Syria rebel leader meets U.N. envoy in Damascus

UN Special Envoy Geir Pedersen meeting with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) leader Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, now using his real name Ahmed al-Sharaa in Damascus.
| Photo Credit: AFP

The Syrian Islamist leader whose group led the offensive that toppled Bashar al-Assad met on Sunday with U.N. envoy Geir Pedersen, who was visiting Damascus, said a statement on the rebels’ Telegram channel.

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) leader Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, now using his real name Ahmed al-Sharaa, discussed with Pedersen “the changes that have occurred on the political scene which make it necessary to update” a 2015 United Nations Security Council resolution “to suit the new reality”, the statement said.

Jolani’s HTS is rooted in Syria’s branch of Al-Qaeda, the Al-Nusra Front, designated a “terrorist” organisation by many Western governments.

U.N. Security Council Resolution 2254 of 2015, to which the rebel statement referred, set out a roadmap for a political settlement in Syria, and also mentioned Nusra’s “terrorist” designation.

On Tuesday, Pedersen said the fact that Nusra was listed by the U.N. Security Council as a terrorist organisation was “obviously a complicating factor” in efforts to find a way forward.

However, he stressed that it was important to view HTS, which broke with Nusra in 2016 and has sought to soften its image, through the events of the civil war.

The rebel statement on Sunday said Jolani had emphasised “the need to focus on Syrian territorial unity, reconstruction and achieving economic development”.

He also raised “the importance of providing a safe environment for the return of refugees and providing economic and political support for this”, said the statement.

Earlier on Sunday, Pedersen urged a “political process… that is inclusive of all Syrians.

“That process obviously needs to be led by the Syrians themselves” with “help and assistance” from the rest of the world, he said.