Syria‘s new de-facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa has said the country is not a threat to the West or its neighbours.
In an interview with the BBC in Damascus, al-Sharaa said sanctions, which were opposed upon the country during the Assad regime, should now be lifted.
He said the sanctions must be lifted because they were ‘targeted at the old regime’ and said the ‘victim’ should not be treated in the same way as ‘the oppressor’.
Sharaa is the leader of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the dominant group in the rebel alliance.
He and HTS led the lightning offensive that toppled Bashar al-Assad’s regime less than two weeks ago.
HTS started as a splinter group of al-Qaeda and is currently listed as a terrorist organisation by the UN, US, EU and UK.
Sharaa now says HTS should be de-listed as a terrorist organisation and insists it was not a terrorist group.