CAIRO: Holding elections in Syria could take up to four years, Syria’s leader Ahmed al-Sharaa said in remarks to be broadcast on Sunday, the first time he has commented on a possible electoral timetable since Bashar al-Assad was ousted this month.
Drafting a new constitution could take up to three years, Sharaa said in written excerpts from the interview with the Saudi state-owned broadcaster Al Arabiya, due to be transmitted later on Sunday. He also said it would take about a year for Syrians to see drastic changes.
The comment from Sharaa, who leads the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group that ousted Assad on Dec. 8, comes as the new government in Damascus has been seeking to reassure its neighbours that it has moved away from its roots in militancy.
The group’s lightning campaign ended a 13-year civil war but has left a host of questions about the future of a multi-ethnic country previously held together by decades of authoritarian Assad family rule, and where foreign states including Turkey and Russia have strong and potentially competing interests.
While Western powers largely welcomed the end of Assad family rule in Syria, it remains unclear whether the group will impose strict Islamic rule or show flexibility and move towards democracy.
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Sharaa said HTS, formerly known as the Nusra Front, would be dissolved at a national dialogue conference.
The group was once affiliated with Islamic State and al-Qaeda but has since renounced both and sought to reposition itself as a force for moderation.
It has repeatedly vowed to protect minority groups, who fear the new rulers could seek to impose a government and has warned of attempts to incite sectarian strife.
In the interview, Sharaa said Syria shared strategic interests with Russia, a close Assad ally during the long civil war which has military bases in the country, reiterating conciliatory signals his government has made previously.
Sharaa said earlier this month that Syria’s relations with Russia should serve common interests.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the status of Russia’s military bases would be the subject of negotiations with the new leadership in Damascus.
“It is a question not only of maintaining our bases or strongholds, but also of the conditions of their operation, maintenance and provision, and interaction with the local side,” he said in an interview with Russian news agency RIA published on Sunday.
Sharaa also said he hoped the administration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump would lift sanctions imposed on Syria. Senior U.S. diplomats who visited Damascus this month said Sharaa came across as pragmatic and that Washington has decided to remove a $10 million bounty on the HTS leader’s head.
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