Syria: Sharaa reaffirms commitment to protect minorities
Syria’s new de facto ruler, Ahmed al-Sharaa, has attempted to alleviate fears of a conservative Islamist rule by meeting leaders of ethnic minority groups. According to Reuters on December 22, 2024, al-Sharaa “held talks with veteran Syrian politician Farouk al-Sharaa and Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt”.
Farouk al-Sharaa, a distant cousin of the new ruler, served as Vice President between 2006 and 2014 before being removed by the Baath Party for stating that a military solution was not feasible in the Syrian Civil War which began in 2012. Farouk was considered a probable successor to Assad in a transitionary government. Reuters also states that Ahmed visited Farouk shortly after taking Damascus and invited him to speak at the next National Dialogue Convention. Farouk accepted the invitation “with open arms”, granting the new transitionary government further credibility with the people.
Walid Jumblatt is the first Lebanese political figure to meet Sharaa and belongs to the Druze community, a small minority group who practice an offshoot of Islam and make up approximately 3.2% of the Syrian population. They have, throughout the years of conflict in Syria, been subjected to marginalization and sectarian violence. Sharaa therefore used the meeting to reassure the Druze community, as well as other minority sects, that this new Syrian government would not use sectarianism as a weapon.
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Sharaa stated that, “We take pride in our culture, our religion and our Islam. Being part of the Islamic environment does not mean the exclusion of other sects. On the contrary, it is our duty to protect them”. Sharaa has made multiple statements since he took power reaffirming that Syria will not be a sectarian state and the new government will not be targeting minority sects.
When the Arab Spring arrived in Syria in early 2012, the protests that swept the country were remarkably broad-based. It did not depend on what religious sect or ethnic group you belonged to, but it was rather the coming together of a large section of Syrian society to call for democratic reform. However, over time and largely due to Assad’s propaganda campaign, inter-communal and religious violence took hold of the conflict and polarized Syrian society. Sharaa, it appears publicly at least, to reject this kind of politics.
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Sharaa also took the meeting to declare that the new Syrian state would ‘not negatively interfere in Lebanon and would respect its neighbour’s sovereignty”, a far cry from the history of the two nations. Syria has always played a role in Lebanese politics, particularly from the Lebanese Civil War of the 1970s and they only quit in 2005 after the assassination of Rafik Hariri, the former Lebanese Prime Minister. The killing is largely attributed to the Assad regime and Hezbollah.
Lebanon has also been greatly affected by the conflict in Syria. Since the start of the Syrian Civil War, Lebanon has become home to the largest number of refugees per capita, with one-third of their population comprising of Syrian refugees. The influx of refugees have placed great strain on resources, creating challenging economic conditions. Since the overthrow of the Assad regime, the Lebanese government have called on Syrian refugees to return home, but the European Commission have said that we should “the conditions are not met for safe, voluntary, dignified returns to Syria”.
As Sharaa attempts to reaffirm that the new Syrian government are there to protect all Syrians regardless of minorities, the rest of the world watches on to see what direction Syria takes, and what alliances Sharaa is trying to build in the region.
Reuters
