The new ruler of Syria, Ahmed al-Sharaa, has said the country is exhausted by war and is not a threat to its neighbours or to the West.
He made these remarks during an interview with the BBC in Damascus. He called for sanctions on Syria to be lifted.
He said, “Now, after all that has happened, sanctions must be lifted because they were targeted at the former regime. The victim and the oppressor should not be treated in the same way,” BBC reported.
Sharaa led the lightning offensive that toppled Bashar al-Assad’s government less than two weeks ago. He is the leader of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the dominant group in the rebel alliance.
HTS should be de-listed
He added that his group should be de-listed as a terrorist organisation. It is designated as one by the United Nations, United States, European Union and the United Kingdom, among many others, according to BBC. Sharaa claimed HTS was not a terrorist group.
They did not target civilians or civilian areas, he added. He also denied that he wanted to turn Syria into a version of Afghanistan.
Remarks on Afghanistan
Sharaa said the countries were very different, with different traditions. Afghanistan was a tribal society. In Syria, he added, there was a different mindset.
He said he believed in education for women.
“We’ve had universities in Idlib for more than eight years,” Sharaa added, referring to Syria’s north-western province that has been held by rebels since 2011.
“I think the percentage of women in universities is more than 60%.”
He said that there would be a “Syrian committee of legal experts to write a constitution. They will decide. And any ruler or president will have to follow the law”.
The actions of Syria’s new rulers in the next few months will indicate the kind of country they want Syria to be – and the way they want to rule it.
