Syrian human rights activist Ribal al-Assad tore into Europe for lifting sanctions towards the nation’s new “terrorist” regime, which he warned isn’t any higher than his first cousin, ousted chief Bashar al-Assad.
After days of bloodshed, Syria’s interim president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, chief of the forces that overthrew Assad, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), on Thursday signed a short lived structure placing the nation underneath Islamist rule for at the very least 5 years.
However al-Sharaa’s authorities has gone on a “revenge killing spree,” going after low-level officers who had been conscripted into Assad’s armed forces, together with Alawite and Christian minorities, amongst others, in response to al-Assad.
“They could not have refused [military service]. Those that refused have been put in jails,” he stated, including that any high-level officers in Assad’s forces had fled the nation.
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Folks wave weapons within the air as they collect to have fun the autumn of the Syrian regime in Umayyad Sq. Dec. 8 in Damascus, Syria. (Ali Haj Suleiman/Getty Photos)
Whereas a lot of Syria was completely happy to see the ouster of Bashar al-Assad, non secular and ethnic minorities have remained skeptical of the brand new management as soon as tied to al Qaeda.
Ribal al-Assad insisted the brand new regime is “an Islamic caliphate. They need a theocracy. They wish to substitute a dictatorship with cult, because it occurred in Iran 45 years in the past.”
He stated Christians have been caught up alongside Alawites within the revenge spree as a result of “Christians and Alawites reside collectively. In my city, we’ve Christians who reside there. We have at all times, lived … aspect by aspect, and so they have fun holidays collectively.”
In December, the Biden administration eliminated the longtime bounty on the top of HTS chief Ahmed al-Sharaa.
Europe suspended a spread of sanctions on the brand new Syrian authorities late final month, although the U.S. nonetheless has many different punitive monetary measures in place.
“After 14 years of devastation of destruction of a lot mass killing, , it is actually not regular for the worldwide group to come back, , and to have, for instance, the Europeans carry sanctions … on this terrorist regime and say, ‘Oh, there are snapback sanctions in case this regime does one thing that with the sanctions will likely be reinstated,” stated al-Assad.
“What worse may [HTS] do so that you can reinstate them?”
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Al-Assad tore into the European Fee for inviting al-Sharaa to a donor convention to lift cash for his authorities.
“European nations [are going] to offer him cash, to offer him extra funds so he may encourage and reward him for the killing that he is completed, as an alternative of claiming, ‘We won’t carry sanctions till we see a brand new program, a contemporary structure, secular structure that ensures equality of all residents and the rule of legislation.”
Authorities forces have crushed an insurgency that started final week by armed militia loyal to Assad.
Folks reveal towards the constitutional declaration drafted by consultants and signed by Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa in Qamishli, Syria, March 14, 2025. (Reuters/Orhan Qereman)
And rights teams say a whole bunch of civilians, largely belonging to the Alawite minority sect of Islam, which counts Assad as a member, died within the violence that erupted alongside Syria’s coast.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) alleges near 1,000 civilians have been killed within the previous week’s violence.
Hundreds of civilians who fled the sectarian violence are nonetheless sheltering at a Russian airbase alongside the Latakia province, in response to Russia’s overseas ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova.
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“Our army sheltered greater than 8,000, in response to yesterday’s information, in all probability nearer to 9,000 Syrians, principally ladies and kids,” she stated Thursday.
Whole households, ladies and kids included, have been slaughtered as a part of the previous week’s sectarian killings, the United Nations stated.
Al-Sharaa claimed the federal government would examine “the violations towards civilians and establish these chargeable for them.”
The U.N. Human Rights Workplace has counted 111 civilian killings however expects the determine to be a lot greater.
“In a variety of extraordinarily disturbing cases, complete households — together with ladies, youngsters and people hors de fight — have been killed with predominantly Alawite cities and villages focused specifically,” U.N. human rights workplace spokesperson Thameen Al Kheetan stated Tuesday.
“Lots of the instances documented have been of abstract executions. They seem to have been carried out on a sectarian foundation.”
Abdulhamid Al-Awak, a part of a committee tasked by al-Sharaa with drawing up the brand new structure that may set up a transitional authorities for 5 years, instructed a information convention Thursday the structure would require the top of state to be a Muslim and stated Islamic legislation is the principle supply of jurisprudence.
Folks reveal towards the constitutional declaration drafted by consultants and signed by Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa in Qamishli, Syria, March 14, 2025. (Reuters/Orhan Qereman)
However Al-Awak stated the structure would come with protections at no cost expression and the media.
“There are lots of, many, many, many clauses in that structure which can be hilarious,” stated al-Assad.
“The transition interval is for 5 years, however it may be prolonged indefinitely, , based mostly on safety and political situations. You already know, what does that imply?
“The president, he may appoint one third of Parliament with full legislative powers. You already know, that is once more, that is loopy. All political events in the mean time are suspended. No opposition, no illustration. Nothing.”
The doc will “steadiness between social safety and freedom” through the rocky political state of affairs, stated Al-Awak.
The structure additionally claims the state is “dedicated to combating all types of violent extremism whereas respecting rights and freedoms” and that “residents are equal earlier than the legislation in rights and duties, with out discrimination based mostly on race, faith, gender or lineage.”
It banned arms exterior army management and cracked down on “glorifying the previous Assad regime” as against the law.
Ribal al-Assad and Syrian protest (Reuters)
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Council rejected the draft doc Friday and known as for it to be rewritten, arguing it didn’t go far sufficient in defending Syria’s many ethnic communities. It argued the structure “reproduced authoritarianism in a brand new kind” and stated “any constitutional declaration should be the results of real nationwide consensus, not a venture imposed by one occasion,” even after a breakthrough settlement on Monday with the U.S.-backed, Kurdish-led authorities calling for a ceasefire and a merging of their armed forces.
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Al-Assad known as on the U.S. to step in to assist Syria set up a “real consultant democracy.”
“That is undoubtedly not what the Syrian individuals have been on the lookout for, those that rose towards the earlier regime. This isn’t the regime that they need,” he stated. “And that is why we wish the US to assist us transfer in direction of a real consultant democracy.
“How are you going to let an Islamist extremist-run regime on the Mediterranean, which is able to begin recruiting 1000’s?
“They might be in two hours and a half in Cyprus after which the Greek islands and Europe and from Europe to the U.S.. … You keep in mind what al Qaeda has completed after they have been in Afghanistan. And Afghanistan just isn’t on the Mediterranean.”
