Syria’s de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa has been named President for the “transitional period”, state media report, seven weeks after he led the rebel offensive that overthrew Bashar al-Assad.
Rebel military commander Hassan Abdul Ghani also announced the cancellation of Syria’s 2012 constitution and the dissolution of the former regime’s parliament, army and security agencies, according to the Sana news agency.
As President, Sharaa would form an interim legislative council to help govern until a new constitution was approved, he said.
All rebel groups which opposed Assad in the 13-year civil war would be dissolved and integrated into state institutions, he added.
The announcements came during a event in Damascus on Wednesday attended by the commanders of factions who fought alongside the rebel alliance led by Sharaa’s Islamist group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). It was entitled the “Conference for Announcing the Victory of the Syrian Revolution”.
Addressing the commanders wearing military uniform, Sharaa stressed that Syria’s new leadership faced a “heavy task and a great responsibility”.
He said the first priority was to “fill the power vacuum in a legitimate and legal way”. Secondly, he added, civil peace should be maintained by “seeking transitional justice and preventing revenge attacks”.
He also called for state institutions, particularly the military, security agencies and police, and economic infrastructure to be rebuilt.
In late December, Sharaa told Al Arabiya TV in an interview that it would take up to four years to hold new elections.
He said an up-to-date census would be required first which “would take time” and that writing up a new constitution would also take up to three years to complete.
Sharaa also reiterated in the interview that he planned a “national dialogue conference”, which he said would “bring together all components” of Syrian society.
In 2011, Assad brutally crushed a peaceful pro-democracy uprising, sparking a civil war in which more than half a million people were killed and 12 million others forced to flee their homes.
HTS – a former al-Qaeda affiliate that is still designated as a terrorist organisation by the UN, the US, the EU and the UK – previously dominated the last rebel stronghold in north-western Syria.
On 8 December, as the rebels entered Damascus after routing the army and sweeping down from the north in the space of only 12 days, Assad resigned the presidency and fled to Russia.
An interim government led by Mohammed al-Bashir, the former head of the rebel administration in the north-west, has been tasked with running the country until March.
BBC
