Tipsy dancers, Christmas decorations, Shias and women’s rights are in the crosshairs
The new commander of the old city of Damascus was miffed. Syria’s new de facto leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, had just reversed his order to take over a grand old Ottoman palace. The arthouse within it had been used for “improper behaviour”, the commander insisted. Its resident female artists would sinfully come and go at all hours of the night, so he had posted two armed jihadists to make them remove their books, sketches and sound system by New Year’s Eve—and then get out.
Had Mr Sharaa’s intervention been an exception, the commander might have stomached it. But since he and his fellow jihadists advanced from Idlib, their northern enclave, and toppled the Assads on December 8th, such rulings have come thick and fast from Mr Sharaa, who has also ordered the commander to leave crosses on top of old churches, to protect the Christmas decorations of Christians and to respect the shrines of Shia Muslims (or “rejectionists”, as the Sunni jihadists call them). Mr Sharaa even told the city’s conquerors to leave alone the bars where tipsy men and women were dancing together to ring in the new year. How different from Idlib, where perpetrators of such supposed depravity would be killed, converted or expelled, and their premises, including churches, closed down.
RELATED: Western powers warn Syria over foreign jihadists in army, sources say
Khaled Brigade, a part of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), hold a military parade, after Syria’s Bashar al-Assad was ousted, in Damascus, Syria, December 27, 2024. REUTERS/Yamam al Shaar/File Photo
REUTERS | Published January 14, 2025
BEIRUT/DAMASCUS, Jan 10 (Reuters) – U.S., French and German envoys have warned Syria’s new Islamist rulers that their appointment of foreign jihadists to senior military posts is a security concern and bad for their image as they try to forge ties with foreign states, two sources familiar with the matter said.
The warning from the U.S., part of Western efforts to get Syria’s new leaders to reconsider the move, was delivered in a meeting between U.S. envoy Daniel Rubinstein and Syria’s de facto ruler Ahmed al-Sharaa on Wednesday at the presidential palace overlooking Damascus, a U.S. official said.
“These appointments will not help them with their reputation in the U.S.,” the official said.
The foreign ministers of France and Germany, Jean-Noel Barrot and Annalena Baerbock, also broached the issue of foreign fighters drafted into the army during their meeting with Sharaa on Jan. 3, an official aware of the talks said.
Reuters reported the appointments on Dec. 30. The envoys’ comments on the appointments have not previously been reported.
Sharaa’s armed group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, led an offensive that ousted former president Bashar al-Assad on Dec. 8 and has since installed a government and disbanded the Assad-era army. It is now making efforts to reconstitute the armed forces.
Late last year, it made nearly 50 appointments including at least six foreign fighters, among them Chinese and central Asian Uyghurs, a Turkish citizen, an Egyptian and a Jordanian, Reuters reported at the time.
Three were given the rank of brigadier-general and at least three others the rank of colonel, a Syrian military source said.
HTS and allied groups have hundreds of foreign fighters in their ranks who came to Syria during the country’s 13-year civil war, many of them followers of hardline interpretations of Islam.
Foreign capitals generally view foreign fighters as a key security threat as they suspect that some may seek to carry out attacks in their home countries after gaining experience abroad.
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