New Syrian PM vows to protect religious groups

Syria’s new Prime Minister says the Islamist-led alliance that ousted president Bashar al-Assad will guarantee minority rights and has called on the millions who fled the war to return home.

A man prays as Syrian refugees work in a Syrian owned clothing factory in Gaziantep, on December 10, 2024. Islamist-led rebels declared on December 8, 2024, that they have taken the Syrian capital in a lightning offensive, sending President Bashar al-Assad fleeing and ending five decades of Baath rule in Syria. (Photo by Yasin AKGUL / AFP)

Syria’s new Prime Minister says the Islamist-led alliance that ousted president Bashar al-Assad will guarantee minority rights while calling on the millions who fled the war to return home.

Assad fled Syria after a lightning offensive spearheaded by the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group and its allies, which brought to a spectacular end five decades of brutal rule by his clan.

Syrians across the country and around the world erupted in celebration, after enduring a stifling era during which anyone suspected of dissent could be thrown into jail or killed.

With Assad’s overthrow plunging Syria into the unknown, its new rulers have sought to assure religious minorities that they will not repress them.

They have also pledged justice for the victims of Assad’s iron-fisted rule, with HTS leader Abu Mohammed al-Jolani vowing that officials involved in torturing detainees will not be pardoned.

“We will not pardon those involved in torturing detainees,” said Jolani, now using his real name Ahmed al-Sharaa, urging “countries to hand over any of those criminals who may have fled so they can be brought to ­justice”.

In the corridors of Damascus’s main hospitals, thousands of families gathered to try to find the bodies of loved ones ­captured years ago by the ­authorities.

“Where are our children?” women cried out as they grasped at the walls, desperate for closure after their years-long ordeal.

Sunni Muslim HTS is rooted in Syria’s branch of Al-Qa’ida and is deemed a terrorist organisation by many Western governments, though it has sought to moderate its rhetoric.

“Precisely because we are Islamic, we will guarantee the rights of all people and all sects in Syria,” Mohammad al-Bashir, whom the rebels appointed as the transitional head of government, told Italian daily Corriere della Sera.

Bashir, whose appointment was announced on Tuesday, is tasked with heading the multi-ethnic, multi-religious country until March 1.

After decades of rule by the Assads, Syrians now face the enormous challenge of charting a new course as they emerge from nearly 14 years of war.

In Aleppo, Syria’s second city and the first major one captured by the rebels in their offensive, shopkeeper Ramadan Dali, 70, said that “we are starting to feel safe”.

Juman Khilaly, 40, said that “there is still a lot of uncertainty” over even the most basic aspects of life, like school for her 10-year-old child and soaring prices.

“Everything is so expensive,” she said.

In the Assads’ home village Qardaha, the tomb of the former leader’s father was set alight, with rebel fighters in fatigues and young men watching it burn.

The Baath party of the deposed president announced it would suspend its work “in all its forms … until further notice” and hand over assets to authorities.

Syria’s war has killed more than 500,000 people and forced half the population to flee their homes, with six million seeking refuge abroad.

AFP