The leader of Syrian rebels who demolished Assad appointed temporary president – National

Syrian fractions that overthrew the president Bashar Assad Last month on Wednesday, he called Islamist former rebel leader as a temporary president of the country in projecting the United Front while confronting the monumental task of renewal Syria After almost 14 years of civil war.

The former rebels also knocked out the Constitution of Syria, adopted under Assad, saying that a new charter would soon be drawn up.

The appointment of Ahmad Al-Sharaa, who once was al-Qaid, as a Syrian president “in the transitional phase”, followed after a meeting of former rebel fractions in Damascus, the Syrian capital.

The announcement was given by a spokesman for the new Syrian, de facto government sector of military operations, Colonel Hassan Abdul Ghani, said Sana State News Agency. The exact mechanism under which the fractures were selected by the al-Sharra for the temporary president was not clear.

Earlier known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani, Al-Sharaa is the head of Hayata Tahrira Tahri al-Shama, who led the lightning offensive that overthrew Assad in early December. The group was once associated with Al-Qaid, but has since denied its former relationships.

In recent years, Al-Sharaa has sought to act as champion of pluralism and tolerance and has promised to protect women’s rights and religious minorities.

The United States previously laid a role in the amount of $ 10 million al-Sharaa, but canceled it last month after a US delegation visited Damascus and met with it. Top American diplomat for the Middle East, Barbara Leaf said after the meeting that Al-Sharaa had encountered “pragmatic”.

Speaking at a meeting on Wednesday, Al-Sharaa, who was in military uniform, emphasized the “difficult task and great responsibility” facing new Syrian rulers.

“If the winner is arrogant after his victory and forgets the affection of Allah, it will lead him to Tirania,” he said, according to a video published hours later.

Among the priorities for the renewal of Syria, he said, “fulfilling a vacuum for power legitimate and legal” and “maintenance of civic peace seeking transitional justice and preventing revenge attack” due to Assad’s catastrophic rule.

The Syrians went out to the streets in Damascus and elsewhere to celebrate the announcement, hit the horns of the car, and in some cases they shot in the air. Many have expressed support for Al-Shara.

“This person is someone who is intelligent and understands well and was the leader of the battle who released Syria,” said Abdallah al-Sweid, who was among those who celebrated at Umayyad Square in Damascus. “He is someone who deserves to be president.”

Others – even those who were looking forward to Assad’s ejection – seemed critical of the way the lack of clarity was appointed in the following steps.

“The problem is not in the decisions. The problem is in time, previous promises and confusion,” said Mohammad Salim Alkhatem, an official of the National Coalition of the Syrian Revolution and opposition forces – a group formed by Assad members in exile.

Qatar was the first to respond to the appointment of Al-Shara, which was expected, saying that he welcomed the decisions aimed at “improving consensus and unity among all Syrian parties.” The statement added that this should help the path of “a peaceful transmission of the power of comprehensive political process.”

Western nations, although they have moved to renovate Damascus relationships after Assad is overthrown, are still a little careful about the new Syrian Islamist rulers.

Abdul Ghani, a spokesman, also announced on Wednesday that the Syrian Constitution was adopted in 2012, under Assad’s rule – canceled. He said that al-Sharaa would be authorized to form a temporary legislative council until the new constitution was drawn up.

All armed factions in the country would be dissolved, said Abdul Ghani, and would be absorbed into state institutions.

Since the fall of Assad, HTS has become a de facto ruling party and has founded a temporary government that was mainly made up of officials from local government, which he had previously led in the Idlib rebel province.

Temporary authorities have promised to initiate an inclusive procedure for the establishment of a new government and the Constitution, including the convening of the National Conference on Dialogue and invite different communities of Syria, although no date has been determined.

As the former Syrian army collapsed with Assad’s fall, Al-Sharaa invited to create a new united national army and security forces, but the questions arose about the temporary administration can gather patchwork of former rebel groups, and each with its own leaders ideology.

Even Knottier is the issue of Kurdish groups that supported the United States, which cut the autonomous endlave at the beginning of the Civil War in Syria, never fully mentioned with the Assad government or rebels who wanted to demolish him. Ever since Assad’s fall, there has been an escalation in conflicts between the Kurdish forces and the Turkish armed groups associated with HTS in northern Syria.

Syrian democratic forces led by Kurdska were not present at the meeting of armed fractures of the country on Wednesday and there were no immediate comments of the group.

At the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos this month, Asaad Al-Shibani, a new Minister of Foreign Affairs and HTS official, said the country needs the help of the international community because it begins to renew after brutal civil war.

–Sewell reported from Beirut.

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