By Timour Azhari
DAMASCUS (Reuters) – The U.N.’s Syria envoy urged an inclusive Syrian transition based on a nine-year-old Security Council resolution during a meeting with the commander of Syria’s new administration, Ahmed al-Sharaa, the envoy’s office said on Monday.
Syria’s ruling General Command, in a separate statement about Sunday’s meeting with the U.N.’s Geir Pedersen, said they had discussed the need to review Security Council Resolution 2254, saying it needed to be updated to “suit the new reality”.
The meeting marked one of the most significant international encounters yet for Sharaa, leader of the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) which has emerged as the ruling power in Damascus since toppling Bashar al-Assad just over one week ago.
Photos of the meeting showed Sharaa, whose group was an al-Qaeda affiliate until it severed ties with the jihadist network in 2016, wearing a blazer and open shirt as he met Pedersen, the U.N. Syria envoy since 2018.
HTS is designated a terrorist group by Western and regional powers, including Turkey, which had long been one of the main international backers of the Syrian opposition.
The new administration in Damascus has set out few details on its thinking for the next steps for Syria, which is emerging from more than five decades of iron-fisted rule by the Assad family and nearly 14 years of devastating civil war.
Newly appointed Prime Minister Mohammed al-Bashir, who formerly led an HTS-affiliated government in Idlib province, has said he will remain in office until March.
Pedersen briefed Sharaa on the outcome of an international meeting convened in Jordan on Saturday, the statement from his office said.
“The Special Envoy briefed on the outcome of the Aqaba International Meeting … stressing the need for a credible and inclusive Syrian-owned and led political transition based on the principles of United Nations Security Council resolution 2254 (2015),” a statement from Pedersen’s office said.
“The Special Envoy stressed the intention of the United Nations to render all assistance to the Syrian people.”
UN RESOLUTION IN FOCUS
U.N. Resolution 2254 has emerged as a focal point of diplomacy over Syria since Assad was ousted and fled to Russia.
It was passed in 2015 at the height of the conflict, which spiralled out of pro-democracy protests against Assad’s rule in 2011. The resolution was approved after Russia intervened militarily on Assad’s side, propping up his rule.
The resolution states support for a Syrian-led political process which is facilitated by the United Nations and, within a target of six months, establishes “credible, inclusive and non-sectarian governance and sets a schedule and process for drafting a new constitution”.
It further expresses support for free and fair elections, held under the new constitution, to be held within 18 months.
Sharaa “stressed the importance of rapid and effective cooperation to address the issues of the Syrians and the need to focus on the unity of Syria’s territories, reconstruction and achieving economic development”, the Syrian statement said.
Sharaa spoke of the need for “caution and precision in the stages of transition and rehabilitating institutions to build a strong and effective system”. The importance of providing a safe environment for refugee return and political and economic support for this was emphasised, the statement added.
“Leader Sharaa pointed out the need to implement these steps with great care and high precision without haste and under the supervision of specialized teams, so that they are achieved in the best possible way,” it said.
European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on Monday she had instructed the bloc’s top diplomat for Syria to go to Damascus and make contact with the new government.
The Kremlin said on Monday that no final decisions had yet been taken on the fate of Russia’s military bases in Syria and that it was in contact with those in charge of the country.
Four Syrian officials told Reuters over the weekend that Russia was pulling back its military from the front lines in northern Syria and from posts in the Alawite Mountains but was not leaving its two main bases following Assad’s fall.
(Additional reporting by Clauda Tanios in Dubai, Hatem Maher and Ahmed Tolba in Cairo; Writing by Tom Perry; Editing by Gareth Jones)
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