The de facto leader of Syria, Al-Sharaa, meets with Christian clerics | Syrian war news

The meeting comes at a time when the new authorities seek to reassure minorities of their safety in post-Assad Syria.

The de facto leader of Syria Ahmed al-Sharaa A number of Christian clerics met on Tuesday, amid calls for the leader of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham to guarantee minority rights after seizing power earlier this month.

The Syrian General Command said in a statement via the Telegram application, “The head of the new Syrian administration, Ahmed Al-Sharaa, meets with a delegation from the Christian community in Damascus.”

The statement included pictures of the meeting with Catholic, Orthodox and Anglican clergy.

Earlier on Tuesday, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot called for a comprehensive political transition in Syria that guarantees the rights of the country’s diverse sects.

He expressed his hope that the Syrians would be able to regain control of their areas His own destiny“.

But for this to happen, the country needs “a political transition in Syria that includes all sects, regardless of their diversity, and supports the most basic rights and freedoms,” Barrow said during a visit to Lebanon accompanied by Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu.

Barrow and LeCorneau also met with Lebanese Army Commander Joseph Aoun and visited UN peacekeepers patrolling the southern border, where UN peacekeepers are based. A fragile truce Fierce fighting between Israel and Hezbollah ended in late November.

“Positive” talks with the Syrian Democratic Forces

Since seizing power, Syria’s new leadership, headed by Al-Sharaa, a former Al-Qaeda member, has repeatedly tried to reassure minorities that they will not be harmed, although some isolated incidents have sparked protests.

On December 25, thousands demonstrated in several areas of Syria after a video clip circulated showing an attack on an Alawite shrine in the north of the country.

A day before that, hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets in Christian areas of Damascus to protest the burning of a Christmas tree near Hama in central Syria.

Before the outbreak of civil war in 2011, Syria was home to about a million Christians, according to analyst Fabrice Balanche, who says their number has dwindled to about 300,000.

Earlier, a Syrian official told Agence France-Presse that Al-Sharaa held “positive” talks with delegates of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces on Monday.

These talks were Al-Sharaa’s first with SDF leaders since rebels ousted longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in early December, and come as the SDF is engaged in fighting with Turkish-backed factions in northern Syria.

The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces led the military campaign that expelled ISIS fighters from their last territory in Syria in 2019.

But Turkey, which has long had ties to the Sharaa Party’s Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, says the SDF is led by members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, which has been waging an insurgency against the Turkish state for four decades. It is classified as a “terrorist” group in Türkiye and the United States.

Al-Sharaa told Al Arabiya on Sunday that the Syrian Democratic Forces should be integrated into the new national army.

“Weapons should be in the hands of the state alone. Whoever is armed and qualified to join the Ministry of Defense, we welcome him,” he said.