Tuesday 25 / February / 2025
Damascus: Around 600 people from different areas of Syria attended a national dialogue conference in the capital, Damascus, on Tuesday, as the new rulers said they wanted an inclusive discourse on the country's future governance after almost 14 years of civil war.
The long-awaited conference came after strongman Bashar Assad was ousted from power in December in a lightning offensive by an alliance of groups led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), whose former leader, Ahmad al-Sharaa, is now interim president.
Syria faces big challenges
The organisers of the conference said all of Syria's communities were invited, but it was not immediately clear to what extent minorities — including Kurds, Christians, Druze and members of Assad's Alawite sect — have been represented.
The aim of the conference was to come up with nonbinding recommendations on the country's interim rules before a new constitution is drafted and a new government is formed. They will be considered by a transitional government that is set to take power on March 1.
The country faces major challenges, including rebuilding an economy and infrastructure that have been heavily damaged by conflict, rewriting a new constitution and putting in place mechanisms for bringing to justice those accused of war crimes.
Syria's interim leader made opening remarks at the national dialogue conference.
"Just as Syria has liberated itself by itself, it is appropriate for it to build itself by itself," Sharaa told the conference.
"What we are experiencing today is an exceptional and rare historical opportunity in which we must use every moment to serve the interests of our people and our nation and honor the sacrifices of its children," he said.
Earlier this month, Sharaa said that it could take four to five years to organize and two to three years to rewrite the constitution.
He also emphasised that the state should have a monopoly on arms going forward.
"The unity of arms and their monopoly by the state is not a luxury but a duty and an obligation," Sharaa said. "Syria is indivisible; it is a complete whole, and its strength lies in its unity."
His remarks come as some armed groups, including the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in power in the northeast, continue to refuse to disarm and disband their military units.
The new rulers have promised an inclusive political transition after seizing power, but several minorities have voiced fears that they will be subject to discrimination and said they were not properly represented at Tuesday's conference.
Particularly parties in the self-governed Kurdish administration of northeast Syria said minorities were insufficiently present.
In a joint statement, the 35 parties said: "Conferences with token representation ... are meaningless, worthless, and will not contribute to finding real solutions to the country's ongoing crisis."
The Kurdish administration and the SDF were not invited because armed groups were not permitted, according to organizers.
The conference will have been watched closely by the international community, with many countries still weighing whether to lift sanctions imposed during Assad's authoritarian rule.
