DAMASCUS: Insurgent chief Ahmad al-Sharaa’s militant group is stamping its authority on Syria’s state with the identical lightning pace that it seized the nation, deploying police, putting in an interim authorities and assembly international envoys – elevating issues over how inclusive Damascus’ new rulers intend to be.
Since Sharaa’s Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group swept Bashar al-Assad from energy on Sunday (Dec 8) on the head of a insurgent alliance, its bureaucrats – who till final week had been operating an Islamist administration in a distant nook of Syria’s northwest – have moved into authorities headquarters in Damascus.
The appointment of Mohammed al-Bashir, the top of the regional authorities in HTS’ enclave of Idlib, as Syria’s new interim prime minister on Monday underlined the group’s standing as essentially the most highly effective of the armed teams that battled for greater than 13 years to finish Assad’s iron-fisted rule.
Though it was a part of al Qaeda earlier than breaking ties in 2016, HTS had reassured tribal leaders, native officers, and extraordinary Syrians throughout its march to Damascus that it might shield minority faiths, profitable broad approval. The message helped clean the rebels’ advance and Sharaa – higher often known as Abu Mohammed al-Jolani – has repeated it since Assad’s ouster.
On the workplace of the Damascus governor, its partitions exquisitely adorned with marquetry and stained glass, the person introduced from Idlib to run affairs dismissed issues that Syria was being moved in direction of an Islamic type of authorities.
“There isn’t any such factor as Islamic governance. In any case, we’re Muslims and it is civil establishments or ministries,” mentioned Mohammed Ghazal, a bespectacled 36-year-old civil engineer with a thick beard who was raised within the United Arab Emirates and spoke in near-perfect English.
“We haven’t any drawback with any ethnicity and faith,” he mentioned. “The one who made the issue was the (Assad) regime.”
Nonetheless, the way in which HTS has gone about shaping the brand new interim authorities – by bringing senior directors from Idlib – has triggered concern for some. 4 opposition sources and three diplomats informed Reuters they had been involved concerning the inclusiveness of the method to date.
Bashir has mentioned he’ll solely stay in energy till March. However HTS – which stays categorised as a terrorist group by america, regional powerbroker Turkey and different governments – has but to spell out key particulars of the transition course of, together with its pondering on a brand new structure. Sharaa, in a press release to Reuters on Wednesday, mentioned he would dissolve the ousted regime’s safety forces, shut its prisons, and seek out anybody concerned in torture or killing detainees. Whereas Syrians have fun the autumn of Assad’s brutal police state, some are voicing fears about what could come.
Wissam Bashir, 28, talking at a Damascus cafe, expressed concern “due to the issues that I am seeing … comparable to the brand new authorities, the unfold of Islamic flags”.
When he took workplace this week, Prime Minister Bashir appeared with two flags behind him – the inexperienced, black and white flag flown by opponents of Assad all through the civil battle, and a white flag with the Islamic oath of religion in black writing, usually flown in Syria by Sunni Islamist fighters.
Solely the Syrian nationwide flag appeared behind him in an interview he gave to Al Jazeera on Wednesday.
Zakaria Malahifji, secretary common of the Syrian Nationwide Motion who as soon as served as political advisor to rebels in Aleppo, mentioned the shortage of session in forming an interim authorities was a misstep. “You’re bringing (ministers) from one color, there must be participation of others,” he mentioned. “Syrian society is various when it comes to cultures, ethnicities, so frankly that is regarding,” he mentioned.
“RUINS, RUINS, RUINS”
Like different members of the HTS-affiliated Salvation Authorities in Idlib dropped at Damascus to run state our bodies, Ghazal mentioned he had given assurances to staff and urged them to return to work. “It is a collapsed state. It is ruins, ruins, ruins,” Ghazal mentioned.
His priorities for the subsequent three months are getting fundamental providers operating and streamlining the forms. Salaries, which common some US$25 a month, could be elevated according to Salvation Authorities wages. Its minimal wage is US$100 a month.
“Syria is a really wealthy nation,” mentioned Ghazal, requested how this is able to be financed. “The regime used to steal the cash.”
Policemen introduced from Idlib are directing site visitors in Damascus, making an attempt to revive some normalcy since HTS ordered armed teams out of the town. One officer, who didn’t give his identify, mentioned they had been stretched skinny, noting they beforehand simply needed to patrol Idlib.
Although HTS is pre-eminent among the many factions which fought Assad, others stay armed, notably in areas on the borders with Jordan and Turkey.
Through the battle, insurgent factions typically clashed with one another, leaving a legacy of rivalries and enmity seen as one in every of many dangers to stability in post-Assad Syria.
