Syrian rebel leader: Syria is no longer a threat to the West, lift the sanctions

The de facto leader of Syria, Ahmed Al-Sharaa, who heads the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group, stated on Wednesday that the country is exhausted by the ongoing war and is no longer a threat to its neighbors or to the West. In an interview with the BBC in Damascus, Sharaa called for the lifting of sanctions imposed on Syria, arguing that they were originally aimed at the old regime.

"Now, after all that has happened, sanctions must be lifted because they were targeted at the old regime. The victim and the oppressor should not be treated in the same way," he said. Sharaa, previously known by the alias Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, argued in the interview that HTS should be removed from the list of terrorist organizations, a designation it holds from the UN, US, EU, UK, and others, primarily due to its origins as a splinter group of Al-Qaeda, from which it separated in 2016.

Sharaa insisted that HTS is not a terrorist group. "They did not target civilians or civilian areas," he said, adding that the group views itself as a victim of the Assad regime's crimes.   (Read More)