sanctions on Syria and taking HTS off the terrorist listing trusted its behaviour.
He hoped to offer it the advantage of the doubt for 3 months – the time HTS has mentioned its interim authorities will rule earlier than a extra long-term association.
“I feel there’s an understanding that for Syria actually to achieve success, we have to see a delisting, and we have to see sanctions lifted. But I feel additionally it is essential that it is understood that this won’t simply occur as a result of everybody needs optimistic issues.”
“Member states are following very fastidiously what will probably be taking place on the bottom, however I do consider that if what has been mentioned in public is definitely being carried out in observe, sure, then I feel we will see the delisting and the top of sanctions.”
SANAAs for Syria’s neighbours, Mr Pedersen mentioned that Israel’s actions for the reason that fall of Assad had been “extremely irresponsible”.
Since the 1967 Middle East conflict, Israel has occupied and later annexed the realm of southern Syria often called the Golan Heights. Most different states, aside from the US, contemplate the Golan to be occupied land.
Israel’s present bombing marketing campaign towards Syrian army services and its occupation of extra Syrian land within the Golan Heights demilitarised buffer zone and neighbouring areas had been, Mr Pedersen mentioned, “a hazard to the way forward for Syria, and these actions must cease instantly”.
“There isn’t any cause that Israel ought to occupy new Syrian territory. The Golan is already occupied. They do not want new land to be occupied. So what we have to see is that additionally Israel acts in a way that do not destabilise this very, very fragile transitional course of,” he added.
Mr Pedersen can be involved in regards to the complicated internet of energy in northern Syria.
Turkey has a well-established relationship with HTS. It has troops within the north-west, in addition to a militia often called the Syrian National Army (SNA), made up of insurgent factions that it backs.
Since Assad was overthrown, the SNA has attacked the opposite drive in Syria’s north, a Kurdish-led militia alliance referred to as the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) which is supported by the US.
Mr Pedersen mentioned it was Turkey’s pursuits to observe sure key rules, together with different overseas powers.
“What is it that all of us must see in Syria now? We must see stability. We must see that there should not new inhabitants teams which can be displaced. We must see that individuals are not working away from Syria as refugees. We must see that refugees are returning, that… internally displaced may be returning to their properties.”
After 54 years below the rule of two authoritarian Assad presidents, Syria is fragmented, with cities and villages closely broken by nearly 14 years of conflict and a inhabitants traumatised by conflict and the lethal cruelty of the regime.
Mr Pedersen mentioned it was important for HTS to start out a course of that can carry justice to all of the households of greater than 100,000 Syrians who disappeared after detention by the regime since 2011. Most are presumed useless.
“If this course of is just not shifting in the best course, there’s a big hazard that this anger can erupt in a way that’s in nobody’s curiosity.”
Syrians, Mr Pedersen mentioned, needed to personal the method of rebuilding their nation. That could be troublesome given the turbulence throughout the Middle East and propensity of Syria’s neighbours and different large powers to intrude.
Time is brief. If HTS retains its guarantees, “inside the subsequent few weeks and months there’s hope that Syria can have a brilliant future”, he mentioned.
He warned that if that does not occur, “there’s additionally a hazard of latest strife and even civil conflict.”
“But we have to wager that the long run for Syria can now be fastened. And that we will begin the method of therapeutic.”
