DAMASCUS: Syria’s new prime minister said the Islamist-led alliance that ousted president Bashar Assad will “guarantee” the rights of all religious groups and called 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 members of the country’s 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 on Wednesday that officials involved in torturing detainees will not be pardoned.
Half a million people have been detained since the start of the war, with about 100,000 dying either under torture or due to poor detention conditions, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor.
“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-Qaeda and is proscribed as a terrorist organization 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,” said Mohammad Al-Bashir, whom the militants appointed as the transitional head of government.
Asked whether Syria’s new constitution would be Islamic, he told Italian daily Corriere della Sera that “we will clarify all these details during the constituent process.”
Bashir, whose appointment was announced Tuesday, is tasked with heading the multi-ethnic, multi-confessional country until March 1.
After decades of rule by the Assads, members of the minority Alawite offshoot of Shiite Islam, Syrians now face the enormous challenge of charting a new course as they emerge from nearly 14 years of war.
Roaming the opulent Damascus home of Assad, Abu Omar felt a sense of giddy defiance being in the residence of the man he said had long oppressed him.
“I am taking pictures, because I am so happy to be here in the middle of his house,” said the 44-year-old.
“I came for revenge. They oppressed us in incredible ways.”
In the Assads’ heartland Qardaha, the tomb of the former leader’s father was set alight, AFP footage showed, with fighters in fatigues and young men watching it burn.
The war has killed more than 500,000 people and forced half the population to flee their homes, with six million of them seeking refuge abroad.
In his interview with Corriere della Sera, which was published on Wednesday, Bashir called on Syrians abroad to return to their homeland.
“Mine is an appeal to all Syrians abroad: Syria is now a free country that has earned its pride and dignity. Come back,” he said.
He said Syria’s new rulers would be willing to work with anyone so long as they did not defend Assad.
Assad was propped up by Russia, where he reportedly fled, as well as Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group.
On Wednesday, the Kremlin said it wanted to see rapid stabilization in Syria, as it criticized Israel over hundreds of air strikes it conducted on its neighbor over the past two days.
“We would like to see the situation in the country stabilized somehow as soon as possible,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
Russia was continuing to discuss the fate of its military infrastructure in the country with Syria’s new leadership, he added.
Iran said Assad’s overthrow was the “product of a joint US-Israeli plot.”
While Assad had faced down protests and an armed rebellion for more than a decade, it was a lightning offensive launched on November 27 that finally forced him out.
The militants launched their offensive from northwest Syria on the same day that a ceasefire took effect in the Israel-Hezbollah war in neighboring Lebanon.
That war, which killed thousands in Lebanon, saw Israel inflict staggering losses in Hezbollah ranks.
Assad’s overthrow raises the question of whether Hezbollah will ever recover, given that it had long relied on Syria as a conduit for supplies from Iran.
Qatar and Turkiye, on the other hand, historically backed the opposition.
Qatar said Wednesday it would reopen its embassy in Damascus “soon,” while US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected in Turkiye on Friday to discuss developments in Syria.
Robert Ford, the last US ambassador to Syria, helped spearhead the terrorist designation of HTS in 2012.
But he pointed with hope to post-victory statements by Al-Jolani, including welcoming international monitoring of any chemical weapons that are discovered.
“Can you imagine Osama bin Laden saying that?” said Ford, now a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute.
“I’m not saying trust Jolani. He’s obviously authoritarian. He’s obviously an Islamist who doesn’t believe that Christians have an equal right to power as Muslims. But I sure as hell want to test him on some of these things,” he added.