US Secretary of State Antony Blinken known as Wednesday on Syria’s triumphant HTS rebels to comply with by means of on guarantees of inclusion, saying it might study a lesson from the isolation of Afghanistan’s Taliban.
The Islamist motion rooted in Al-Qaeda and supported by Turkey has promised to guard minorities since its lightning offensive toppled strongman Bashar al-Assad this month following years of stalemate.
“The Taliban projected a extra reasonable face, or not less than tried to, in taking on Afghanistan, after which its true colours got here out. The result’s it stays terribly remoted around the globe,” Blinken mentioned on the Council on International Relations in New York.
After some preliminary overtures to the West, the Taliban reimposed a strict interpretation of Islamic regulation that features barring ladies and women from secondary faculty and college.
“So when you’re the rising group in Syria,” Blinken mentioned, “if you don’t need that isolation, then there’s sure issues that you must do in transferring the nation ahead.”
Blinken known as for a “non-sectarian” Syrian authorities that protects minorities and addresses safety considerations, together with holding the struggle in opposition to the Islamic State group and eradicating lingering chemical weapons stockpiles.
Blinken mentioned that HTS can even study classes from Assad on the necessity to attain a political settlement with different teams.
“Assad’s utter refusal to have interaction in any form of political course of is without doubt one of the issues that sealed his downfall,” Blinken mentioned.
