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Syria’s de facto leader Ahmed Salad said it could take up to four years before the country holds its first elections since the collapse of former President Bashar Assad’s regime.
“Any valid elections require a comprehensive census,” Sala said in his first comments on a possible timetable for a key stage of the country’s political transition.
Salad, who has used the pseudonym Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, told Saudi broadcasters al-Arabiya and al-Hadath on Sunday that drafting a new constitution could also take up to three years.
A longer-than-expected transition period will worry Western powers who have been urging Sala to form an inclusive government. They are considering lifting sanctions on the Syrian state and labeling Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the Islamist movement leading the rebel blitzkrieg to overthrow Assad, as terrorists.
Earlier this month, HTS appointed Mohammed al-Bashir as Syria’s interim prime minister.
Bashir leads the civil administration in Idlib, a northwest region that has been controlled by HTS for years. HTS members.
Sala also spoke about HTS’s leading role in the transitional government, telling the broadcaster that “the current form of appointments is a phased necessity” and that “a quota system for this period would undermine the transition”.
Hadi Bahra, head of the Syrian National Coalition, an umbrella group of Assad’s main opponents during Syria’s civil war, called on all opposition parties to join the transitional government.
He also set an 18-month timetable for the political transition, including six months to draft a new constitution.
Sala also confirmed that HTS and other armed factions would be disbanded into new national authorities, although it was uncertain whether many of Syria’s factions would accept his initiative.
The disbandment of HTS will be announced at a national dialogue meeting attended by key opposition figures, ethnic and religious leaders, and a number of Assad regime officials who do not hold military or security positions.
Organizers told Al Jazeera that the meeting, whose date has not yet been announced, is also expected to announce the dissolution of the former parliament, the abolition of the former constitution and the establishment of an advisory committee.
One of the most important factions still outside Sala’s sphere of influence is the Kurdish-led, U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, which control much of the country’s northeast.
Sala said on Sunday that the HTS-led government was in talks with the SDF over the region’s future status.
