National dialogue in Syria 'historic opportunity', says interim president

Syria's interim president said on Tuesday his country had a “historic opportunity” to rebuild, addressing a national dialogue summit billed by Syria's Islamist rulers as a key milestone after decades of Assad-family rule.

Hundreds of Syrians gathered at the presidential palace in Damascus for the one-day event, arriving on a red carpet previously reserved for the few foreign dignitaries visiting former president Bashar al-Assad until he was toppled last year by a rebel offensive spearheaded by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).

The group's head, Ahmed al-Sharaa, was named by military rebel commanders as the country's interim president last month and he swiftly pledged to hold a national dialogue to discuss the country's future.

“Syria liberated itself on its own and it suits it to build itself on its own,” he said in his opening address on Tuesday.

“What we are living today [Tuesday] is an exceptional, historic and rare opportunity. We must take advantage of every moment of it to serve the interests of our people and our country.”

Sharaa said Syria must unify the various armed groups under a single military command, adding the country's “strength lies in its unity”.

Participants divided into six working groups to discuss a transitional justice system; the constitution; building state institutions; personal freedoms; Syria's future economic model and the role civil society would have in the country.

The discussions were confidential, with a moderator allocating two minutes to participants to speak and restrictions on removing any documents from the summit hall.

Organisers said the recommendations set to be agreed by the end of the day will help shape a constitutional declaration intended to lay out the basic principles for Syria's new governing order. They will be considered by a new transitional government set to take power on March 1.

Proponents said the process is a notable shift from decades of autocratic rule by the Assad family, when political dissent was often met with detention in a labyrinthine prison system.

But critics have questioned the rushed preparation for the summit, the lack of minority representation and the weight it will ultimately hold in a political process steered heavily so far by HTS.

The summit will be closely watched by Arab and Western capitals, which have conditioned full ties with Syria's new leaders — including the possible lifting of sanctions — on whether the political process is inclusive of Syria's ethnically and religiously diverse population, three diplomats said.

Syria-based diplomats were not invited to the conference, three foreign envoys in the country said. Its organisers did not take up offers by the UN to help with the summit.

The UN, the US and other countries have imposed sanctions on HTS as a group. The US and the EU also have widespread sanctions in place on Syria, but have issued temporary lifts on some sectors in recent weeks.

Speaking after Sharaa, Syria's foreign minister Asaad al-Shibani criticised international sanctions still in place, saying they were being used “as a means of pressure on the will of the Syrian people”.

After his comments, a woman in attendance stood up and shouted, “Thank God, the People's Palace has returned to the people!”

To put together the event, a seven-member preparatory committee hosted listening sessions organised by province, sometimes holding several two-hour sessions a day to fit in all of Syria's 14 regions over the course of a week.

Five of the committee members are either in HTS or close to the group, and there are no Druze or Alawite members, both of which are significant minorities in Syria.

No members of the Kurdish-led autonomous administration in northeast Syria or the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces were invited, officials from both groups told Reuters.

Reuters