Syrian elections could be four years away, says country’s new de facto leader

Cairo: Holding elections in Syria could take up to four years, the country’s de facto leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, said in remarks broadcast on Sunday, in his first comments on a possible electoral timetable since Bashar al-Assad was ousted.

Drafting a new constitution could take up to three years, Sharaa said in an interview with the Saudi state-owned broadcaster Al Arabiya. He also said it would take about a year for Syrians to see drastic changes in their country.

Syria’s de facto leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, at the weekend.Credit: AP

The comments from Sharaa, who leads the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group that ousted Assad on December 8, comes as the new government in Damascus has been seeking to reassure its neighbours that it has moved away from its roots in Islamist militancy.

The group’s lightning campaign ended a 13-year civil war but has left a host of questions about the future of a multi-ethnic country, where foreign states including Turkey and Russia have strong and potentially competing interests.

While Western powers largely welcomed the end of the Assad family’s rule in Syria, it remains unclear whether the new governing group will impose strict Islamic rule or show flexibility and move towards democracy.

Sharaa said HTS, formerly known as the Nusra Front, would be dissolved at a national dialogue conference.

When asked about dissolving the group, Sharaa said: “Of course. A country cannot be run by the mentality of groups and militias.”

The group was once affiliated with Islamic State and al-Qaeda, but has since renounced both terrorist organisations and sought to reposition itself as a force for moderation.

It has repeatedly vowed to protect minority groups, who fear the new rulers could seek to impose an Islamist government, and has warned of attempts to incite sectarian strife.

According to Sharaa, the national dialogue conference would include wide participation by Syrian society with votes on issues such as dissolving the parliament and the constitution.

Sharaa and Walid Ellafi (right), Libya’s minister for communication and political affairs, in Damascus on Saturday.Credit: AP

As fighting continues in north-eastern Syria, Sharaa said there were talks with all parties to resolve remaining disputes, including with the US-allied Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

“We reject Syria becoming a platform for the Kurdistan Workers Party [PKK] to launch attacks against Turkey,” he said.

He said arms should only be under state control, adding that the ministry of defence would welcome those capable of joining the army.

In the interview, Sharaa said Syria shared strategic interests with Russia, a close Assad ally during the long civil war and which has military bases in the Middle Eastern country, and reiterated conciliatory signals his government has made previously.

Sharaa said this month that Syria’s relations with Russia should serve common interests.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the status of Russia’s military bases would be the subject of negotiations with the new leadership in Damascus.

Sharaa also said he hoped the administration of US President-elect Donald Trump would lift sanctions imposed on Syria. Senior US diplomats who visited Damascus this month said Sharaa came across as pragmatic and that Washington had decided to remove a $US10 million bounty on the HTS leader’s head.

In response to a question about neighbouring states’ concerns over Islamist groups, Sharaa said: “We will not work on exporting the revolution. We want to manage the phase with the mentality of the state and not revolution.” He reiterated that Damascus was keen to establish strategic relations with all regional states.

Women celebrate the fall of the Assad regime in Umayyad Square in Damascus this month.Credit: Getty Images

The new leader’s comments came after the wife and daughter of one Assad’s cousins were arrested on Friday at Beirut’s international airport, where they tried to fly out with allegedly forged passports, Lebanese judicial and security officials said. Assad’s uncle departed the day before.

Rasha Khazem, the wife of Duraid Assad, and their daughter, Shams, were smuggled illegally into Lebanon and were trying to fly to Egypt when they were arrested, according to five Lebanese officials familiar with the case. They were being detained by Lebanese security. Duraid is the son of former Syrian vice president Rifaat al-Assad, also Bashar al-Assad’s uncle.

Rifaat flew out the day before on his real passport and was not stopped, the officials said.

The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to discuss the case publicly.

Rifaat Assad, the uncle of former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, in 2011.Credit: AP

Swiss federal prosecutors in March indicted Rifaat on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity for allegedly ordering murder and torture more than four decades ago.

Rifaat, the brother of Bashar al-Assad’s late father Hafez al-Assad – also a former ruler of Syria – led the artillery unit that shelled the city of Hama and killed thousands, earning him the nickname the “Butcher of Hama”.

Reuters, AP

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