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from https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/there-is-no-blank-check-syrian-leader-told-rein-jihadis-2025-03-26/

'There is no blank check': Syrian leader told to rein in jihadis
By Samia Nakhoul and Timour Azhari
March 26, 20253:13 AM PDTUpdated 4 hours ago

Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa attends an interview with Reuters Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa attends an interview with
Reuters at the presidential palace, in Damascus, Syria March 10, 2025. REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab Summary

Foreign ultimatum: Sharaa must curb jihadis or lose support
Western-Arab backing tied to protecting minorities
Sanctions persist as instability deepens post-Assad
Competing foreign powers limit Sharaa's control

DAMASCUS, March 26 (Reuters) - Syria's President Ahmed al-Sharaa has a
lot to prove to win over Western powers. If the first few weeks of his
rule are anything to go by, he may be heading in the wrong direction.
The West is watching Syria's leaders closely to ensure they rein in the Islamist jihadis who killed hundreds of Alawites, create an inclusive government with effective institutions, maintain order in a country
fractured by years of civil war and prevent a resurgence of Islamic
State or al Qaeda.
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To hammer home the message, three European envoys made clear in a March
11 meeting with Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani in Damascus that
cracking down on the jihadi fighters was their top priority and that international support for the nascent administration could evaporate
unless it took decisive action.
The meeting has not previously been reported.
"The abuses that have taken place in recent days are truly intolerable,
and those responsible must be identified and condemned," said French
Foreign Ministry spokesman Christophe Lemoine, when asked about the
message delivered in Damascus.
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"There is no blank check for the new authorities."
Reuters spoke to the three European envoys as well as four regional
officials during a trip to Damascus. They all stressed that the
authorities must get a grip on security across the country and prevent
any repeat killings.
"We asked for accountability. The punishment should go on those who
committed the massacres. The security forces need to be cleaned up,"
said one European envoy, who was among the group of officials who
delivered the message.
Washington has also called on Syria's leaders to hold the perpetrators
of the attacks to account. U.S. State Department spokesperson Tammy
Bruce said they were monitoring the interim authority's actions to
determine U.S. policy for Syria.

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The problem for Sharaa, however, is that his Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS)
group only comprises around 20,000 fighters, according to two
assessments by Western governments.
That makes him reliant on the tens of thousands of fighters from other
groups — including the very hardline jihadist factions he is being asked
to combat – and moving against them could plunge Syria back into war,
five diplomats and three analysts said.
Thousands of Sunni Muslim foreigners, from countries including China,
Albania, Russia and Pakistan, joined Syria's rebels early in the civil
war to fight against the rule of Bashar al-Assad and the Iran-backed
Shi'ite militias who supported him, giving the conflict a sectarian
overtone.
One of the reasons Sharaa now depends on a relatively small force of
some 20,000 fighters from several disparate groups, including the
foreign jihadis, is because he dissolved the national army soon after
taking power

