HTS-linked Mohammed al-Bashir has been tasked with forming a transitional authorities.
Syria’s opposition forces are in talks to take formal management of the nation after a sweeping offensive that captured swaths of territory, together with Damascus, and ousted longtime President Bashar al-Assad.
Opposition chief Ahmed al-Sharaa, often known as Abu Mohammed al-Julani, met outgoing Prime Minister Mohammed al-Jalali on Monday to debate the transition. Al-Jalali, who served underneath al-Assad, has agreed to switch energy to Hayat Tahrir al-Sham’s (HTS) Syrian Salvation Authorities (SSG).
“We’re working to make sure the transitional interval is fast and clean,” al-Jalali was quoted as saying.
The transitional authorities is to be shaped by Mohammed al-Bashir, who’s near the HTS – the group that led the Damascus takeover – and heads their Idlib-based SSG.
Geir Pedersen, United Nations particular envoy to Syria, known as for a transition course of that ensures the continuity of Syria’s establishments and permits its individuals to “chart the trail to assembly their legit aspirations … and restore a unified Syria”.
As soon as shaped, the brand new authorities is prone to prioritise consolidating management over newly gained territories, reshaping authorities establishments and repatriating Syrian exiles and the displaced, Stephen Zunes, a professor of politics on the College of San Francisco, informed Al Jazeera.
The speedy advance of HTS-led opposition forces marks a generational turning level within the nation’s 13-year civil battle. The battle had claimed a whole bunch of hundreds of lives, induced one of many largest refugee crises in trendy historical past, decreased cities to rubble and triggered world sanctions that devastated the financial system.
Whereas clinging to energy, al-Assad confronted accusations from rights teams of brutal crackdowns, together with killings, torture and compelled disappearances, in addition to utilizing chemical weapons towards Syria’s inhabitants.
“Individuals are questioning what the brand new order will seem like,” Al Jazeera’s Resul Serdar, reporting from Damascus, mentioned, including {that a} fragmented opposition may ignite intense political jockeying.
“Safety is without doubt one of the principal considerations.” An onslaught of Israeli assaults which have hammered the nation’s army websites over the previous two days is making a “big problem” for them, he added.
‘Simply retribution’
In charting a brand new course, HTS, a former al-Qaeda affiliate, has sought to average its hardline views, providing amnesty for troopers conscripted underneath al-Assad’s regime and pledging safety for non secular minorities.
Nevertheless, the brand new management has assured to hunt “simply retribution” for senior army and safety officers implicated in battle crimes.
“We is not going to hesitate to carry accountable the criminals, murderers, safety and armed forces officers concerned in torturing the Syrian individuals,” al-Sharaa mentioned, providing rewards for info on these accountable for abuses.
It is a “historic new starting for the Syrian individuals who have suffered unspeakable violence and atrocities over the previous 14 years,” mentioned the UN Fee of Inquiry on Syria. “It’s incumbent on these now in cost to make sure that such atrocities are by no means once more repeated.”
“A very powerful step is justice, and never retribution,” mentioned Agnes Callamard, head of the rights group Amnesty Worldwide.
