SARAH MCCAMMON, HOST:
It's been almost three weeks since the Syrian regime crumbled and rebel forces took power. In less than a month, Syrians woke up to a new world. But there's also been a seismic shift in neighboring countries as well. For Iran, which supported the government of Bashar al-Assad, the stunning collapse underscored its loss of regional clout. But for Turkey, which has shown tacit support for HTS - that's the rebel group now ruling Syria - it's been a major win. For more on Syria's future and Turkey's influence, we turn now to NPR's Hadeel Al-Shalchi in Damascus and NPR's Fatma Tanis in Istanbul. Welcome.
FATMA TANIS, BYLINE: Thank you.
HADEEL AL-SHALCHI, BYLINE: Hello.
MCCAMMON: Hadeel, I'm going to start with you in Syria. Syria became very isolated from the world under the Assad regime, and now HTS is trying to change that. But how?
AL-SHALCHI: Yeah, I mean, it's been very obvious that one of President Ahmad al-Sharaa's priorities is getting back into the international fold. First, there's been a steady stream of diplomats in Damascus in the past few days. Turkey reopened its embassy, the first to do so. And the Turkish foreign minister was the first diplomat to visit Syria since Assad was toppled. Turkey funded some of the rebel factions that Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, led to topple the regime and has strategic ambitions in Syria, which I know Fatma will be getting into.
And then came the Arabs. The Qatari and Jordanian foreign ministers met with Sharaa. Qatar also opened its embassy here. And today, an Iraqi delegation visited HTS. And then, of course, a U.S. delegation met with Sharaa this week. They announced that the U.S. was lifting a $10 million bounty that was on his head, but did not lift his designation as a terrorist.
MCCAMMON: So Fatma, what does Turkey want in Syria? And how has it been using its influence there?
TANIS: Turkey wants a stable, secure, neutral Syria so that the 3 million Syrian refugees it's hosting can go back home. The Turkish government has been shouldering most of the cost of those refugees - it's estimated to be in the tens of billions of dollars - all the while dealing with an economic crisis. But right now, a lot of refugees aren't actually leaving. I spoke with one of them, Abdul Wadood Zakkor (ph), in Istanbul.
ABDUL WADOOD ZAKKOR: (Speaking Arabic).
TANIS: He says he can't wait to go back home after 10 years, but he's waiting for news. Right now, there's nowhere for him to live. There are no jobs. And so the Turkish government is working to try to bolster and legitimize the new Syrian administration in the eyes of the international community. We saw some of that hand-holding last week with the Turkish foreign minister's visit to Damascus. And that was the first press conference for Ahmad al-Sharaa. It was the first time we saw him wearing a tie with his suit. So the stakes are huge because if the new Syria is a success, it'll be seen as Turkey's success. But if it fails, there's going to be big economic and domestic repercussions for Turkey.
MCCAMMON: Fatma, Syrians have endured years of war and violence. Where do the efforts to rebuild and reconstruct Syria stand? And how is Turkey involved in that?
TANIS: Well, right now, Turkish construction companies are poised to go in. You know, Turkish businesses are talking about moving factories across the border, which would create much needed jobs for Syrians. But there are a lot of infrastructure hurdles to get through first, like water, electricity, internet. Those basics aren't widely available.
Turkey's transportation minister said this week that they had an action plan to fix Syria's roads, railways, bridges and airports. He said a Turkish team went to inspect Syrian airports, and they found that only two out of five were functional and even those needed major improvements. He said there were no radar systems, no metal detectors. The computers were from the 1990s.
He even said that Syria's currency was being printed in Russia and that that would need to change. But there's a big piece of the puzzle that's missing here, which is the money. Turkish officials are trying to get Saudi Arabia and the UAE on board to invest in Syria. But as of now, there's no plan on who's going to finance all of this rebuilding.
MCCAMMON: Now, Hadeel, as Syria tries to reestablish relationships with the Arab world, its other Middle Eastern neighbor, Israel, is watching very closely. What has HTS said about relations with Israel?
AL-SHALCHI: To answer that, NPR sat down with the newly appointed Damascus governor, Maher Marwan, one of Sharaa's right-hand people. And he set a striking tone when it came to Israel.
MAHER MARWAN: (Speaking Arabic).
AL-SHALCHI: Marwan said, "we want peace, and we cannot be an opponent to Israel or an opponent to anyone else." And then he went further. He said that Syria did not want to, quote, "meddle in anything that will threaten Israel's security." And I was struck. You know, there was no reference to the war in Gaza or Palestinians in general. But he did call on the U.S. to relay their message to Israel and to use its influence. A U.S. official told me that that message had been relayed. NPR reached out to the Israeli foreign ministry more than 24 hours ago for their comment, and they still haven't gotten back to us.
MCCAMMON: HTS was not the only rebel group that helped topple the Assad regime. It led a number of armed factions with various interests. Hadeel, how is HTS trying to consolidate power in Syria now?
AL-SHALCHI: Well, on Tuesday, Sharaa met with a number of leaders from different rebel factions, and then they announced that they had signed onto an agreement to dissolve and join the Syrian Army under the Ministry of Defense. But there's no clarity on what that means exactly. Like, what does it look like for armed militias to disband and join one force? So that's yet to be seen.
But the Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF, which is a Kurdish-led militia backed by the U.S. to fight ISIS, is hesitating. And that's really something we need to be paying attention to. In a statement, SDF said that they don't have an issue in joining the Syrian Army in principle, but there needs to be, quote, "direct discussions with Damascus." And the SDF also said that one of its priorities includes fighting ISIS.
MCCAMMON: Fatma, does that Kurdish-backed group, the SDF that Hadeel just mentioned, does it even have any other options when it comes to what Damascus might want?
TANIS: Not really. You know, Sarah, the one-third of Syrian territory that the SDF currently controls, it's populated by majority Arabs. And some have even been demonstrating against the SDF, saying they want to be governed by the administration in Damascus instead.
And the Kurdish coalition is also under threat by Turkey, which says that they are the Syrian arm of a separatist group that Turkey has been fighting for decades. This is another strategic goal for Turkey, which has threatened military action if the SDF doesn't lay down their arms. There's concern in the U.S. about that, but analysts say it may not come to that if it's resolved diplomatically. Turkey has encouraged Damascus to take over guarding the ISIS prisons and camps that are currently the responsibility of the SDF.
And analysts also say that while the U.S. is concerned about an ISIS resurgence, Syria itself is not a foreign policy priority for incoming President-elect Donald Trump. In his first term, Trump pushed to bring the 900 U.S. troops in Syria to come back home, but these latest developments could challenge any talk of a full U.S. withdrawal from Syria.
MCCAMMON: That's NPR's Fatma Tanis in Istanbul and NPR's Hadeel Al-Shalchi in Damascus. Thanks to you both.
AL-SHALCHI: You're welcome.
TANIS: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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