The West auditions Syria’s new leaders
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Europe and the U.S. are trying to navigate an awkward choice in Syria: work with Islamists long designated as terrorists in the West or risk ceding influence to the countries that will.
It is a familiar conundrum posed in the past by the Taliban’s ascension to power in Afghanistan and other governments with uncertain commitments to human rights. Diplomats from Washington and European capitals took their first steps into Damascus this week, all trying to assess whether they can trust the emerging transitional government being formed by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, the Sunni-Islamist group that led the coalition of fighters that toppled the Assad regime. The militant group was formed as an offshoot of al Qaeda, and its leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa was an anti-American jihadist in Iraq who spent five years in an American-run prison camp there.
He disavowed extremism years ago and has pledged to respect Syria’s ethnic and religious diversity. Western powers are wary. Before lifting sanctions against HTS and Syria, they are looking for commitments to dispose of the chemical weapons left over from former President Bashar al-Assad’s despotic rule, protect women and minority groups and fight against extremists like Islamic State that could flourish in Syria’s power vacuum.
They also want to return some of the millions of Syrian refugees who fled the war. But Western countries don’t want Syria’s new government to fall under the sway of other powers with interests there like Russia and Iran. “Western states are quickly coming to the conclusion that they have to engage with HTS despite its terrorist listing," said Julien Barnes-Dacey, director of the Middle East and North Africa program at the
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