Is Syria now a threat to the West? Rebel leader speaks out after toppling Bashar al-Assad’s regime

Syria’s new de-facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa has said the country is not a threat to the West or its neighbours. 

In an interview with the BBC in Damascus, al-Sharaa said sanctions, which were opposed upon the country during the Assad regime, should now be lifted.

He said the sanctions must be lifted because they were ‘targeted at the old regime’ and said the ‘victim’ should not be treated in the same way as ‘the oppressor’.   

Sharaa is the leader of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the dominant group in the rebel alliance.

He and HTS led the lightning offensive that toppled Bashar al-Assad’s regime less than two weeks ago. 

HTS started as a splinter group of al-Qaeda and is currently listed as a terrorist organisation by the UN, US, EU and UK. 

Sharaa now says HTS should be de-listed as a terrorist organisation and insists it was not a terrorist group.

Ahmed al-Sharaa addresses a crowd at the capital’s landmark Umayyad Mosque on December 8

He said HTS did not target civilians or civilian areas and consider themselves to be victims of the Assad regime. 

Sharaa denied that he wanted to turn Syria into a version of Afghanistan, saying the countries are very different, with different traditions. 

Afghanistan was a tribal society, a different mindset to Syria, he said.

He said he believed in education for women and referred to the north-western province of Idlib, which has been held by rebels since 2011, where they have had ‘Universities for more than eight years’. 

Speaking to the BBC, he added: ‘I think the percentage of women in universities is more than 60 per cent.’

He would not comment on whether drinking alcohol would be allowed in the country. 

‘There are many things I just don’t have the right to talk about because they are legal issues,’ he said.

‘There will 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’.

Sharaa also said he wanted to bring different religious groups together and ‘not play on sectarian division’.

He added: ‘The Syrian population has lived together for thousands of years. We are going to have dialogue and make sure everyone is represented.

‘The old regime always played on sectarian divisions, but we won’t. I think the revolution can contain everybody.

HTS is setting about bringing Syria under control, establishing a transition government and working to roll out aid and services to civilians.

Last week, HTS used state television to announce Sharaa- the head of the group’s so-called ‘Salvation Government’ in Syria’s northwest Idlib province – as interim Prime Minister of a transitional cabinet that will remain in place until March 1.

Meanwhile, it has been claimed former president Basher al-Assad handed over military secrets and extensive details of high-value assets to Israel to guarantee his safe passage out of the country. 

People celebrate the collapse of 61 years of Ba’ath Party rule in Umayyad Square after armed groups opposing the Assad regime took control in Damascus

Former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad this week issued his first statement since being deposed by rebel groups and fleeing to Russia

Hours after Assad touched down in Moscow, Israel launched a widespread bombing campaign that delivered pinpoint strikes on hundreds of Syrian military targets.

The stunning claims of Assad’s final cowardly act were made today by leading Turkish journalist Abdulkadir Selvi, who claimed in a column for Turkey’s Hurriyet newspaper that a ‘trusted source’ provided details of Assad’s communications with Israel.

It comes a day after the toppled leader made his first statement since seeking refuge in Moscow.

In a lengthy post released via the Syrian presidential Telegram channel, Assad said he was addressing ‘a flood of misinformation and narratives far removed from the truth’.

‘My departure from Syria was neither planned nor during the final hours of the battles, as some claim,’ Assad declared. ‘I remained in Damascus, carrying out my duties until the early hours of Sunday, December 8, 2024.

‘At no point did I consider stepping down or seeking refuge, nor was such a proposal made by any individual or party. The only course of action was to continue fighting against the terrorist onslaught.’