Syria’s de facto leader, Abu Mohammad al-Julani, also known as Ahmed al-Sharaa, said in an interview published on Sunday that it may take up to four years to hold elections and three years to draft a new constitution.
“The process of writing the constitution may take about three years, and we look forward to a constitution that lasts for the longest possible period, and this is a difficult and lengthy task,” Julani, the former leader of al-Qaeda in Syria, told Al-Arabiya. “Organizing elections may take four years; any valid elections will require a comprehensive population census.”
Julani and his group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which is an offshoot of al-Qaeda, took over Syria after former President Bashar al-Assad fled on December 8. Julani has appointed HTS officials to senior positions in the new “transitional government,” including Anas Hassan Khattab, another former al-Qaeda commander who was named Syria’s intelligence chief.
In the interview with Al-Arabiya, al-Sharaa addressed the criticism of forming a government made up of HTS members and rejected the idea of sharing power with other factions. “The current appointments were essential for the period and not intended to exclude anyone,” he said.
Julani said HTS was in talks with the US-backed Kurdish-led SDF with the ultimate goal of absorbing the force into the Syrian military. “Negotiations are ongoing with the SDF to resolve the crisis in northeastern Syria,” he said.
The US has celebrated the HTS takeover of Syria and has been friendly to Julani despite his al-Qaeda history. Earlier this month, Barbara Leaf, the US Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs, said she had a “good and productive” meeting with Julani and announced the US was removing a $10 million bounty on his head.
Julani told Al-Arabiya that HTS, which is designated by the US as a foreign terrorist organization, would be dissolved soon. He first formed the group by merging al-Qaeda’s Syria affiliate, once known as the al-Nusra Front, with other Islamist factions in 2017.
Julani would indeed inspire the opposition by his behavior…!
Of course — a sign of time.
With Gaza, Rubicon was crossed. We have a spectacle of a small, isolated Western funded force of 15,000 (if that much), called HTS, former Nusra Front, aka Al-Qaeda that never was.
They were squatters in Idlib, despised by population, but kept there to cause constant disturbance in the region. Holding entire Idlib hostage by controlling food and other aid distribution. HTS attracted the most insane groups, as thise had nowhere else to go and needed to be fed.
Example id Al-Zinke group that produced a video of a poor 7-8 year old child being beheaded. And as a shame that can never go away — many in our media actually tried to justify the act by claiming that it was a 13 year old — suggesting that the youngster may have been a militant. No, such a shame cannot be washed off just like that. Anybody who saw the despicable act saw the small child being lifted by one hand of the monster, his poor legs dangling, lookng at his executioner with a trusting eyes of a child — before his head was cut off. Nobody can mistake the size and the face of a child with that of a teenager.
These monsters are now “statesman” puffed up by our government. Ends do seem to justify means.
What are those 15,000 undisciplined mercenaries supposed to do? Write a constitution for four years? Having no elections? Nobody included into writing this constitution?
Of course this is a farce, Now some quick thinking — get US funded and commanded Kurds, SDF to join HTS ragtag. So US could actially have a control of the SDF army in Damascus.
However, for Kurds this is a dangerous propisition. As Syrian citizens aspiring to be part of the final settlement — the last thing they need is to join unrepentent terrirists and murderers. They unfortunately may not have the choice.
Turkey may have to rethink its position should such a merger occur.
I heard in the midst of the offensive that HTS had 100,000 troops. Maybe it was exaggeration but 15,000 only?
Gaza genocide is indeed a crossing of an ethical red line, yet it was planned since at least 2017 (Bin Farhan revelations: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20170624-saudi-prince-reveals-us-conditions-for-mohamed-bin-salman-to-be-king/ ), so the moral red line was crossed already in those days. Incidentally it was also in those days (early 2018) when the USA allowed the Afrin genocide to be made by Turkey and their "Syrian" proxies, which was also a moral red line crossing not seen since the Yugoslav wars.
