Syrian opposition leader says goal is to overthrow Assad regime

HOMS

Residents cheer as Syrian anti government fighters pour into the captured central-west city of Hama on Dec. 6, 2024.

Anti-regime forces pressing a lightning offensive in Syria aim to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad's rule, their leader said in an interview published on Dec. 6.

Rebel alliance groups led by Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) were at the gates of Syria's Homs on Dec. 6, after wresting other key cities from government control.

In little over a week, the offensive has seen Syria's second city Aleppo and strategically located Hama fall from Assad’s control for the first time since the civil war began in 2011.

Should the rebels capture Homs, that would cut the seat of power in the capital Damascus from the Mediterranean coast, a key bastion of the Assad clan.

By Dec. 6 morning, the rebels were just 5 kilometers (3 miles) from the edge of Homs, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor.

HTS leader Abu Mohammed al-Jolani said the goal of the offensive was to overthrow Assad's rule.

"When we talk about objectives, the goal of the revolution remains the overthrow of this regime. It is our right to use all available means to achieve that goal," Jolani told CNN in an interview.

“The seeds of the regime’s defeat have always been within it… the Iranians attempted to revive the regime, buying it time, and later the Russians also tried to prop it up. But the truth remains: This regime is dead.”

In his first sit-down media interview in years, at an undisclosed location in Syria, he spoke about plans to create a government based on institutions and a “council chosen by the people.”

Fearing the rebels' advance, tens of thousands of members of Assad's Alawite minority were fleeing Homs, residents and the Observatory said. The escalation in fighting has displaced around 280,000 people in just over a week, the United Nations said on Dec. 6, warning that numbers could swell to 1.5 million.

However, Jolani insisted that civilians had little to fear in the management of rebel-held areas of Syria.

“People who fear Islamic governance either have seen incorrect implementations of it or do not understand it properly,” he claimed.

If opposition forces succeed in toppling Assad’s regime, it will transition into “a state of governance, institutions and so on,” he said.

HTS had previously stated that it is working to reassure civilians and groups who suffered from extremist and jihadist factions during Syria's prolonged civil conflict.

It also announced its efforts to publicly reassure Christians and other religious and ethnic minorities that they will be safe under its rule.

It also said it has gone out of its way to publicly tell Christians and other religious and ethnic minorities that they will live safely under its rule.

“There were some violations against them [minorities] by certain individuals during periods of chaos, but we addressed these issues,” Jolani said when asked about concerns for their safety.

“No one has the right to erase another group. These sects have coexisted in this region for hundreds of years, and no one has the right to eliminate them,” he said.

Türkiye, the United States, the United Nations and several other Western nations continue to designate HTS as a terrorist organization, despite the group’s attempts to distance itself from its extremist roots.