Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on Wednesday called on governments to revoke the terrorist designation of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the Syrian opposition group that toppled dictator Bashar al-Assad last week.
“I think it is time for the international community, including the United Nations, to remove their names from the list,” Fidan said in a statement. interview With Al Jazeera News.
“I think HTS has taken a major step towards breaking away from al-Qaeda, Daesh and other extremist groups,” he said. said. “Daesh” is another name for the Islamic State.
HTS was once an al-Qaeda terrorist organization in Syria, but it changed its name several times during Syria's 10-year civil war in an effort to distance itself from al-Qaeda and the Islamic State.
As it launched a lightning attack to overthrow Assad, HTS claimed that It will be a more “moderate” and “inclusive” Islamist organization that, if it seizes power, will respect all of Syria's many ethnic minorities. The group now supports a broader-based Syrian government with a new constitution and says it will relinquish control after a three-month “transition period”.
Fidan admitted that turkey Also Although he classifies HTS as a terrorist organization, the Turkish government currently considers the rebel group to be a “legitimate partner” and will not designate it as a terrorist organization pending independent decisions from the United Nations, the United States or European countries. He said he plans to take steps to cancel the move.
Fidan said Turkey: resumed An embassy was opened in Damascus for the first time in 12 years. When the new ambassador was ceremonially installed last Saturday, representatives of the HTS Interim Government were also present, and the Turkish flag was once again hoisted over the facility.
Turkey's foreign minister rebuked the United States and European countries for worrying about HTS, while refusing to recognize Syria's Kurdish militias as a terrorist threat.
Mr Fidan said Western countries were “looking at the fact” that the Kurdish YPG, a key US ally in the fight against ISIS, is actually an extension of Turkey's violent Kurdish separatist group, the PKK. He accused them of turning a blind eye. He called on the US to end support for the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
HTS leader Abu Mohammed al-Jolani currently uses his real name, Ahmed al-Sharaa. said turkish newspaper Yeni Safak On Wednesday, he said he looked forward to building a “strategic relationship” with Türkiye.
“There will also be mutual commercial relations. We trust Turkey in transferring its experience in economic development to Syria,” he said.
The HTS leader called on all Syrians to remember the “kindness” Turkey showed by hosting some three million Syrian refugees during the long and brutal civil war.
Turkey is breaking precedent by removing HTS from the list of designated terrorist organizations without waiting for a UN request. The United Nations added HTS to its terrorist list in 2015, when it was known as Jabhat al-Nusra.
Senior U.N. political official Kiho Cha said last week that all U.N. member states “are expected to comply” with the asset freezes, travel bans and arms embargoes imposed on HTS and its leadership over the past nine years. said.
“Unilateral sanctions run parallel to UN sanctions, but are generally treated as separate coercive measures,” Cha pointed out.
According to Cha, HTS can be removed from the UN terrorist list if a member state proposes to remove it from the list and the 15-member UN Security Council (UNSC) “unanimously approves the proposal.” It is said that this will only happen if the government moves forward with the “decision.''
