Reuters, Europa Press and Sputnik
La Jornada Newspaper
Friday, December 13, 2024, p. 21
Damascus. The leader of the Islamist group Ahmad al Sharaa, known as Abu Mohamed Al-Jolani, imposes his authority as quickly as he took over the country; deploying police, installing a provisional government and meeting with foreign envoys, raising concerns about how inclusive Damascus’ new rulers will be.
Since Al Sharaa’s pro-Turkish Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group swept Bashar Al Assad from power on Sunday, its bureaucrats – who until last week ran an Islamist administration in a corner of northwestern Syria – have transferred to the government headquarters in Damascus.
The appointment on Monday of Mohammed Al Bashir – head of the regional government of Idlib, an HTS enclave – as interim premier underlined the group’s status as the most powerful of those who fought for more than 13 years to end Al Assad’s rule. .
Although it was part of Al Qaeda before breaking ties in 2016, HTS reassured tribal leaders, local officials and ordinary Syrians during its march on Damascus by assuring it would protect minority faiths, winning widespread approval.
In the governor’s office in Damascus, the man brought in from Idlib to run affairs dismissed concerns that Syria was headed toward an Islamic form of government.
The Islamic government does not exist. We have no problem with any ethnicity or religion. The one who created the problem was the (Al Assad) regimesaid Mohammed Gazhal, a 36-year-old civil engineer raised in the United Arab Emirates.
However, the way HTS has proceeded to shape the interim government – bringing in senior officials from Idlib – has caused some concern. Four opposition sources and three diplomats expressed concern about the inclusive nature of the process so far.
Al Bashir has said he will only remain in power until March, but HTS has not yet explained the details of the transition, including its view on a new constitution.
Zakaria Malahifji, secretary general of the Syrian National Movement, who was a political adviser to the rebels in Aleppo, said the lack of consultations to form a provisional government is a misstep and that they are bringing [ministros] of one color, there should be participation of othershe stated. Syrian society is culturally and ethnically diverse, so this is frankly worrying.
Meanwhile, Israel asserted that its troops will control temporarily the buffer zone on the border with Syria until a force that guarantees the application of the agreement that was established in 1974.
Iran affirmed that it will act based on the new realities in Syria and defended the decision not to send troops to support the Syrian army, in the face of the offensive by jihadists and rebels, led by the HTS group.
