Syria's new leader seeks friendly ties with Moscow, Riyadh but disappointed in Tehran Exclusive interview to Al Arabiya

Syria’s de-facto new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa expressed his desire for Syria to remain friendly with Russia despite the ousting of  Moscow-backed Bashar al-Assad. 

Al-Sharaa gave an exclusive interview to the Al Arabiya News publication on December 29, discussing a wide range of foreign policy matters concerning Syria, like their strategic interests with the "second most powerful country in the world". 

“We don’t want Russia to exit Syria in a way [that] undermines its relationship with [our] country,” al-Sharaa said.

Al-Sharaa, who led the opposition offensive that toppled Bashar al-Assad earlier this month, also spoke of his government's outlook for relations with other regional key players, such as Iran. He urged Tehran to "reconsider its regional policies and interventions", emphasizing that his opposition forces safeguarded Iranian positions in Syria throughout their recent advances on Damascus, despite Iran being one of al-Assad’s primary backers. Al-Sharaa added that he had expected positive gestures from Tehran in response to these actions, but such gestures have not materialized.

In contrast to Al-Sharaa's evaluation of Iran's stance, he expressed his gratitude to Saudi Arabia for "everything it has done for us" and revealing that Riyadh was to play a major rule in Syria’s future. He valued the recent statements made by Saudi Arabia  as “very positive,” commending Riyadh’s efforts toward stabilizing Syria.

Internal battle

Talking about the country's internal concerns, he confirmed that the transitional administration was in talks with the US-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to resolve the crisis in northeastern Syria, with the aim of eventually integrating the SDF into the national armed forces. He reaffirmed that Kurdish people are an integral part of Syria’s fabric, yet ruled out any plans for a potential partition of the country.

“There will be no division of Syria in any way,” al-Sharaa assured.

Furthermore, he reiterated that his new government would not allow Syria to become a launching pad for PKK attacks and pointed out, that negotiations with the SDF to resolve the crisis in northeastern Syria were ongoing. 

By Nazrin Sadigova