Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the Islamist group that led the overthrow of the Assad regime, will need to show it is willing to give political representation to Syria’s diverse sects and minorities.
After sweeping into this capital city with ease, exposing the hollowness of the Assad regime after more than half a century of dictatorial rule, Syria’s rebels now face the more daunting task of governance.
Even in Damascus, the newcomers are still mostly unknown. At a store selling freshly printed Syrian revolutionary flags on Wednesday, shopkeeper Fadi al-Mously couldn’t name the country’s new prime minister, Mohammed al-Bashir, appointed by HTS this week.Outside the Interior Ministry, the police guards were all from Idlib and wore patches with the insignia of the Islamist government there. They conferred on who was now in charge.
“They gave all the right signals, but the first diversion from that message was the appointing of the Salvation Government prime minister to lead the transition,” said Haid Haid, a Syrian columnist and consulting fellow at Chatham House, a London-based think tank. A meeting on Tuesday aimed at merging the Salvation Government with remnants of the Assad regime was “an important opportunity to exchange ideas”, said Abdul Sattar Al Ali, an import from Idlib’s water ministry. “We are working on plans to enhance efficiency and rebuild trust between citizens and the state … but we face many challenges.” Corruption and the inefficiencies of a bloated and bureaucratic public sector were chief among them, he said.
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