Syrian rebel leader calls for sanctions to be lifted | BBC News

the deao leader of Syria akmed Asar chose to do the interview in the presidential Palace built by the assads he told me he wasn't surprised that the old regime collapsed so quickly syrians he said needed to keep calm to tackle all the problems they face you've made a lot of promises you've said that you'll respect uh the Mosaic of of different sectarian groups here in Syria minorities as well are you going to keep those prom the Syrian population has lived together for thousands of years we're going to discuss all of it we're going to have

dialogue and make sure everyone is represented the old regime always played on sectarian divisions but we won't we were welcomed in all the big cities by all the sects I think the revolution can contain everybody so this isn't going to be some kind of Al fate or you're not going to make Syria into a country like Afghanistan because you know that there are people who say that maybe you want to behave like the [Music] Taliban there are many differences between Syria and the Taliban the way we govern is different Afghanistan is a tribal Community Syria

is completely different the people just don't think in the same way the Syrian government and the ruling system will be in line with Syria's history and culture so the culture of Syria includes rights for women it includes education for women it includes tolerance for people drinking alcohol is that all acceptable to you when it comes to women's education of course we've had universities in idlip for more than 8 years I think the percentage of women in universities is more than 60% and alcohol there are many things I just don't have the right to talk about

because they are legal issues there will be a Syrian Committee of legal experts to write a constitution they will decide and any ruler or president will have to follow the law um let's talk about wider issues that you face first of all this country is broken uh there is massive amount of Destruction the economy is destroyed there are huge debts how do you begin to start dealing with all of that when you are when the country is under sanctions and when major Powers around the world and the United Nations say that you are the leader

of a terrorist group will that's a political classification we haven't committed any crimes that justify calling as a terrorist group in the last 14 years we haven't targeted any civilians or civilian areas or civilian targets I understand some countries will be worried by that designation but it's not true now after all that has happened sanctions must be lifted because they were targeted at the old regime the victim and the oppressor should not be treated in the same way foreign countries powerful countri their diplomats have said that that depends on you keeping your promises to respect

minority rights and to run uh an inclusive political process do you can you assure them that you'll do that and why should they believe you what matters to me most is that the Syrian people believe me we promised the Syrian people that we would liberate them from this criminal regime and we did that this is what matters to me first and last I don't very much care about what will be said about us abroad I'm not obligated to prove to the world that we work seriously to achieve the interests of our people in Syria there

are many syrians who said to me for example when I went to sedah prison and I spoke to families of people who had disappeared into that prison probably been killed and many of those syrians say they can't face the future until they get Justice from the Assad regime one man said to me I need to see Assad's people hanging in public dead how are you going to satisfy people who feel that they really deserve justice after 54 years of the crimes of the Assad regime this revolution is not about revenge a group of people committed

crimes in Sida prison and carried out chemical attacks and massacres in hula and benas once we get their names we'll send them to the Justice Ministry and the public prosecutor the foreign ministry will send messages around the world to pursue those people bring them to justice and hand them over to Syria to stand trial what about Bashar al-assad what should happen to [Music] him Bashar alassad as you know has fled Syria he took a huge sum of money from this country and smuggled it abroad we want those protecting him to return him so he can

be prosecuted in the Syrian courts you have a situation now where you have foreign soldiers in this country you have these Israelis taking territory uh more occupied territory you have the Turks up north you have Americans in the country do you want them all to get out how are you going to deal with that it's vital for us to preserve the unity of Syria and its territory as for the Turks they're here because of the conflict on our border with them there are old Arrangements between Syria and the Turks the war really affected turkey because

of the millions of syrians who fled to Turkey and then to Europe tury's intervention in Syria was not intended to kill Syrian people in the way that Iranians and the Russian did it was in the interest of the public as well as Turkish National Security to prevent a crisis in Syria's liberated areas to prevent a large displacement into turkey as for Israel they Justified intervening in Syria because of Hezbollah and Iranian militia were in Syria that's no longer the case we got Hezbollah and the Iranian militia out of Syria so the Israelis shouldn't be moving

into Syrian territory but you're not planning to try and fight the Israelis you can't can you they're too strong Syria is exhausted from the war regardless of whether Israel is strong or not Syria needs to get stronger and more developed we don't have any plans to attack Israel Syria will not be a threat to Israel or to anyone else what about the Russian bases in tatus and Latakia do they stay they go Syria and Russia had a strategic relationship we can't end it quickly and we want to develop our joint strategic interests in the future

any relationship will be focused on Syria's own interest security needs and Independence so we are not in a rush to get Russia out of Syria as some people think we already opened channels of communication with them we don't want a major conflict with any other country we're not strong enough to face Russia the United States Israel or turkey right now we want to open a dialogue so in the right terms the Russians could stay in principle yes