Syria's de facto leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, has declared that the country is exhausted by war and is not a threat to its neighbors or the West. In an interview with the BBC in Damascus, he called for the lifting of sanctions against Syria.
"Now, after all that has happened, the sanctions should be lifted because they were aimed at the old regime. The victim and the oppressor should not be treated the same," he said.
Sharaa led the lightning offensive that toppled Bashar al-Assad's regime less than two weeks ago. He is the leader of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the dominant group in the rebel alliance, and was previously known by his nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Jolani.
He said HTS should be delisted as a terrorist organization. It has been designated by both the UN, the US, the EU and the UK, among many others, as it began as a splinter group of al-Qaeda, from which it split in 2016.
Sharaa said HTS was not a terrorist group. They did not target civilians or civilian areas, he said. In fact, they considered themselves victims of the crimes of the Assad regime. He denied that he wanted to turn Syria into a version of Afghanistan.
Sharaa said that the countries were very different, with different traditions. Afghanistan was a tribal society. In Syria, he said, there was a different opinion. He said he believes in education for women.
"We have had universities in Idlib for more than eight years," Sharaa said, referring to the northwestern Syrian province that has been held by rebels since 2011.
"I think the percentage of women in universities is more than 60%.
And when asked if alcohol consumption would be allowed, Sharaa said: "There are a lot of things that I'm just not allowed to talk about because it's a legal matter."
He added that there will be a "Syrian committee of legal experts to write a constitution. They will decide. And any ruler or president will have to follow the law."
The BBC described Sharaa as being calm throughout the interview, wearing civilian clothes and trying to offer reassurance to anyone who believes his group has not broken with its extremist past. Many Syrians do not believe him.
The actions of Syria's new rulers in the coming months will show what kind of country they want Syria to be - and how they want to rule it. (A2 Televizion)
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