ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Syria’s future government must recognize the country’s diverse population and be representative of all minority groups, a United Nations spokesperson said on Friday.
“It is important that the future government and the future framework of a government for Syria be representative of the people of Syria. That the people of Syria, regardless of their religion or their ethnic groups, they are recognized in those arrangements,” said Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which led the rebel offensive that toppled Bashar al-Assad, is a one-time al-Qaeda offshoot and an internationally proscribed terror organization. There are concerns that it may seek to impose Islamic law on Syria.
Syria’s caretaker prime minister, Mohammed al-Bashir, told Italian daily Corriere della Sera this week that the new Syrian state will “guarantee the rights of all people and all communities in Syria.”
Dujarric said that they have heard the “conciliatory” statements made by the leadership in Damascus, “especially towards minorities.”
Thousands of Kurds in Syria are stateless after they were stripped of their citizenship in 1962. During the civil war, Kurds in the northeast carved out a space where they promoted minority rights. This area was not a target of HTS and the Kurdish leadership is preparing to send a delegation to Damascus for negotiations with the new leadership.
