“The electoral process could take 4 years”: what to remember from the announcements of Syria's new leader, Ahmad al-Chareh

Syria's new leader Ahmad al-Shareh said that holding elections in his country could take four years in an interview with al-Arabiya TV that aired Sunday, December 29, three weeks after the fall of President Bashar al-Assad.

“The electoral process could take four years”, said Mr. Chareh, whose radical Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), at the head of a coalition, took Damascus on December 8 after a lightning offensive.

He added that it would be necessary to “rewrite the Constitution“, a task that could take “two or three years“, in this interview with the Saudi channel.

Since coming to power, the new authorities have tried to reassure the international community, much of which had ostracized Mr. Assad at the start of the war in the country, triggered in 2011 by the repression of protests prodemocracy.

“Sanctions must be lifted”

While the war has left more than half a million dead, caused millions to flee and fragmented and ravaged the country, Mr. Chareh called for the lifting of international sanctions.

“Sanctions were imposed on Syria because of the crimes committed by the regime” of Bashar al-Assad, he said, adding that since the perpetrators of the atrocities are no longer in power, “sanctions must therefore be lifted automatically.”

The conflict has been marked by the involvement of several Western international powers such as the United States and France, but also Russia and Iran, as well as armed groups such as Hezbollah Lebanese.

In his interview, Mr. Chareh addressed in particular the two allies of Bashar al-Assad, neighboring Iran and Russia.

“Syria cannot continue without relations with a large country with regional weight like Iran, but these must be based on respect for the sovereignty of both countries and without interference“, he said.

“Russia is an important country”, he said, speaking of “deep strategic” interests. “We do not want Russia to leave Syria in the way that some would like“, he added.

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Thanks to the war, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), led by the Kurds, have taken control of several regions in the northeast, but these fighters are regularly in the sights of neighboring Turkey, which sees them as an extension of its sworn enemy, the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK, Turkish Kurdish).

“Weapons must be in the hands of the state only,” said Mr. Chareh, adding: it is on “these criteria” that “negotiations” will be conducted with the SDF “in the hope of finding an appropriate solution”.

On the ground, Syrian forces have launched operations this week against fighters loyal to the fallen regime.

They also arrested on Thursday a leader of the fallen regime, considered responsible for numerous death sentences in the infamous Saydnaya prison near Damascus, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).

This penitentiary center, built in the 1980s to house political prisoners, has become a symbol of state repression Syrian.

“Educational role”

Marked by deadly clashes, the operation to arrest General Mohammed Kanjo Hassan was launched on Wednesday by security forces in Tartous, in the west of the country, a stronghold of the Alawite minority from which Mr. Assad comes.

The head of military justice under Bashar al-Assad, promoted to this post in 2014, was arrested in the town of Khirbet al-Ma'zah with 20 members of his close guard, the SOHR said.

Since taking office, the transitional government led by Mohammad al-Bashir has promised to respect the rights of minorities in the multi-ethnic and multi-confessional country as well as those of women.

A statement by a member of the new administration has, however, sparked an uproar this week. In an interview with a Turkish television channel, Aisha al-Debs, chairwoman of the “Women's Affairs Bureau” and the only woman in the government, called on women to “not overstep the priorities of their nature created by God,” namely “their educational role within the family.”

On Sunday, as if to calm things down, the head of Syrian diplomacy, Assaad Hassan al-Shibani, stated on X that the authorities supported “fully” the rights of women. women.

“We believe in the active role of women in society, and we have confidence in their abilities and skills”, he said.