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NEW YORK - While Syria appears to be on the right path, “worries and frustrations” remain prevalent amid the reports of intercommunal violence and suppression of minorities, the president of the United Nations Security Council said Tuesday.
Responding to a question from Rudaw during a press briefing about the performance of the interim government in Syria, Sangjin Kim, South Korea’s chargé d’affaires to the UN and president of the UNSC for the month September, said that “a sense of hope is shared among at least 50 [UN] member countries that Syria is on the right track,” but also emphasized that concerns remain high.
Following a swift offensive in early December, a coalition of opposition forces - led by the now-dissolved Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), then headed by Ahmed al-Sharaa - toppled the regime of longtime Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad. In late January, Sharaa was appointed interim president and pledged commitment to an inclusive political process.
However, in the following months, the interim government came under fire for several controversial decisions.
In March, Sharaa signed a constitutional declaration that centered on Islamic jurisprudence, drawing criticism from Syria’s Christian, Druze, Kurdish, and Alawite communities, who viewed it as exclusionary.
The document also grants Sharaa authority to appoint one-third of the country’s legislature. Syria is set to hold its first post-Assad elections in mid-September. However, in late August, the country’s electoral commission said the vote would be put off in Kurdish and Druze majority provinces, citing “security concerns.”
The Kurdish administration in northeast Syria (Rojava) swiftly censured the decision and the electoral process as “undemocratic,” adding that it "does not reflect the will of the Syrian people.”
In more violent events, clashes broke out in mid-July between Druze fighters and Sunni Bedouin tribes in Syria’s southern Suwayda province. The conflict escalated further with the involvement of Syrian government forces before a ceasefire was announced on July 19.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported in late August that the death toll from the Suwayda violence had neared 2,000, including around 765 Druze civilians who were “executed in the field by defense and interior ministry forces.”
Earlier, in March, violence broke out in Alawite-majority coastal regions after Assad loyalists attacked security forces aligned with the country’s interim leadership. According to SOHR, the clashes resulted in approximately 1,700 deaths, most of them Alawite civilians. Many casualties were attributed to government or pro-government forces.
Kim noted on Tuesday that “a sense of hope exists together with a sense of worries and frustrations” in Syria, due to the “violence that erupted and the suppression of minorities” that was recorded in recent months.
He added that his country, South Korea, together with UN member-states “will work on encouraging the current Syrian interim authority to move on with the right sense of the judgment.”
Responding to a question from Rudaw during a press briefing about the performance of the interim government in Syria, Sangjin Kim, South Korea’s chargé d’affaires to the UN and president of the UNSC for the month September, said that “a sense of hope is shared among at least 50 [UN] member countries that Syria is on the right track,” but also emphasized that concerns remain high.
Following a swift offensive in early December, a coalition of opposition forces - led by the now-dissolved Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), then headed by Ahmed al-Sharaa - toppled the regime of longtime Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad. In late January, Sharaa was appointed interim president and pledged commitment to an inclusive political process.
However, in the following months, the interim government came under fire for several controversial decisions.
In March, Sharaa signed a constitutional declaration that centered on Islamic jurisprudence, drawing criticism from Syria’s Christian, Druze, Kurdish, and Alawite communities, who viewed it as exclusionary.
The document also grants Sharaa authority to appoint one-third of the country’s legislature. Syria is set to hold its first post-Assad elections in mid-September. However, in late August, the country’s electoral commission said the vote would be put off in Kurdish and Druze majority provinces, citing “security concerns.”
The Kurdish administration in northeast Syria (Rojava) swiftly censured the decision and the electoral process as “undemocratic,” adding that it "does not reflect the will of the Syrian people.”
In more violent events, clashes broke out in mid-July between Druze fighters and Sunni Bedouin tribes in Syria’s southern Suwayda province. The conflict escalated further with the involvement of Syrian government forces before a ceasefire was announced on July 19.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported in late August that the death toll from the Suwayda violence had neared 2,000, including around 765 Druze civilians who were “executed in the field by defense and interior ministry forces.”
Earlier, in March, violence broke out in Alawite-majority coastal regions after Assad loyalists attacked security forces aligned with the country’s interim leadership. According to SOHR, the clashes resulted in approximately 1,700 deaths, most of them Alawite civilians. Many casualties were attributed to government or pro-government forces.
Kim noted on Tuesday that “a sense of hope exists together with a sense of worries and frustrations” in Syria, due to the “violence that erupted and the suppression of minorities” that was recorded in recent months.
He added that his country, South Korea, together with UN member-states “will work on encouraging the current Syrian interim authority to move on with the right sense of the judgment.”
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