Syria’s new leaders must keep promises on rights, UN official says

According to UN Special Envoy Geir Pedersen, it is vital that Syria’s new leadership follows through on its promises to respect the rights of all the country’s different religious and ethnic groups.

Mr Pedersen, speaking to the BBC in Damascus, said Syrians were feeling “a lot of hope and a lot of fear… at the same time”.

He called on all parties, both inside and outside Syria, to do everything possible to bring stability to the country.

Bashar al-Assad’s regime was deposed less than two weeks ago by a rebel coalition led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, known as HTS, a Sunni Islamist group that claims to have renounced its jihadist extremist past since splitting from al-Qaeda in 2016.

HTS is recognized as a terrorist organization by the UN, USA, EU, UK and others.

It is symbolic that its leader has abandoned his military alias of Abu Mohammed al-Jolani and reverted to his real name Ahmed al-Sharaa.

Sunni Muslims are the majority in Syria, which has a strong secular tradition. Sharaa insists that HTS is a religious nationalist movement willing to tolerate other groups.

Mr Pedersen said Charaa had said “a lot of positive things”. But some Syrians, he said, did not trust the leader of HTS, which until 2016 had a long history of jihadist extremism.

“I have to be honest. I hear from many Syrians that they are asking questions about whether this will actually be implemented. They have doubts.”

This, he said, is not surprising given the speed of change in Syria.

“If the transition is to be successful, it has to be a collaborative process.”

“(Sharaa) needs to work with the various armed groups that entered with him. He needs to work with a wider group of former opposition. He needs to make sure he works with a broad group of women in civil society. we all agree with the broadest spectrum of Syrian society.”

Mr Pedersen, who has been a UN special envoy since 2018, said the international community was ready to help and support Syria’s new leadership.

He emphasized that hopes for the lifting of sanctions on Syria and the removal of HTS from the list of terrorists depend on her behavior.

He hoped to give him the benefit of the doubt for three months – a time when HTS said its interim government would rule until a longer-term arrangement was reached.

“I think there is an understanding that for Syria to really be successful, we need to see delisting and sanctions lifted. But I also think it’s very important to understand that it’s not going to happen just like that, because everyone wants the positive side of things.”

“Member states are watching very closely what is going to happen on the ground, but I think if what has been said publicly is actually implemented in practice, yes, I think we could see delisting and the end of sanctions. “

As for Syria’s neighbours, Mr Pedersen said Israel’s actions since the fall of Assad were “very irresponsible”.

After the 1967 Middle East War, Israel occupied and later annexed an area of ​​southern Syria known as the Golan Heights. Most other states, except the United States, consider the Golans an occupied territory.

Israel’s current bombing campaign against Syrian military targets and the occupation of more Syrian territory in the demilitarized buffer zone of the Golan Heights and surrounding areas, Mr. Pedersen said, “pose a danger to the future of Syria, and these activities must be stopped immediately.”

“There is no reason for Israel to occupy new Syrian territory. Galans are already occupied. They do not need new land to occupy. So we have to see that Israel also acts in a way that does not destabilize this very, very delicate transition process,” he added.

Mr. Pedersen is also concerned about the complex web of power in northern Syria.

Turkey has a well-established relationship with HTS. It has troops in the northwest, as well as a militia known as the Syrian National Army (SNA), made up of rebel groups it supports.

Since Assad was ousted, the SNA has attacked another force in northern Syria, a Kurdish-led militia alliance called the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

Mr Pedersen said it was in Turkey’s interest to follow certain key principles along with other foreign powers.

“What do we all need to see in Syria now? We need to see stability. We need to see that there are no new populations moving. We need to see that people are not fleeing Syria as refugees. We need to see that refugees return, that… internally displaced persons can return to their homes.”

After 54 years of two authoritarian Assad presidents, Syria is fractured, with cities and villages badly damaged by nearly 14 years of war and a population traumatized by the war and the regime’s deadly brutality.

Mr Pedersen said it was vital for HTS to start a process that would bring justice to all the families of the more than 100,000 Syrians who have disappeared since 2011 in regime detention. Most of them are believed to be dead.

“If this process doesn’t move in the right direction, there is a great danger that this anger could spill out in no one’s interests.”

Syrians, Mr. Pedersen said, wanted to own the process of rebuilding their country. This could be difficult given the turbulence in the Middle East and the propensity of Syria’s neighbors and other major powers to intervene.

Time is short. If HTS follows through on its promises, “in the next few weeks and months there is hope that Syria can have a bright future,” he said.

He warned that if this does not happen, “there is also the danger of new infighting and even civil war.”

“But we have to bet that Syria’s future can now be fixed. And that we can begin the healing process.”