New elections could take up to four years, Syria rebel leader says

Holding caller elections successful Syria could instrumentality up to 4 years, rebel person Ahmed al-Sharaa has said successful a broadcast interview.

This is the archetypal clip helium has fixed a timeline for imaginable elections successful Syria since his radical Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) led a rebel violative that ousted erstwhile President Bashar al-Assad.

In the interrogation with Saudi authorities broadcaster Al Arabiya connected Sunday, helium said drafting a caller constitution could instrumentality up to 3 years.

He said it could besides beryllium a twelvemonth earlier Syrians statesman to spot important alteration and improvements to nationalist services pursuing the overthrow of the Assad regime.

Sharaa said Syria needed to rebuild its ineligible strategy and would person to clasp a broad colonisation census to tally morganatic elections.

Sharaa - previously known arsenic Abu Mohammed al-Jolani - has led the country's caller authorities aft the Assad presidency fell earlier this month.

Since then, questions person been raised implicit however HTS volition govern the multi-ethnic country.

HTS began arsenic a jihadist radical - espousing unit to execute its extremity of establishing a authorities governed by Islamic instrumentality (Sharia) - but has distanced itself from that past successful caller years.

Sharaa said the group, which was erstwhile aligned with Islamic State and al- Qaeda and is designated arsenic a violent organisation by the UN and galore countries, volition beryllium "dissolved" astatine an upcoming nationalist dialog league but gave nary further details.

The gathering could beryllium the archetypal trial of whether Syria's caller enactment tin execute the promised extremity of uniting the state aft thirteen years of civilian war.

Responding to disapproval of his transitional government, helium said the appointments made were "essential" and not meant to exclude anyone.

Syria is location to galore taste and spiritual groups, including Kurds, Armenians, Assyrians, Christians, Druze, Alawite Shia and Arab Sunnis, the past of whom marque up a bulk of the Muslim population.

His radical person promised to support the rights and freedoms of minorities successful the country.

Meanwhile, astir 300 radical person been arrested successful the past week successful a crackdown connected Assad loyalists, according to a UK-based warfare monitor.

Those arrested see informants, pro-regime fighters and erstwhile soldiers, Syrian Observatory for Human Rights caput Rami Abdel Rahman said.

He told AFP quality bureau the arrests had been taking spot "with the practice of section populations".

Syrian authorities quality bureau Sana besides reported arrests this week targeting "Assad militia members" wherever weapons and ammunition were seized.