ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A year after the ousting of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, the United Nations will continue to push the transitional government to be inclusive of all religious and ethnic minorities, a spokesperson said on Thursday.
“We will continue to speak up and to encourage them to be as inclusive as possible in all of their policies to ensure Syrians of all religion and ethnic groups feel protected and feel recognized,” Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for the UN secretary-general, told Rudaw.
Following a swift offensive in early December last year, a coalition of opposition forces led by the now-dissolved jihadist group Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) toppled the regime of longtime dictator Assad and ended nearly 14 years of civil war. In late January, HTS leader Ahmed al-Sharaa was appointed interim president and pledged commitment to an inclusive political process.
His government, however, has come under fire for several controversial decisions.
In March, Sharaa signed a constitutional declaration that centered on Islamic jurisprudence, drawing criticism from Syria’s Christian, Druze, Kurdish, and Alawite communities who viewed it as exclusionary. He has also highly centralized power, again drawing condemnation.
The country’s post-civil war transition has been marred by violence.