Syrian elections could take up to 4 years to organize, de facto leader says

(CNN) — Elections may not be held in Syria for up to four years, the country’s de facto leader has said, in his first comments on an electoral timeline since his rebel group overthrew the Assad regime earlier this month.

After Ahmad al-Sharaa’s comments, it remains unclear how the interim government will hand over power after previously saying it would only stay until March 2025.

“We have to prepare the infrastructure before heading to elections,” al-Sharaa, formerly known as Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, said, the Saudi channel Al Arabiya reported Sunday.

Al-Sharaa, who leads the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS), which earlier in December toppled longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad, said in an interview that his interim government also plans to write a new constitution that might take up to three years to draft.

“We are now in the re-foundation of the country and not just managing the country… there is a lot of destruction in the country because of a regime that ruled for more than 50 years,” Al-Sharaa said.

“The opportunity that was given to us today doesn’t present itself every four or five years… the constitution must regulate society so that the previous experience does not repeat itself and Syria heads to the same direction it was in for the past 60 years,” he added.

Al-Sharaa also told Al Arabiya that HTS will eventually be dissolved, the channel said, which will be announced at the upcoming National Dialogue Conference, a meeting that is meant to help with the transitional phase. No date is set yet for the conference.

On Russia, a previous ally of Syria, Al-Sharaa said the new leadership does not want Russia to leave the country “in [a] manner that does not fit its relations with Syria.”

Sources say Russia has been withdrawing a large amount of military equipment and troops since Assad’s toppling.

International legitimacy

A Ukrainian delegation led by foreign minister Andrii Sybiha‎ landed in Damascus on Monday to meet Al-Sharaa, Syrian state media said.

“The Syrian and Ukrainian people have shared the same experiences and struggles,” Syria’s interim foreign minister Asaad Shaibani said in a news conference with Sybiha.

The visit marks the latest in a series of regional and international diplomatic delegations who travelled to Syria to meet the de-facto leader, who, until recently, had a $10 million bounty on his head by the United States.

Al-Sharaa was informed by a high-level US delegation led by the Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern affairs, Barbara Leaf, on December 20 that the US would remove the bounty.

Leaf, one of three US officials who sat down with Al-Sharaa in Damascus, described the “policy decision” as one aligned with the need to work on “critical issues” such as combating terrorism.

Al-Sharaa “committed to this,” Leaf said, “and so based on our discussion, I told him we would not be pursuing the Rewards for Justice reward offer that has been in effect for some years.”

European delegations, including officials from the United Kingdom, France and Germany also met Al-Sharaa over the past month, while Qatar, Jordan, Iraq, Bahrain and Turkey all dispatched diplomats for talks with the new leader.

The former jihadist is seeking international legitimacy and distancing himself from his Al-Qaeda past. His style has gradually changed from Jihadist camo attires to statesmen-like suits as he engages in international diplomacy.

Al-Sharaa is also warming up to regional powerhouse Saudi Arabia, telling Arabiya that the kingdom has a big role to play in Syria’s future and that Iran should “rethink its calculations about its interventions in the region.”

“We are folding the old page of boycotts that [Syria] was under with the old regime,” Shaibani said.

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