Syria’s civil war dramatically reignited late last month when a coalition of rebels led by the jihadist Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) launched a blistering offensive against the Syrian army, seizing the northern city of Aleppo, Hama, Homs, and culminating their victory by capturing the capital Damascus as rebels said Assad fled the country, ending over five decades of Baathist rule.
Former UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths told Rudaw’s Nwenar Fatih that the collapse of the regime does not mean the end of the Syrian crisis.
The next challenges for Syria according to Griffiths are “factionalization between various armed groups, not unlikely, number two… there is huge ideological difference between the south, the new councils running the municipalities in the south, forming part of the classical opposition, and the HTS and others who have different aims.”
Griffiths said so far the HTS has been good in terms of maintaining stability and protecting minorities, but he does not think that this will last.
“The real worry is Syria will be further fragmented, and it will go down another conflict path,” Griffiths said, stressing the importance of the international community engaging with those who are in power, regardless of being recognized as a terrorist organization or not.
HTS is the former Syrian branch of al-Qaeda and the prominent force among dozens of rebel factions. The group has long controlled a rebel enclave in the northwestern province of Idlib. It has been internationally recognized as a terrorist organization.
After taking over Damascus, HTS leader Abu Mohammed al-Jolani ordered his forces not to approach any official institutions in the capital and declared that these institutions will remain under the supervision of Assad’s Prime Minister Mohammed al-Jalali until their official handover.
