UN Envoy Stresses Importance of Rights Protection by Syria’s New Leadership

UN Special Envoy Geir Pedersen has emphasized the crucial need for Syria’s emerging leadership to honor its pledges regarding the rights of all the nation’s varied religious and ethnic communities. During an interview with the BBC in Damascus, Mr. Pedersen noted that the Syrian populace is simultaneously experiencing “a lot of hope and a lot of fear.” He urged all involved parties, both within and outside Syria, to exert maximum effort to foster stability in the country. The government of Bashar al-Assad was toppled less than two weeks prior by a rebel alliance spearheaded by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS. This Sunni Islamist organization asserts that it has renounced its jihadist extremist history since its separation from al-Qaeda in 2016. HTS holds the designation of a terrorist organization by entities including the UN, the US, the EU, and the UK. As a symbolic gesture, its leader has abandoned his wartime alias, Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, and resumed using his birth name, Ahmed al-Sharaa. Syria’s population is predominantly Sunni Muslim, and the country possesses a robust secular heritage. Sharaa maintains that HTS represents a religious nationalist movement committed to tolerating other communities. Mr. Pedersen acknowledged that Sharaa has articulated “many positive things.” However, he indicated that some Syrians harbor skepticism towards the HTS leader, given his extensive background as a jihadist extremist until