More recently, it really felt (again) like the genocide season was (re-)inaugurated by the Azeri conquest and ethnic cleansing of Artsakh (Karabakh) in 2023, a new Armenian Genocide also participated by Turkey and Israel (and tolerated by Russia).
SDF won't join HTS or any other fascist force: those are democratic, socialist and feminist self-defense forces, who actually had best relations (in spite of major political differences) with the former regime at Damascus, as they had a common enemy: Turkey and its fascist proxies. It was only Damascus which helped them, even if so slightly, when trying to defend Afrin or later when they successfully prevented Turkey from occupying Manbij. I'd link to a recent video by YPJ (the women's self-defense organization) but it's age-restricted because what they show first are the attrocities of the Islamists, then comes Baerboek (German FM) proclaiming that Turkey "has the right to defend itself" against the Kurds and then they finish with a show of force and the proclamation: "we will never surrender!"
Just because the SDF have a precarious "alliance" with the USA (which was only made in the context of the 2016 anti-ISIS coalition, when Obame fell off with Erdogan), don't count them at all on the same side as other US vassals, especially not Turkey (and also not Israel, they stand at least nominally for Palestine). The USA will most likely throw them under the bus (especially under Trump, who could not dislike more those "woke", feminist and "commie" Kurds) but the SDF do bite on their own right and are actually fighting back against the Turco-fascist takeover of Manbij (which is incidentally an Arab-majority canton of their multiethnic federation).
In the near term there will likely be a scramble competition for power in the former Syria. And who from the outside is backing al-Julani? He needs a lot of money flowing in to hold a position of power.
Israel has big ambitions in Syria, along with Turkey, along with the Kurds, and of course the US. And what the US wants is not necessarily identical to what Israel wants. Although both want to weaken and break Iran.
There are a lot of competing interests in Syria right now and there may be some interesting shake-ups before it all shakes out.
The new rulers in Syria are not seeking a revolution with popular decisions by lot, but a protracted stalling tactic to blind the knowing masses with pseudo-elections, although the masses can easily change an existing constitution as a result of international constitutional comparisons.
https://participedia.net/method/5507?lang=en Sortition
https://www.scirp.org/journal/paperinformation?paperid=107594 Selection by Lot and Democracy: New Trend, Ancient Model
https://www.hiig.de/en/what-if-politicians-werent-elected-but-rather-drawn-by-lot/
https://fee.org/articles/what-if-we-selected-politicians-by-lot/
https://www.law.nyu.edu/sites/default/files/ECM_PRO_060944.pdf ELECTION-BY-L OT AS A JUDICIAL SELECTION MECHANISM
https://www.britannica.com/topic/sortition
https://equalitybylot.com/literature/
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1467-8675.12429 Democracy and lottery: Revisited
https://www.al-islam.org/thirty-principles-islamic-jurisprudence-sayyid-fadhil-milani/chapter-13-casting-lots
https://www.neverthirsty.org/bible-qa/qa-archives/question/can-we-make-decisions-by-casting-lots-today/
"Democracy" you say? Of course, we'll need time to terrorize all those Syrians who oppose us into submission… I mean: "democracy". Sorry "democracy" is a very difficult word to pronounce in my dialect of Turkish… I mean: "Syrian"… I mean: "Arabic". "Democracy" indeed, I mean it, "Syriously".
Anyone who speaks of terror in terms of Turkey's Sunni Islam has evil intentions, is not changing the political system, but is merely replacing an autocratic ruler and continuing to wage war against the Kurds.
Ahem, you're defending a terrorist fascist organization. I bet you're also in favor of the genociding of Palestine, Armenia and Kurdistan, right? All in the name of Sunni Islam (read: US pupeteering of fanatic fascist mercenariate).
