Appointed Tuesday to manage the transition in Syria, Mohammed Al-Bashir also called on “all Syrians abroad” in an interview with the Italian press to “return” to the country.
While the world is wondering about the nature of the next regime and the real wishes of the HTS group and its leader Al-Joulani, a former al-Qaeda ally during the civil war, the new Prime Minister Mohammed Al-Bashir, appointed to ensure the transition in Damascus, declared Tuesday in an interview with our colleagues from the Italian daily Corriere de la Sierra that he would guarantee “the rights of all peoples”.
“The bad behavior of some Islamist groups has led many people, particularly in the West, to associate Muslims with terrorism and Islam with extremism”he explained, defending Islam as a “religion of justice”. “It is precisely because we are Islamic that we will guarantee the rights of all peoples and all sects in Syria”he said. Asked about the nature of the next regime and the place of Islam, the new prime minister promised a “constitutional process”.
Mohammed Al-Bashir also assured that the handover had begun. “All former ministers have started work”. “The climate is collaborative. We know that we inherit an elephantine administration rife with corruption”he said, claiming to discover a very serious financial situation. “The debt is enormous […] but we have the experience of Idleb where we succeeded”also assured the Syrian engineer and politician, president of the Syrian Salvation Government in the territories controlled by the HTS group since January 2024.
Return of refugees
In this interview, Mohammed al-Bashir set out the priorities of the government he is responsible for leading to lead the transition. “The first is to restore security and stability in all cities in Syria”he reported. “State authority must be restored to allow people to return to work and normal life”. As a second priority, the former head of administration in Idleb set the return of «millions» of Syrian refugees. “We must rebuild, be reborn and we need everyone’s help”he declared calling “all Syrians abroad” has “to come back”.
Mohammed al-Bashir also spoke of the contacts established by HTS “since the start of military operations” with Iraq and China, “to explain that our revolution aimed to liberate the Syrians from Bashar al-Assad”. The new Prime Minister affirmed more generally, in terms of foreign policy, that he did not “no problem with anyone […] stayed away from the Assad regime”. Questioned accordingly about the possibility of “make peace” with Israel and the nature of future relations with Iran and Russia, former allies of the Syrian dictator, Mohammed al-Bashir did not wish to respond.
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