The U.S.-backed faction in Syria's civil war, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, is already concerned that Bashar Assad's ouster may not produce promised hopes for significant change in the country, Newsweek reported on Tuesday.
"First, we were very optimistic about the fall of Assad because he is a great opponent, and he and his party have been in the heart of the Syrians for more than 50 years at least since his father's rule," SDF co-Chair Riad Darar told Newsweek.
But while Darar acknowledged that the Islamist Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham had offered "positive signals" regarding its stated outlook of working with all elements of Syrian society, including the mostly Arab country's sizable Kurdish minority, he also felt "we cannot expect, as usual, Islamic movements to be democratic or just in the national sense in terms of the participation of all popular groups and components."
He cautioned that "perhaps Islamic rule will come, which will affect the societal structure again, and the regime will become totalitarian again and affect the hopes and aspirations of the people or their optimism."
Despite repeated attempts to engage with the newly established Syrian Transitional Government, led by Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham surrogate Prime Minister Mohammed al-Bashir, Darar said the only response so far has been battles with the former opposition.
"We still cannot say that hope exists, because we see changes in the form of the interim government that is intended to be imposed on the Syrians before there is a meeting, national conference, or agreement on the form of the next government," Darar said, adding that "this is also in addition to the mentality that can govern within one vision and traditional stereotypical thinking that relies on the Islamic vision alone and not the national vision."
With clashes erupting across several key strategic axes, the situation puts the United States in a difficult position even as it celebrates the fall of Assad, with whom Washington cut ties at the start of the civil war.
The U.S. continues to extol backing for the SDF while addressing the concerns of NATO ally Turkey, which considers the SDF to be an offshoot of the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party. As is the case with ISIS, the U.S. considers the party and the formerly al-Qaida-affiliated Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham to be terrorist organizations.
Darar said the continued attacks, including reports of ongoing Turkish strikes near the northern town of Ain Issa, only gave a "bad impression" of what was to come under the new Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham transitional government, which he said was set up "without consulting" other segments of Syrian society.
He said the Syrian Democratic Council would continue to strive for a "democratic solution, a decentralized, pluralistic way to build the Syrian state, and for the Syrian constitution to be a constitution that accommodates all Syrians based on a contemporary, national vision that is neither religious, nor nationalist, nor sectarian."
Darar emphasized counting on continued U.S. backing in the face of the latest challenges that he viewed as being rooted in Turkish aims.
"We are suffering in the regions from this Turkish pressure, and our dependence on the American army is the dependence of a friend on a friend who preserves the sacrifices that we make," Darar said. "It was presented during the partnership and alliance against ISIS, but now there is an obsession with changing the region, and its threat is greater than the threat of ISIS."
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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