Reuters conducts an extensive interview with Ahmed al Sharaa

In his first interview with an international news agency, conducted after hundreds of people were killed in four days of clashes between Alawite Muslims and Syria’s new Sunni Islamist authorities, the Syrian transitional president, Ahmed al Sharaa, said the mass killings of members of ousted President Bashar al Assad’s sect posed a threat to his mission of uniting the country and vowed to punish those responsible, including his allies if necessary.

He blamed foreign-backed pro-Assad groups for provoking the bloodshed, but acknowledged that revenge killings followed.

“Syria is a state of law… The law will take its course for everyone,” he told Reuters from the presidential palace in Damascus, where Assad had been living until he was ousted by pro-government forces on December 8, forcing the deposed ruler to flee to Moscow.

“We fought to defend the oppressed, and we won’t accept that anyone’s blood be shed unjustly or go unpunished or unaccounted for, even among those closest to us,” he said.

He also said that his government hadn’t had any contact with the United States since President Donald Trump took office, and reiterated his appeals for Washington to lift sanctions imposed under Assad.

He also hinted at the possibility of restoring relations with Moscow, Assad’s backer throughout the war, which is trying to retain two major military bases in Syria.

Al Sharaa rejected criticism from Israel, which has seized territory in southern Syria since Assad was ousted, and said he aimed to resolve differences with the Kurds, including by meeting the head of a Kurdish-led group long backed by Washington.

While he blamed the outbreak of violence in recent days on a former military unit loyal to Assad’s brother and an unidentified foreign force, he acknowledged that in response many parties entered the Syrian coast and many violations occurred.

He said it had become an opportunity to avenge years of pent-up grievances, although he said the situation had been largely contained since then.

He said to Reuters that 200 members of the security forces were killed in the unrest, while he declined to disclose the total number of dead pending an investigation by an independent committee announced on Sunday before his interview.

After years in the field leading a guerrilla movement that broke away from al Qaeda, the 42-year-old son of an Arab nationalist spoke quietly, his voice sometimes barely above a whisper during the interview conducted after midnight on Monday during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, when business often runs late.

His entourage of bearded young men still seem to be adjusting to protocol in the opulent seat of power.

“Honestly, my chest is tight in this palace… I am amazed at the amount of evil directed against society from every angle,” he said.

Al Sharaa realized that the violence of the past few days threatened to derail his attempt to reunite Syria.

He added that this will affect this path, but he pledged to correct the situation as much as we can.

He declined to answer whether foreign jihadist fighters, other allied Islamist factions or his security forces were involved in the mass killings, saying these were matters for the investigation.

Al Sharaa added that security and economic prosperity are directly linked to lifting US sanctions imposed on Assad, saying, “We cannot establish security in the country while the sanctions imposed on us continue”.

But there has been no direct contact with the Trump administration in the nearly two months since he took office, amid suspicions about Sharaa’s past ties to al Qaeda.

When asked why, he said, “The Syrian issue isn’t on the US’s list of priorities… You should ask them this question… Syria’s door is open”.

Meanwhile, talks continue with Moscow over its military presence at two strategic military bases in the Mediterranean, the Tartus naval base and the Hmeimim air base.

Al Sharaa said that Moscow and Damascus agreed to review all previous agreements, but there isn’t enough time yet to go into details.

He added, “We don’t want there to be a dispute between Syria and Russia, and we don’t want the Russian presence in Syria to pose a danger or threat to any country in the world, and we want to maintain these deep strategic relations”.

He added that relations with Moscow were so important that “we tolerated the Russian bombing and didn’t target them directly in order to make room for meetings and dialogue between us and them after the liberation”.

Since Assad’s ouster, Turkish-backed groups have clashed with Kurdish forces who control much of oil-rich northeastern Syria. Damascus has yet to assert its authority there amid ongoing talks with the commander of the US-backed Syria Democratic Forces, Mazloum Abdi, who said the recent violence justified their concerns about integration.

Sharaa said he wanted a negotiated solution and would meet with Abdi.

Government control is also weak in southern Syria, where Israel has declared a demilitarized zone and threatened to target pro-government forces if they deploy.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz on Monday described al Sharaa as a “jihadist terrorist belonging to the al Qaeda school who commits horrific acts against the civilian population”.

Finally, the Syrian transitional president dismissed the increasingly aggressive Israeli threats and Katz’s comments as nonsense.

“They are the last ones who can talk,” he said, noting that Israel has killed tens of thousands of people in Gaza and Lebanon over the past 18 months.