While the step was meant to draw a line under five decades of autocratic
Assad family rule, diplomats and analysts said it echoed Washington's
decision to disband the Iraqi army after the fall of Saddam Hussein -
and could lead to similar chaos.
Sharaa's move, along with mass dismissals of public sector workers, has deepened divisions in Syria and left hundreds of thousands without
income, potentially pushing trained soldiers into insurgent groups or unemployment, worsening Syria's instability, according to five European
and Arab officials.
Neither Sharaa's office nor the Syrian foreign ministry responded to
requests for comment for this story.
STUCK IN A PARADOX
In addition to the challenge of quelling sectarian violence, Sharaa must
also contend with a host of foreign powers from the United States to
Russia, Israel, Turkey and Iran - all turning Syria's territory into a geopolitical chessboard.
Turkey holds the north, backing opposition forces while suppressing
Kurdish ambitions. U.S.-backed Kurdish-led forces control the east with
its vital oil fields, while Israel capitalised on Assad's fall to
bolster its military foothold. It now controls a 400-square-km
demilitarised buffer zone, supports the Druze minority and is opposed to
the Syrian leadership.
In response to the massacres of civilians, Sharaa has established an investigation committee and promised to punish those responsible, even
those close to him.
But any action against the jihadis who carried out the killings could
ignite factional infighting, purges and power struggles - leaving the
new government stuck in a paradox, the diplomats and analysts said.
"Obviously Sharaa doesn't control the foreign jihadis and does not call
all the shots," said Marwan Muasher, vice president of the Carnegie
Endowment for International Peace. "What is clear is that the massacres
were carried out by people who are Salafi jihadists, and are not
listening to what he's saying."
While diplomats recognise that the inquiry is a step in the right
direction, they said its credibility would have been far stronger with
U.N. and international observers.
Ultimately, they said, the true test of Sharaa's leadership lies not
just in the commission's findings but in how he deals with the fighters responsible for the atrocities.
The massacres were, however, a stark reminder of the forces at play in post-Assad Syria, signalling a brutal reality that toppling a dictator
is the beginning of a larger, more perilous battle to shape the
country's future.
Abdulaziz Sager, founder of the Saudi-based Gulf Research Center, said
the presence of "rogue groups" - the foreign jihadis - operating outside
the law would lead to a collapse in security and undermine the state's authority.
"Therefore, the new leadership has no choice but to take firm action
against such violations," he said.
An Arab diplomat said political support from Arab states was also not unlimited, and would need to be matched by concrete steps, including
inclusive governance, protection of minorities and real progress on the
ground.
That means genuine power-sharing with Alawites, Christians, Kurds and
other minorities - and only then can the new leadership stabilise Syria
and garner U.S. and European support, the Arab diplomat said.
Washington and European states have tied the lifting of sanctions,
imposed under Assad, to the new authorities proving their commitment to inclusive governance and the protection of minorities. Removing these
sanctions is crucial to reviving Syria's shattered economy, Sharaa's
most pressing challenge.
SAME PLAYBOOK?
But despite promises of reform, the five-year constitution Sharaa
unveiled this month gave him absolute power as president, prime
minister, head of the armed forces and chief of national security, as
well as granting him the authority to appoint judges, ministers and a
third of parliament - dashing hopes for democratic reforms.
The constitution also enshrines Islamic law as "the main source" of legislation.
Critics argue that the constitution swaps autocracy for Islamist
theocracy, deepening fears over Sharaa's roots as the leader of a
hardline Islamist faction once allied with al Qaeda.
Kurds, who control northeastern Syria and recently agreed to integrate
with the new government, criticised the temporary constitution for
"reproducing authoritarianism in a new form".
Syria's dilemma, analysts say, mirrors the trials faced by Arab states a
decade ago when, in 2011, a wave of uprisings ousted dictators in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and Yemen.
The "Arab Spring" upheavals promised democratic revival, but takeovers
by Islamists, military coups, and violent fragmentation turned these
hopes into setbacks. The victories were short-lived, with states such as
Yemen and Libya descending into violence and chaos.
Syria, having endured a far longer and bloodier conflict, now stands at
a similar crossroad.
Analysts say if Syria's rulers adopt exclusionary policies that ignore
the cultural, religious, ethnic diversity of its citizens, they are
bound to fail - just as late Islamist President Mohammed Mursi did in
Egypt after the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak.
In Mursi's case, his divisive constitution failed to meet the people's
diverse demands and led to his toppling by the army. Such a policy in
Syria, the analysts add, would fuel domestic resistance, antagonise
neighbours, and prompt foreign intervention.
"Some internal and external forces wanted a secular state, while the constitutional declaration reaffirmed the state's religious-Islamic
identity, stating that Islamic law (Sharia) would be the primary source
of legislation," said Sager. "A possible compromise could have been a
model similar to Turkey's - a secular state governed by an Islamic party." Muasher at the Carnegie Endowment said Assad's fall should serve as a
warning to those who replaced him in Syria.
He said Sharaa must decide whether to adopt the same playbook that made
Assad vulnerable and led to the mass Sunni uprising that eventually
ousted him - or adopt a different course.
"Syria's new rulers must recognise that the brutal authoritarian model
of the regime they replaced was ultimately unsustainable, as is any
political system based on exclusion and iron-fisted rule," Muasher said.
"If they fall back on repression, they will subject Syria to a grim fate." Reporting by Samia Nakhoul and Timour Azhari in Damascus; Additional
reporting by John Irish in Paris, Matt Spetalnick and Humerya Pamuk in Washington; Writing by Samia Nakhoul; Editing by David Clarke

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