Assad was relatively good friend with the SDF (they made deals against Turkey and their fascist mercenaries, even if they also insulted each other in public discourse) and he was re-elected with very high support in elections that were as free as possible in war conditions (for example he was supported by the Syrian diaspora in Lebanon, and not just Syrians in Syria). I'm not pro-Assad but he was clearly the lesser evil, now the only thing that remains is the greater good: the SDF.
Maju: "you're defending a terrorist fascist organization."
An infamous, childish response that proves your true propagandistic intentions, as I never defend any fascist, fascistoid or conservative nationalist political position or any genocide.
Your demanding position in your avatar feigns a political imagination: "No fascism, no sexism, no racism, no homophobia. Respect or be blocked!" for your knowledge of any definition or characteristics of fascism shows deficiencies.
https://www.britannica.com/topic/fascism/Common-characteristics-of-fascist-movements
https://docupedia.de/zg/Esposito_fascism_v1_en_2017
https://www.openculture.com/2024/11/umberto-ecos-list-of-the-14-common-features-of-fascism.html
https://constitutionsimplified.in/blog-post499 Understanding Fascism: Origins, Characteristics, and Contemporary Implications
There should not be fighting or arguing on antiwar.com, although healthy debate is always relevant.
Why the down vote TK?!…
“There should not be [two ways of saying X] on antiwar.com, although [a third way of saying X] is always relevant” just didn’t strike me as a positive contribution.
Slightly fastidious.
I know what fascism is: much of my family were active fascists, my mum is a fascist to this very day (never active but only because of agreement with my dad), I was partly raised to become a fascist and all that happened under a fascist regime (Franco’s). Fascism is totalitarian capitalism and is at the essence the black shirts, the terrorist squads of Mussolini which were hired by the capitalist oligarchs to force the proletariat into submission. It’s not just a label: it’s the worst version of a capitalist regime. Add to that some PR “wag the flag” and/or “fear god” (they lack ethics, Humanism, so they have to rally their followers around something emotional and unreal, that’s why they also penetrate sports fandom).
Erdogan is a typical fascist (he even proclaimed admiration for Hitler at least once) and does fascist things, such as unleashing terror squads against the proletariat, women and oppressed ethnicities like the Kurds. He’s been doing his job as watchdog for the USA almost all the time (there was a crisis in 2016-17 however but seems solved since the USA did not back France in the 2020 Libya crisis, what has ultimately favored Russia in the Sahel), he’s been recruiting heavily for ISIS (until 2016), Al Qaeda (all the time) and of course the new brand: HTS, as well as the ANF, now called SNA. While Sunni fascist terror used once to be under Saudi control more or less, since the Syrian “civil war” (foreign intervention via fascist mercenaries primarily) began, these have mostly moved to the Turkish umbrella, going through Qatar and splashing into Morocco (which is an imperialist and Zionist regime).
HTS is a fascist force and it’s largely not even Syrian! It’s a Turkish invader force with some local elements in it.
I wouldn't be too hasty in judging the Syrian situation. Western bias will always focus on the pieces here and there that fit into their neat little narrative of US cozying up to Al Qaeda, etc. However, what is happening is much deeper than that. Watch carefully what Jolani says and does.
The US is cozying up to al Qaeda. And it's not because of "western bias" or because it fits into any "neat little narrative".
I am not going to argue the Syrian situation until things become more clear. I am not naive to discount that Jolani could be a CIA asset or worse. I just don't have enough information, but time will tell. In the meantime, I have been following Arabic media and Arabic sources, and its telling a different story. Stay tuned.
Why four years to draft a Constitution? Since the US Constitution is- if national propaganda is to be believed- the BEST IN THE WORLD why can't Syria (and other nations) simply adopt it and call it a day? Why should it take four years to hold proper elections? We have the voting system that is the BEST IN THE WORLD so just drop it in and you're up and running, right? RIGHT?
Shockingly people with guns have decided that the people with guns get to run things, because they have guns. Who saw that coming?
No democracy for you! Come back in three years.