Ahmed al-Sharaa vowed to preserve
DAMASCUS – Syria's interim president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, promised Thursday to hold a "national dialogue conference" in his first address to the nation since the fall of ousted leader Bashar al-Assad.
And he vowed to "pursue the criminals who shed Syrian blood and committed massacres and crimes", whether they were in Syria or abroad, and to establish "real transitional justice" after Assad's fall. Syria's new authorities on Wednesday said Sharaa had also been tasked with forming a transitional legislature. They announced the dissolution of all armed groups involved in Assad's overthrow, as well as the former government's army.
Qatari foreign ministry official Mohammed al-Khulaifi welcomed Wednesday's announcement by Syria's authorities "on the end of the revolutionary phase and the transition to the phase of establishing the state". Riyadh was key to returning Assad's Syria to the Arab League in 2023, after openly championing his overthrow following Damascus's 2011 crackdown on pro-democracy protests, which sparked war.