Algeria will be presiding over the fate of the Syrian caretaker authority, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), regarding the possible delisting of the group from the United Nations Security Council’s terrorist list. Amar Bendjama, Algeria’s permanent representative to the UN, said the best approach to “help the Syrian people” will be discussed next week.
“It will be up to the Council,” Bendjama said, responding to a question at a media briefing on Jan. 2 on delisting the group. “We will have a meeting on Syria on the 8th of this month. We will debate the best way to help the Syrian people to rebuild their country and its government. The question of the listing should be apprehended.”
Bendjama is leading the monthly rotating presidency of the Council in January. Geir Pedersen, the UN envoy for Syria, is expected to brief the 15-member body remotely on Jan. 8 from Geneva on Syria. (His office would not disclose a preview of his remarks.)
Bendjama told PassBlue that the meeting would be an initial discussion on how members think the Council can provide stabilization to Syria, but that it is unlikely a resolution or formal statement will be issued from the debate. He also said that a follow-up meeting will be held at the end of the month.
Top UN officials say that easing sanctions on HTS after it suddenly toppled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime in December is the first step toward rebuilding Syria. Pedersen said earlier this week that the needs of the Syrian people “could only be addressed with broad support, including a smooth end to sanctions, appropriate action on designations” of the new leaders.
The Council has been divided for most of Syria’s protracted civil war, which began in March 2011, with Russia on one side and Western powers and Türkiye on the other. Russia sided with the Assad regime by providing much-needed military support and using its veto in the Council to block resolutions demanding the inclusion of other minority groups in peace deals. Russia’s presence in Syria provided the Kremlin with strong influence in the Mideast and economic advantages.
Bendjama said that Russia has not made its position known in the Council on the future of Syria but reports say President Vladimir Putin has withdrawn a large portion of its troops and military equipment from Syria since the fall of Assad. It is unclear if the HTS will allow Russia to keep its remaining military presence in Syria.
Richard Gowan, the UN director for the International Crisis Group think tank, said Western members of the Council are more optimistic that they can work with HTS, compared with their response to the Taliban in 2021, when the United States pulled out of Afghanistan. Yet, there is a sense of caution in the Council, Gowan added.
“The fall of Assad took all Council members by surprise,” he said. “I think many are still trying to define their policies. There is a general sense that the Council should judge the new authorities in Damascus based on their actions rather than their rhetoric. I don’t see the Council rushing to any big decisions about delisting.”
HTS, previously known as Al-Nusrah Front for the People of the Levant, was designated by the Security Council as a terrorist group through the Al Qaeda and Islamic State sanctions list. At the time, the Council said the group was involved in financing, planning, facilitating, preparing or carrying out acts or activities in collaboration with, under the name of, or in support of Al Qaeda and Al Qaeda in Iraq. The designation shut the group out of the international banking system, froze its assets and placed an arms embargo on it.
The leader of the group, Ahmed al-Sharaa, formerly known as Abu Mohammed al-Julani, was also listed on the UN’s Al Qaeda sanctions list on July 24, 2013. Al- Sharaa was a member of both ISIS and Al Qaeda before cutting ties with both. He told the BBC that the UN sanctions were against the Assad regime and called for them to be lifted. HTS is now the most prominent political and military group in Syria, but it is not the only rebel entity. Al-Sharaa said he would work with other rebels to deliver peace and security to the Syrian people.
“We have not committed any crime justifying calling us a terrorist group,” Al-Sharaa said. “In the last 13 years, we have not targeted any civilian, civilian area or targets. I understand that some countries would be worried by that designation, but it is not true. The victim and the oppressor should not be treated in the same way.”
Jenifer Fenton, the spokesperson for the UN envoy Pedersen, said in an email to PassBlue on Dec. 16: “The designation of HTS as a listed group by the UN Security Council can present significant challenges for the country. However, it is now critically important to witness concrete developments on the ground that demonstrate progress toward a credible, inclusive and meaningful transition — one that paves the way for a democratic and inclusive future for Syria.”
For many observers, the need to make sure HTS respects women’s rights, protects religious and ethnic minorities and leads an inclusive government are important parameters that the international community must ensure are crafted into any deal with the de facto authority. Gowan said, however, that keeping terrorism at bay would be the major concern of most Council members.
“Our view is that the Council should lay out some transparent and realistic guidelines for delisting HTS,” he said, speaking for the International Crisis Group, which specializes in conflict prevention. “If the Council is clear about the terms and conditions for delisting, whether around the political process or counterterrorism cooperation, it will establish a framework for engaging with HTS. If the Council is opaque about the conditions for delisting, or keeps moving the goalposts, it will make engagement much harder.”
Bendjama said in the Jan. 2 media briefing that while some provisions of Security Council Resolution 2254 — adopted in 2015 as a blueprint for peace and reconciliation in Syria — are now outdated given recent developments, it is still valid for Syria’s future. He added that no conditions should be imposed on what he called a Syrian-owned and led transitional process.
The resolution proposed power-sharing between the Assad regime and rebel groups, but that aspect has become moot with the fall of Assad, who is now exiled in Russia. But it also called for “an inclusive and Syrian-led political process that meets the legitimate aspirations of the Syrian people.” It outlined the format of Syrian transition to a democratic system, starting with a UN-supervised election and a new constitution. (None of these recommendations have materialized since the resolution was approved.)
