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Syria's al-Sharaa Says Holding Elections Can Take Up to 4 Years

Syria's de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa walks in the presidential palace in Damascus, Saturday, Dec. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Mosa'ab Elshamy)
Syria's de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa walks in the presidential palace in Damascus, Saturday, Dec. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Mosa'ab Elshamy)
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Syria's al-Sharaa Says Holding Elections Can Take Up to 4 Years

Syria's de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa walks in the presidential palace in Damascus, Saturday, Dec. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Mosa'ab Elshamy)
Syria's de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa walks in the presidential palace in Damascus, Saturday, Dec. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Mosa'ab Elshamy)

Holding elections in Syria can take up to four years, Syria's de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa told Al Arabiya in an interview on Sunday.

Drafting a new constitution could take up to three years, al-Sharaa said in excerpts from the interview with the broadcaster. He also said it would take about a year for Syrians to see drastic changes.

Al-Sharaa also hoped the Trump administration will lift the sanctions on Syria.

The Biden administration said earlier this month that it has decided not to pursue a $10 million reward it had offered for al-Sharaa, whose group, the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), led fighters that ousted Syrian President Bashar Assad.

The announcement followed a meeting in Damascus between al-Sharaa and the top US diplomat for the Middle East, Barbara Leaf, who led the first US diplomatic delegation into Syria since Assad’s ouster on Dec. 8.

HTS remains designated a foreign terrorist organization, and Leaf would not say if sanctions stemming from that designation would be eased.

Al- Sharaa also told Al Arabiya that Syria has strategic interests with Russia. Russia has military bases in Syria, was a close Assad ally during the long civil war and has granted Assad asylum.
Al-Sharaa said earlier this month that Syria's relations with Russia should serve common interests.

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Italy’s Foreign Minister Heads to Syria to Encourage Post-Assad Transition

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani speaks to the media a he arrives for a meeting at Rome’s Villa Madama, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025 on the situation in Syria after the collapse of the Assad regime. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini (Andrew Medichini/AP POOL)
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani speaks to the media a he arrives for a meeting at Rome’s Villa Madama, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025 on the situation in Syria after the collapse of the Assad regime. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini (Andrew Medichini/AP POOL)
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Italy’s Foreign Minister Heads to Syria to Encourage Post-Assad Transition

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani speaks to the media a he arrives for a meeting at Rome’s Villa Madama, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025 on the situation in Syria after the collapse of the Assad regime. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini (Andrew Medichini/AP POOL)
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani speaks to the media a he arrives for a meeting at Rome’s Villa Madama, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025 on the situation in Syria after the collapse of the Assad regime. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini (Andrew Medichini/AP POOL)

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said he would travel to Syria on Friday to encourage the country's transition following the ouster of President Bashar Assad by insurgents, and appealed on Europe to review its sanctions on Damascus now that the political situation has changed.
Tajani presided over a meeting in Rome on Thursday of foreign ministry officials from five countries, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and the United States.
The aim, he said, is to coordinate the various post-Assad initiatives, with Italy prepared to make proposals on private investments in health care for the Syrian population.
Going into the meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and their European counterparts, Tajani said it was critical that all Syrians be recognized with equal rights. It was a reference to concerns about the rights of Christians and other minorities under Syria’s new de facto authorities of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HT.
“The first messages from Damascus have been positive. That’s why I’m going there tomorrow, to encourage this new phase that will help stabilize the international situation,” Tajani said.
Speaking to reporters, he said the European Union should discuss possible changes to its sanctions on Syria. “It’s an issue that should be discussed because Assad isn’t there anymore, it’s a new situation, and I think that the encouraging signals that are arriving should be further encouraged,” he said.
Syria has been under deeply isolating sanctions by the US, the European Union and others for years as a result of Assad’s brutal response to what began as peaceful anti-government protests in 2011 and spiraled into civil war.
HTS led a lightning insurgency that ousted Assad on Dec. 8 and ended his family’s decades-long rule. From 2011 until Assad’s downfall, Syria’s uprising and civil war killed an estimated 500,000 people.
The US has gradually lifted some penalties since Assad departed Syria for protection in Russia. The Biden administration in December decided to drop a $10 million bounty it had offered for the capture of a Syrian opposition leader whose forces led the ouster of Assad last month.
Syria’s new leaders also have been urged to respect the rights of minorities and women. Many Syrian Christians, who made up 10% of the population before Syria’s civil war, either fled the country or supported Assad out of fear of insurgents.