New Syrian leader Sharaa says killings of Alawites threaten unity, vows justice

By Samia Nakhoul, Maya Gebeily and Timour Azhari

(Reuters) - Syria's interim President Ahmed Sharaa said mass killings of members of ousted President Bashar al-Assad's minority sect were a threat to his mission to unite the country, and promised to punish those responsible, including his own allies if necessary.

In his first interview to a global news agency, held after hundreds died in four days of clashes between Alawite Muslims and Syria's new Sunni Islamist authorities, Sharaa blamed pro-Assad groups backed by foreigners for triggering the bloodshed but acknowledged that revenge killings had followed.

"Syria is a state of law. The law will take its course on all," he told Reuters from the Damascus presidential palace, where Assad resided until Sharaa's forces toppled him on December 8, forcing the ousted ruler to flee to Moscow.

"We fought to defend the oppressed, and we won't accept that any blood be shed unjustly, or goes without punishment or accountability, even among those closest to us," Sharaa said.

In a wide-ranging interview, Sharaa also said that his government had had no contacts with the United States since President Donald Trump had taken office. He repeated pleas for Washington to lift sanctions imposed in the Assad era.

He also held out the prospect of restoring relations with Moscow, Assad's backer throughout the war, which is trying to retain two major military bases in Syria.

He rejected criticism from Israel, which has captured territory in southern Syria since Assad was toppled. And he said he aimed to resolve differences with 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 unspecified foreign power, he acknowledged that in response "many parties entered the Syrian coast and many violations occurred".

"It became an opportunity for revenge" for years of pent-up grievances, he said, although he said the situation had since been largely contained.

Sharaa said 200 members of the security forces had been killed in the unrest, while declining to say the overall death toll pending an investigation, which will be conducted by an independent committee announced on Sunday before his interview.

A UK-based war monitoring group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said that as of Sunday night as many as 973 Alawite civilians had been killed in revenge attacks, after fighting in which more than 250 Alawite fighters and more than 230 members of the security forces had died.

'MY CHEST TIGHTENS IN THIS PALACE'

After years in the field at the helm of a guerrilla movement that broke off from Al Qaeda, the 42-year-old son of an Arab nationalist was soft-spoken. His voice sometimes barely registered above a whisper during the interview, held after midnight on Monday during the holy month of Ramadan when business is often conducted late.

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

"To be honest, my chest tightens in this palace. I'm astonished by how much evil against society emanated from every corner," Sharaa said.

The unrest of recent days, the bloodiest since Assad was ousted, was his biggest setback as he seeks international legitimacy, to fully lift U.S. and other Western sanctions and assert his rule over a country fractured by 14 years of war.

His forces rode into the capital pledging to rule for all of Syria's communities - Sunnis, Alawites, Druze, Christians, Shi'ites, Kurds and Armenians - while trying to assuage domestic and foreign concern over his extremist Islamist background.

He quickly welcomed a stream of foreign dignitaries and, along with his close circle, has toured the region to court support. But three months in, joy at Assad's ouster has largely been replaced by concern over the formidable challenges at home.

The economy remains in tatters, large parts of the country including its oil-rich northeast, are out of state control and Israel has struck an increasingly threatening tone backed by airstrikes, incursions and seizure of territory.

Sharaa recognised the violence of the past days threatened to derail his attempt to bring Syria together.

It "will impact this path," Sharaa said, but he vowed to "rectify the situation as much as we can".

To do that, Sharaa has set up an independent committee - the first body created by him that includes Alawites - to probe the killings within 30 days and bring perpetrators to account.

A second committee was set up "to preserve civil peace and reconciliation, because blood begets more blood," he added.

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

Syrians have circulated graphic videos of executions by fighters on social media, some of which have been verified by Reuters, including one showing at least 20 dead men in a town. Sharaa said the fact-finding committee would examine the footage.

The killings have shaken to the core Syria's coastal towns and cities of Latakia, Banyas and Jableh, forcing thousands of Alawites to flee to mountainous villages or cross the border into Lebanon.

Sharaa said Assad loyalists belonging to the 4th Division of Assad's brother, Maher, and an allied foreign power had triggered the clashes on Thursday "to foment unrest and create communal discord".

He did not identify the foreign power, but pointed to "parties that had lost out from the new reality in Syria", an apparent reference to long-time Assad ally Iran, whose embassy in Damascus is still closed. Tehran has rejected any suggestion it was involved in the violence.

Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey have strongly backed Sharaa amid the violence, while former Assad ally Russia expressed deep concern and Iran said no group should be “oppressed”.

Washington blamed "radical Islamist terrorists, including foreign jihadis".

'OUR DOOR IS OPEN'

Sharaa said security and economic prosperity were directly tied to lifting U.S. sanctions imposed against Assad.

"We cannot establish security in the country with sanctions still in place against us."

But there has not been any direct contact with Trump's administration in the nearly two months since he took office, amid scepticism over Sharaa's former Al Qaeda ties.

When asked why, he said: "The Syrian file is not on U.S.'s list of priorities. You should ask this question to them. Syria's door is open."

Meanwhile, talks are ongoing with Moscow over its military presence in the two strategic Mediterranean military bases, Tartous Naval Base and Hmeimin air base.

Sharaa said Moscow and Damascus had agreed to review all former agreements, but there had not yet been enough time to get into details.

"We do not want there to be a rift between Syria and Russia, and we do not want the Russian presence in Syria to pose a danger or threat to any country in the world, and we want to preserve these deep strategic relations," he added.

Ties with Moscow were so key that "we tolerated the (Russian) bombardment and did not target them directly in order to make room for meetings and dialogue between us and them after liberation," he said.

He declined to confirm whether he had asked Moscow to hand over Assad. Russia has been an ally of Syria for decades and a key supplier of fuel and grain. Reuters reported last week that Moscow had sent a tanker full of diesel to Syria in spite of U.S. sanctions.

Hundreds of thousands died in Syria's civil war and half the population was displaced. Western countries, Arab states and Turkey initially backed the rebels, while Russia, Iran and militias loyal to Tehran backed Assad in a theatre for proxy conflicts.

Since Assad's ouster, Turkish-backed groups have clashed with Kurdish forces that control much of Syria's oil-rich northeast. Damascus has yet to impose its authority there amid ongoing talks with the commander of the U.S.- backed Syrian Democratic Forces, Mazloum Abdi, who said the recent violence justified their concerns over integration.

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

Government control is also weak in Syria's south, where Israel has proclaimed a demilitarized zone and threatened to target Sharaa's forces if they deploy.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz on Monday called Sharaa "a jihadist terrorist of the al-Qaeda school who is committing horrifying acts against a civilian population."

Sharaa dismissed increasingly belligerent Israeli threats and Katz's comments as "nonsense."

"They are the last ones who can talk," he said, noting the Israeli killing of tens of thousands of people in Gaza and Lebanon over the past 18 months.

(Reporting by Samia Nakhoul, Timour Azhari and Maya Gebeily in Damascus; Writing by Samia Nakhoul and Timour Azhari; Editing by Peter Graff)