What next for Syria? – interview with HTS member

The most powerful militant group in Syria, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham or HTS, swept Bashar Al-Assad from power at the weekend with its lightning-quick offensive.

Syrians and the international community are wondering whether it has grown away from the hardline Islamist brutality of its roots and whether it will honour its promises of tolerance for different religious groups.

Paraic O’Brien: What is HTC? What is the organisation?

Obeida Arnaout: Hayat Tahrir al-Sham was a group aimed at continuing the revolution and overthrowing the criminal Assad regime. It was one of the many groups that made up the Syrian revolution, which had many factions. But we believe that Hayat Tahrir al-Sham was a past phase. Now we are at the end of this phase and the beginning of a new one.

Paraic O’Brien: Do you have a timescale for elections?

Obeida Arnaout: Currently we are in the three-month interim phase before forming a new government. These are the steps we are working on. It is still too early to talk about the details of how that government will be formed. Now we have to focus on reactivating Syria’s institutions.

Paraic O’Brien: Can I get your reaction to these Israeli airstrikes? We’ve had over 300 now.

Obeida Arnaout: Our priority is to restore security and services, to revive civilian life in institutions and care for newly liberated cities. There are many urgent parts of day to day life to restore – bakeries, electricity, water, communications. So our priority is to provide those services to the people.

Paraic O’Brien: I understand it’s not your priority, but are you honestly telling me that you have nothing to say about Israel’s striking 300 sites in this country?

Obeida Arnaout: Have no doubt. We want everyone to respect the sovereignty of the new Syria. This point is very important to us.

Paraic O’Brien: Yesterday we were in Sednaya prison and heard stories of awful atrocities. Thousands murdered, thousands tortured. How will you guarantee justice for the families of those people, dead or missing?

Obeida Arnaout: Thousands of Syrians were tortured and killed in these prisons in ways that the human mind cannot fathom. We will pursue the criminals through the courts to restore the rights of the families. These infamous prisons will be closed and not reopened. They will remain a dark memory of Assad’s criminal regime and a curse on Bashar al-Assad and those who collaborated with him in torturing the Syrian people.

Paraic O’Brien: Do you have a plan for exactly how you will bring the Assad regime to account here?

Obeida Arnaout: We will use the best legal and human rights professionals to establish a process under international norms and laws to prosecute the Assad regime through witnesses, documents and evidence.

Paraic O’Brien: Yesterday at Sednaya prison, we saw some very extreme anger being directed at the Alawite community. What guarantees can you give the Alawites and other sorts of minorities in terms of their own safety now?

Obeida Arnaout: Yes. We have given public statements to reassure all sects, including Christians, Kurds, Druze and others. We also sent a message to the Alawite community that they should be safe from any targeting on an ethnic, racial or sectarian basis. So we are taking several steps. On the one hand, we reassure the Alawite community and on the other, we tell those who have suffered oppression that revolution has now triumphed. And we do not wish to enter a new phase of revenge.

Paraic O’Brien: You’re talking plurality and protecting minorities. But of course, the background to HTS, everyone knows about the affiliation to Al-Qaeda, etc. How do you expect the international community to believe that your organisation has genuinely transformed itself?

Obeida Arnaout: This organisation represents a third way, meaning it is not Al-Qaeda, it is not ISIS, but rather a third path, a national revolutionary path. Perhaps you in the West think of the dark image of ISIS, which embraced killing and gave a criminal negative portrayal to the Syrian revolution. But the Syrian revolution, in reality, is a revolution of truth, of justice, that aims to liberate all of Syria. This is what we aspire to. And we are now beginning the plans for a new era of state building institutions and governance.