When Syria\u2019s rebel-appointed prime minister sat down with officials from the ousted Assad regime for the first time on Tuesday, the backdrop included the flag of the Syrian revolution alongside another bearing the Islamic declaration of faith that is often displayed by jihadists. <\/p>\n
The choice of optics for the rebels\u2019 first publicized cabinet meeting to discuss the transition of power since the fall of Bashar al-Assad\u2019s regime sparked controversy, with sceptics taking to social media to criticize the move. <\/p>\n
The rebels may have taken note. In a later televised interview with Al Jazeera, caretaker Prime Minister Mohammad Al Bashir, who until this week ruled the small, conservative province of Idlib on the rebels\u2019 behalf, appeared only with the new Syrian flag. <\/p>\n
How the rebels governed Idlib, in northwest Syria, offers insight into how they might rule the country. Experts and residents of Idlib describe their governance as pragmatic and influenced by both internal and external pressure, with efforts to distance themselves from a jihadist past and gain international acceptance. However, their rule was far from democratic or liberal. Governing a large, diverse nation like Syria, they warn, will be an entirely different challenge. <\/p>\n
Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, the leader of Hayat Tahrir Al Sham (HTS), the Islamist group that led the rebel offensive to topple the Assad regime, has opted to rule from the shadows, and picked a technocrat \u2013 Bashir \u2013 to lead Syria in the interim. He has said that his officials gained valuable experience while governing Idlib but acknowledged that that may not be enough. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey (rebels) started from nothing, Idlib is small and without resources but thank God we were able to do really good things in the past\u2026 their experience is not zero and there are (areas) they were successful in,\u201d Jolani told Mohammed Jalali, Assad\u2019s prime minister, in a meeting on Monday to discuss the transfer of power. \u201cHowever, we cannot do without the old (guard) and we have to benefit from them.\u201d <\/p>\n
In just 13 days, Jolani\u2019s ministers went from ruling the small province of Idlib to aspiring to govern Syria following its first regime change in six decades. Experts and residents who lived under the rebel-led Syrian Salvation Government (SSG) say the inexperienced cabinet will need to significantly adapt if they are to lead the transitional period effectively. <\/p>\n
Dr. Walid Tamer, a resident of Idlib who witnessed the province\u2019s transformation under rebel rule and said he personally interacted with Jolani, commended the SSG\u2019s governance in Idlib, saying freedom of expression was protected. But he cautioned that the rebels aren\u2019t prepared to rule the rest of the country. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou went from governing Idlib to governing an entire nation\u2026 I don\u2019t think the capabilities of the government we saw are enough for the task of governing the whole of Syria,\u201d said Tamer, the head of northern Syria\u2019s Free Doctors Union who describes himself as a liberal. <\/p>\n
Idlib was \u201cvery safe\u201d under the SSG, he said, adding that the rebels placed no restrictions on travel and movement inside the HTS-controlled province. <\/p>\n
\u201cSyria as a whole was a difficult place to live in, but the (SSG) never interfered in your personal life. Products were available and no limitations were imposed on your clothing or how you lived your life,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere wasn\u2019t enough work, and a lot of people just stayed at home,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
When Jolani, who now goes by his real name Ahmed al-Sharaa, expanded his influence in Idlib in 2017, he eliminated rival Islamist groups and backed a new project to install a civilian government made up of local technocrats and academics, breaking from other jihadist methods that saw religious coercion under the rule of the sword in territories they captured. <\/p>\n
Upon its establishment in 2017, the SSG issued a communique outlining four principles, one of which was that Islamic Sharia law is the \u201csole source of legislation,\u201d emphasizing the need to \u201cmaintain the people\u2019s Syrian and Islamic identity,\u201d Al Jazeera reported. <\/p>\n
The SSG operated as a functional government, holding publicized cabinet meetings with suited officials, issuing press statements and overseeing eleven ministries, including justice, sports, and education. It collected taxes, managed Idlib\u2019s limited resources to govern 4 million people, and coordinated with international humanitarian groups to deliver aid to the 3 million displaced people in the region. <\/p>\n
But the government wasn\u2019t democratically elected, with ministers appointed through the approval of the shura, or consultative council, made up of prominent local figures, some of whom were selected by Jolani\u2019s HTS. No women served in SSG leadership positions during its seven years of rule. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s an Islamic governance in a technocratic way. What they wanted to do is control how religion is understood and how it\u2019s implemented,\u201d said Drevon. <\/p>\n
A United Nations report from 2022 painted a grim picture of what life under HTS\u2019 leadership was like. <\/p>\n
\u201cPeople were detained following comments made in private conversations pertaining to the cost of living or religious matters,\u201d the UN Human Rights Council report on Syria said. \u201cThese comments were qualified as slander and blasphemy, with the latter leading to a sentence of one year of imprisonment.\u201d Authorities \u201ccontinued to arrest women for being \u2018inappropriately\u2019 dressed, and for non-compliance with entertainment-related bans.\u201d <\/p>\n
Tamer, who said he negotiated with HTS and SSG officials over medical matters, said that over the years, Jolani took a back seat in the daily affairs of the government and gave it more agency, only intervening on larger issues that endangered his group\u2019s influence. <\/p>\n
Lacking a constitution or an elected legislature, the rebels ruled Idlib by decree, setting up a hybrid civil-Islamic court structure that included defense lawyers, a prosecutor and an appeals process. <\/p>\n
Jolani was pragmatic in adapting to the requirements of the society he ruled over, Drevon said. Responding to the public\u2019s displeasure, he slowly phased out the strict application of Islamic law, turned a blind eye to gender mixing and smoking and allowed protests against him. A Sharia law-based morality unit was disbanded but women were encouraged to cover their hair. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a successful project in practice because there was also some buy in from the population. It was stable, the economy was working better (than the rest of Syria) and even the type of authoritarianism was nothing compared to Assad\u2019s family,\u201d Drevon said. <\/p>\n
But there were exceptions. Last year, the SSG issued a \u201cmorality decree\u201d instructing children to adhere to an Islamic dress code and limiting music in educational facilities. Jolani intervened to freeze the decree, fearing that an international uproar could affect aid donations, Drevon said. <\/p>\n
Drevon said that Syria\u2019s transition to democracy is going to be a lengthy and complicated process after six decades of dictatorship. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a very new form of governance (in Idlib),\u201d he said. \u201cYou can\u2019t expect an armed group in war controlling a region that\u2019s very tiny to create a social democratic system\u2026 They had to be realistic on what\u2019s possible at war. Syria hasn\u2019t had democracy in five, six decades. You will not become democratic in one week.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
When Syria\u2019s rebel-appointed prime minister sat down with officials from the ousted Assad regime for the first time on Tuesday, the backdrop included the flag of the Syrian revolution alongside another bearing the Islamic declaration of faith that is often displayed by jihadists. The choice of optics for the rebels\u2019 first publicized cabinet meeting to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":6448,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6447\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}