US demands answers from new Syrian gov’t after reports of attacks on minorities
After tacitly recognizing the new Syrian government mostly led by representatives of the Islamist Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group, the U.S. in recent days has demanded explanations following numerous reports of violent attacks on minorities in the country, the news outlet Axios reported.
Over the past days, several videos widely circulating on social media purportedly graphically showed Islamist groups and former rebels mistreating and murdering minorities, particularly Alawites, who were the main population group supporting and staffing the Assad regime.
According to Axios citing U.S. officials, State Department envoy Daniel Rubinstein traveled to Damascus and met temporary Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shibani on Sunday.
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Rubinstein expressed concerns over the reports during the meeting and stressed the U.S. position that they must be halted. Al-Shibani, himself a member of HTS, reportedly replied that the new government is opposed to such violence, claiming that other militant groups were responsible.
Rubinstein also asked for details on the government’s plans to hold elections, after its de-facto leader Ahmad al-Sharaa (al-Jolani) said that this could take as long as four years.
The broad rebel coalition that toppled the Assad regime earlier this month was spearheaded by HTS, which remains a designated terror group and itself is a coalition of several other groups, including radical Islamist organizations. Among its main allies is the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA), which also includes radical Jihadist groups.
Axios cited another U.S. official saying the U.S. recognizes the new government is trying to gain control and stability in the country by dissolving all militias, including HTS, and putting the armed forces under the command of a reorganized ministry of defense and a new Syrian army.
The official also cautioned that if the government failed to do so, the violence could increase and lead to a resurgence of Assadist loyalists, or even the remaining ISIS cells in the eastern desert.
A spokesman in the U.S. State Department said the dialogue with HTS and the new Syrian government would continue, after being “productive” so far. The U.S. also canceled the $10 million bounty on al-Sharaa last week.
“We believe HTS should respect the human rights and fundamental freedoms of all Syrians, including members of minority groups and women. We will be continuing to watch and see that actions match words,” the spokesman told Axios.
An official told Axios that the State Department is investigating the videos purportedly showing HTS or government-affiliated gunmen mistreating minorities.
According to Charles Lister, an expert on Syria at the Middle East Institute, many of the videos circulating in recent days have been old footage, or show Assadist loyalists pretending to be HTS fighters in order to loot and abuse civilians.
“From rural Damascus, through Homs, Hama and into Tartus & Latakia, former Assad regime operatives have also launched deadly ambushes on HTS fighters — triggering capture/kill raids against multiple senior regime warlords implicated in horrific crimes,” he wrote on X.
In the most serious incident of this kind so far, the new government said 14 of its troops were ambushed and killed in the western, Alawite-dominated part of the country.
Ten others are said to have been wounded in fighting near the port of Tartus, triggering an operation in the province to “restore security, stability and civil peace,” according to the state news outlet SANA.
The UK-based monitoring group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said that a former regime officer, Mohammed Kanjo Hassan, had been arrested together with 20 other people on Thursday.
Israel, meanwhile, closely follows the actions of the new government on its eastern border. After a call with Greek Minister of Foreign Affairs Giorgos Gerapetritis, Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said they discussed the situation in Syria.
“I underscored the need to urgently safeguard Syria's minorities, including the Kurds, Alawites and Christians. I added that the new government in Damascus was not democratically elected. But even more troubling: they are now proclaiming that elections will take place only after 4 years,” Sa’ar said.
This article was originally published by All Israel News.