“When you read it again and again, you will find the principles on which we can build a better future for all Syrians within a country in peace and with an inclusive process for the new government,” Bendjama said, referring to 2254.
Senior UN officials have said the HTS caretaker government cannot begin the reconstruction of Syria without full international support, which will be hampered with the sanctions in place. Amy Pope, head of the International Organization for Migration, said there is an “enormous” gap in providing the needed humanitarian support for the Syrian people.
“We are going to need exemptions from sanctions for development reconstruction efforts. That is the only way we can scale up to meet emerging needs that we are seeing,” Pope said at a Dec. 20 briefing in Geneva, calling on the UN and the US to reconsider their sanctions.
Fenton of the UN said on Dec. 16. “It is essential that sanctioning states assess the potential humanitarian impacts of any sanctions in line with international law, and adjust accordingly to respond to immediate humanitarian and economic needs.”
The sanctions from the UN, the US, the larger Western bloc and Arab countries have had a major effect on the Syrian population during the country’s civil war, especially on the most vulnerable people. The economy is largely based on a cash system, as people are unable to access credit. Essentials for building houses and other infrastructure are imported, and much of the goods are restricted due to sanctions on dual-use products like water pumps and fertilizers.
Reports say that crucial service-providers like banks, airlines and businesses voluntarily withdrew from Syria, refusing to operate in a pariah state riddled with restrictive sanctions.
The UN Refugee Agency said that Syria remains the world’s largest refugee crisis. Since 2011, more than 14 million Syrians have fled the country to escape the long conflict. Another 7.2 million Syrians are internally displaced, with 70 percent of the population requiring humanitarian help. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that more than half a million people have been killed in the war.
According to Unicef, about 90 percent of Syria’s 23 million people are poor. With the fall of Assad, Syrian refugees may want to return home, but experts say that instability plagues many parts of the country. UN Secretary-General António Guterres said on Dec. 19 that although fighting has stopped in some areas of Syria, civilians are still getting killed, injured and displaced.
Matthew Levitt, the Fromer-Wexler Senior Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and director of its Reinhard Program on Counterterrorism and Intelligence, wrote that while sanctions need to be relaxed for development to happen in the country, a “broader delisting” of HTS and other such groups must be earned.
“Some observers argue that unwinding these sanctions is key to giving Syria’s post-Assad leadership a chance to build a different kind of government and country,” Levitt said. “And no one could reasonably oppose some near-term waivers and similar measures to allow for humanitarian aid. Yet broader delisting — at the state, group, or personal levels — should be earned, not gifted.”
Regarding other actions in the Security Council this month, Bendjama said Algeria will lead discussions on such hot spots as Darfur, renewing the Libya sanctions regime and updates on Yemen. (It held a session on Israel’s destruction of Gaza’s health care system on Jan. 3.) A vote on the renewal of the peacekeeping mission in Cyprus is scheduled for Jan. 31.
Algeria will highlight its regional influence with a presidential statement on strengthening UN cooperation with the League of Arab States. The presidency will culminate in a high-profile event focusing on counterterrorism in Africa, scheduled for Jan. 21. Algeria’s foreign minister, Ahmed Attaf, will chair the debate. He is also scheduled to chair an open debate on the Mideast on Jan. 20.
Each month, PassBlue profiles UN ambassadors as their countries assume the Council presidency. It’s Algeria’s first rotating presidency as an elected member of the Council in its current two-year term. The ambassador declined requests to be interviewed for this column.
Algeria’s ambassador to the UN: Amar Bendjama, born in 1951
Since: April 2023
Education: Degree from the National School of Administration, Algiers
His story, briefly: Bendjama’s diplomatic career began in 1975. His current role as permanent representative to the UN was preceded in 2017 as ambassador and counselor in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA); before that, he was envoy to France from 2013-2017. In 2010, he served as ambassador to Belgium and Luxembourg and as chief of delegation to the European Union and representative to NATO. From 2005 to 2009, he was ambassador and counselor to the MFA, in charge of Euro-Mediterranean issues. From 2001 to 2005, he was ambassador to Japan; and from 1996 to 2000, secretary-general of the MFA. From 1994 to 1995, he was ambassador to Britain; and from 1992 to 1994, ambassador to Ethiopia. He also was deputy permanent representative to the UN from 1989 to 1991 and first secretary at Algeria’s embassy in Russia from 1980 to 1984. He is married and has two children.
Country Profile
Head of State: President Abdelmadjid Tebboune
Minister of Foreign Affairs: Ahmed Attaf
Type of Government: Semipresidential system
Year Algeria Joined the UN: 1962
Years in the Security Council: 1968-1969, 1988-1989 and 2004-2005
Population: 45.6 million
CO2 emissions per person: Algeria, 3.9 tons; world average, 4.7 tons
Damilola Banjo is an award-winning staff reporter for PassBlue who has covered a wide range of topics, from Africa-centered stories to gender equality to UN peacekeeping and US-UN relations. She also oversees all video production for PassBlue. She was a Dag Hammarskjold fellow in 2023 and a Pulitzer Center postgraduate fellow in 2021. She was part of the BBC Africa team that produced the Emmy-nominated documentary, “Sex for Grades.” In addition, she worked for WFAE, an NPR affiliate in Charlotte, N.C. Banjo has a master’s of science degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and an undergraduate degree from the University of Ibadan in Nigeria.
