Want to disband HTS in Syria

After Assad’s fall

Rebel leader al-Sharaa: Want to dismantle HTS in Syria

In just two weeks, the HTS militia brought down the government of ruler Assad in Syria. Now it should be dissolved. Rebel leader al-Sharaa speaks of a new constitution and elections.

Syrian rebel leader Ahmed al-Sharaa says he is planning to disband his Islamist militia HTS. He will announce the dissolution at a national dialogue conference, al-Sharaa said in an interview with the Al-Arabija news channel. It will then take around three years to draft a new constitution and another year to hold elections. For “meaningful elections,” a comprehensive consensus among the Syrian population is first necessary.

Syria experts have doubts as to whether al-Sharaa actually wants to hold fair and free elections in the country. The Islamist group Haiat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) led by him, which overthrew Syria’s government after a lightning offensive, previously ruled authoritarian in Idlib in the northwest of the country. Human rights activists have documented torture and killings of political opponents under HTS rule. At the same time, al-Sharaa called for the protection of minorities.

Al-Sharaa had led the Al-Nusra Front under his nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, an offshoot of the terrorist network Al-Qaeda, which at one time also had connections to the terrorist organization Islamic State (IS). He later broke away from IS and the terrorist network Al-Qaeda and founded HTS – the “Organization for the Liberation of Syria” in 2017. However, these steps were also seen as a facade to expand the power and influence of HTS.