Geir O. Pedersen, UN Special Envoy for Syria, speaks during a press conference in Damascus Wednesday Jan. 22, 2025.(AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki)

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Creating an inclusive government in Syria in coming weeks will help determine whether Western sanctions are lifted as the country rebuilds after the ouster of former President Bashar Assad, the U.N. special envoy to Syria said Thursday.

“What I’m hoping is that with a truly new inclusive government in place on the 1st of March, this will help us in lifting sanctions” imposed on Syria by Western countries during Assad's rule, Geir Pedersen told The Associated Press in an interview during a visit to Damascus.

After Assad was toppled in a lightning rebel offensive in December, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, the main former rebel group now in control of Syria, set up an interim administration comprising mainly members of its “salvation government” that had ruled in northwestern Syria.

The country’s de facto authorities said at the time that a new government would be formed through an inclusive process by March. In January, former HTS leader Ahmad al-Sharaa was named Syria’s interim president after a meeting of most of the country’s former rebel factions.

In recent weeks, a committee has been holding meetings in different parts of Syria in preparation for a national dialogue conference to chart the country's political future, the date of which has not yet been announced.

Pedersen said that in his first meeting with al-Sharaa in December, al-Sharaa had insisted that the interim government would rule for only three months, although Pedersen warned him the timeline was tight.

“I think the important thing is not whether it is three months or not, but it is whether they will deliver on what they have said all along, that this is going to be an inclusive process where all Syrians will be included,” Pedersen said.

The U.S. and European countries have not lifted sanctions that were imposed on the Syrian government under Assad’s rule, which the new authorities have said is handicapping their ability to rebuild the country after nearly 14 years of civil war and restore essential services like state electricity. Officials from some Western countries have said they want to see if the interim rulers will follow through on their promises of inclusive governance and protecting minorities.

Organizers of the national dialogue have said the conference will include all segments of Syrian society except for Assad loyalists and the Syrian Democratic Forces, a Kurdish-led force in the northeast that has so far refused to dissolve and be absorbed into the new national army. The SDF is currently in negotiations with the central government, and Pedersen said he hopes to see a “political solution” to the impasse.

Pedersen said he is also concerned about a security vacuum following the disbanding of the former national army and security services by the country’s new rulers.

“It’s very important that the new structures of the state are coming in place quickly and that there is an offer to those who are no longer in service of the army or the security services, that there are other job opportunities and that people do not feel that they are excluded from the future of Syria,” he said.

The U.N. envoy said he also remains concerned about Israel’s incursions into Syrian territory since the fall of Assad. The Israeli army has seized a U.N.-patrolled buffer zone in the Golan Heights established by a 1974 ceasefire agreement with Syria and has also made forays beyond the buffer zone. The U.N. has said that Israel is violating the agreement.

Israeli officials have said they took the action to protect Israel’s security and that their presence would be temporary.

Pedersen said the security concerns are being addressed and “there is really, in my opinion, no argument for why the Israelis should be staying.”

“The solution is very simple. The Israelis need to withdraw,” he said.

News from © The Associated Press, 2025