UN special envoy Geir Pedersen said it was crucial that Syria’s new leadership keep its promise to respect the rights of all the country’s different religious and ethnic groups.

Pedersen told the BBC in an interview in Damascus that Syrians “experience a lot of hope and a lot of fear at the same time.”

He called on all parties inside and outside Syria to make every effort to maintain the country’s stability.

Bashar al-Assad regime Overturned less than two weeks ago The rebel alliance led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, is a Sunni Islamist group that has claimed to deny its jihadist extremist past since splitting from al-Qaeda in 2016.

HTS is recognized as a terrorist organization by the United Nations, the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom and other countries.

Symbolically, its leader dropped his wartime alias, Abu Muhammad al-Jolani, and Restore real name Ahmed Sala.

Sunni Muslims make up the majority in Syria and have a strong secular tradition. Sarah insists that HTS is a religious nationalist movement prepared to tolerate other groups.

Mr Pedersen said Salad had “a lot of positive things to say”. But he said some Syrians did not trust the HTS leader, who until 2016 was a jihadist extremist.

“I have to be honest. I’m hearing from a lot of Syrians that they are asking if this will actually be implemented. They have doubts.”

That’s not surprising, he said, given the pace of change in Syria.

“If the transition is to be successful, it needs to be a collaborative process.”

“(Sala) needs to work with the different armed factions he joins with. He needs to work with the wider ex-opposition groups. He needs to make sure he works with the wider civil society women’s groups. We all agree with the broadest view of Syrian society ”

Peterson, who has served as UN special envoy since 2018, said the international community is ready to help and support Syria’s new leadership.

He stressed that hopes of lifting sanctions on Syria and removing HTS from the terrorist list depended on its behavior.

He wants to grant the benefit of the doubt for three months – the period HTS says the interim government will govern before longer-term arrangements are made.

“I think the consensus is that for Syria to really be successful, we need to see Syria taken off the list, we need to see sanctions lifted. But I think it’s also important that people understand that’s not going to just happen, Because everyone wants positive outcomes.”

“Member states are watching very carefully what is going to happen on the ground, but I do believe that if what is said publicly is actually followed through, yes, then I think we could see an end to delistings and sanctions. “

As for Syria’s neighbors, Pedersen said Israel’s actions since Assad’s fall have been “very irresponsible.”

Since the 1967 Middle East War, Israel has occupied and annexed the Golan Heights region in southern Syria. Most other countries except the United States consider the Golan Heights to be occupied land.

Pedersen said Israel’s current bombing campaign against Syrian military installations and its occupation of more Syrian land in the Golan Heights demilitarized buffer zone and adjacent areas “pose a threat to Syria’s future and these activities need to stop immediately.”

“Israel has no reason to occupy new Syrian territory. The Golan Heights are already occupied. They don’t need to occupy new land. So what we need to see is that Israel behaves in a way that also does not destabilize Syria.” The transition process is very, very Vulnerable,” he added.

Mr Peterson is also concerned about the complex web of power in northern Syria.

Türkiye has good relations with HTS. It has troops in the northwest, as well as a militia called the Syrian National Army (SNA), made up of rebel factions it supports.

Since Assad was overthrown, the SNA has attacked another force in northern Syria, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance of Kurdish-led militias backed by the United States.

Peterson said it was in Türkiye’s interest to join other foreign powers in adhering to certain key principles.

“What do we need to see in Syria now? We need to see stability. We need to see that no new groups of the population are being displaced. We need to see that people are not fleeing Syria as refugees. We need to see that refugees are returning, internally displaced people You can return home.”

After 54 years of rule by two authoritarian Assad presidents, Syria is torn apart, with towns and villages devastated by nearly 14 years of war and a population traumatized by war and the regime’s brutality.

Pedersen said it was critical for HTS to launch a process to bring justice to all the families of the more than 100,000 Syrians who have disappeared since 2011 after being detained by the Syrian regime. Most are presumed dead.

“If the process doesn’t go in the right direction, there’s a huge danger that this anger will explode in a way that’s not in anyone’s interest.”

Mr Pedersen said Syrians wanted to lead the process of rebuilding their country. That could be difficult given the instability in the Middle East and the interventionist tendencies of Syria’s neighbors and other powers.

Time is short. If HTS keeps its word, “Syria is expected to have a bright future in the coming weeks and months,” he said.

If this is not done, he warned, “there is also the risk of new conflicts or even civil war.”

“But we need to bet that Syria’s future can be resolved now. We can begin the process of healing.”