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, also called Abu Mohammed al-Julani, met outgoing Prime Minister Mohammed al-Jalali on Monday to debate the transition. Al-Jalali, who served below 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 easy,” al-Jalali was quoted as saying.
The transitional authorities is to be fashioned 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, referred to 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 fashioned, the brand new authorities is more likely 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 warfare. The battle had claimed a whole lot of hundreds of lives, precipitated one of many largest refugee crises in fashionable historical past, lowered cities to rubble and triggered international 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 in opposition to Syria’s inhabitants.
“Individuals are questioning what the brand new order will seem like,” Al Jazeera’s Resul Serdar, reporting from Damascus, stated, including {that a} fragmented opposition may ignite intense political jockeying.
“Safety is likely one of the fundamental issues.” An onslaught of Israeli assaults which have hammered the nation’s army websites over the previous two days is making a “large 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 below al-Assad’s regime and pledging safety for spiritual minorities.
Nonetheless, the brand new management has assured to hunt “simply retribution” for senior army and safety officers implicated in warfare crimes.
“We is not going to hesitate to carry accountable the criminals, murderers, safety and military officers concerned in torturing the Syrian individuals,” al-Sharaa stated, providing rewards for info on these accountable for abuses.
This can be a “historic new starting for the Syrian individuals who have suffered unspeakable violence and atrocities over the previous 14 years,” stated 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,” stated Agnes Callamard, head of the rights group Amnesty Worldwide.