HTS-leader Ahmed al-Sharaa may invite former Syrian Vice President Farouk al-Sharaa to attend an upcoming National Dialogue Conference [Getty]
The leader of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), Ahmed al-Sharaa, is believed to be considering inviting former Syrian Vice President Farouk al-Sharaa to attend an upcoming National Dialogue Conference due to be held in Damascus.
Farouk al-Sharaa, a hugely prominent Syrian politician for decades, had been sidelined from Syria’s political scene during the ousted President Bashar al-Assad’s rule after advocating a political solution soon after the Syrian uprising began.
Earlier reports carried by AFP and published in The New Arab suggested Ahmed al-Sharaa had already met with the former regime figure. However, the coordinator of the Union of Syrian Tribes, Sami Al-Hamsh, denied on Sunday that any meeting had taken place so far between Ahmed and Farouk al-Sharaa.
In press statements to the Saudi Arabian state-owned Al Arabiya channel, he clarified that preparations for a meeting are still underway, but confirmed that leaders from HTS had visited Farouk al-Sharaa’s residence to arrange a meeting with Ahmad al-Sharaa.
He also pointed out that Marwan al-Sharaa, a relative of Farouk al-Sharaa mentioned in media reports as the source of the news that a meeting had already taken place, has been deceased for several years.
The quick and dramatic collapse of Assad’s Baathist regime has shaken the Middle East, but the HTS-led interim authorities have swiftly announced a government to oversee a transitional phase in Syria until March next year, reaching out to both minority leaders and former regime figures and stressing that they plan to be inclusive and their priority is to rebuild Syria.
Farouk, 86, was a key player in shaping Syria’s foreign policy for over two decades.
He initially served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1984, during Hafez al-Assad’s rule, then remained in this position when Bashar assumed power in 2000. He was then appointed Vice President in 2006.
Farouk went on to chair a National Dialogue Conference in a Damascus hotel in 2011, a few months after the outbreak of anti-government protests.
During that conference, he called for a political settlement to the escalating conflict, after which he vanished from the political arena and public eye, until recent developments.
A few days ago, Mohammad Adel al-Homsi, the son of Farouk’s driver, Akram al-Homsi, appeared in a video explaining the circumstances surrounding the arrest of his father by Syrian security forces in 2013.
This occurred after he returned from the Daraa governorate, where Farouk hails from. He was accused of delivering a message to a group in the governorate the aim of which was facilitating Farouk’s defection from the regime.
Farouk was the only official whose disagreements with the Assad regime over how to handle the Syrian protests became public.
He was removed from the Regional Command (the top decision-making body of the former ruling Ba’ath Party) in July 2013.
His name had previously been touted as a possible successor to Bashar al-Assad in the event a transitional period to resolve the Syrian crisis had been agreed.
This is an edited translation from our Arabic edition.
Editor’s note: This article has been edited to reflect the comments given to Al Arabiya by Sami Al-Hamsh. An original version of the article suggested the meeting had already taken place in line with the statements allegedly given by Marwan al-Sharaa in line with reporting by AFP.
