Syria's new authorities are to set up an inclusive committee to prepare for a "national dialogue conference" to discuss the future of the country, Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani said on Tuesday.
Since toppling president Bashar al-Assad nearly a month ago, Syria's Islamist-led rulers have spoken of a "national dialogue conference" to map out the transition, without specifying a date.
On a visit to Jordan, Shaibani said that the interim authorities had initially intended to hold the conference in early January, but instead, "we chose to form an expanded preparation committee" that would meet at an unspecified date.
The committee would "include men and women... able to fully represent the Syrian people" across "all segments of Syrian society and provinces", the foreign minister said.
The new leaders, who ended the Assad clan's five-decade rule on December 8, have repeatedly sought to reassure Syrians as well as the international community that they would uphold minority rights.
Many Syrians have feared that the Islamist rulers would establish a religious state that could marginalize women and minorities.
Shaibani said: "We in Syria are a diverse country, and we can either regard this diversity as an opportunity... and a source of strength, or as a problem."
"If we view it as an opportunity, we can benefit from everyone in building this country," he said.
"We don't view Syria as anything but a united Syria" for "all its people", said Shaibani.
"We won't succeed if we do not follow this course."
Of the actual national dialogue meeting, he said: "We want this conference to represent the will of the people, and we consider it a cornerstone of future Syria".
The Islamist group that spearheaded the offenvise that ousted Assad, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), has roots in Syria's Al-Qaeda branch. Many governments including the United States have proscribed it as a "terrorist" organisation.
But HTS has sought to moderate its rhetoric and vowed to protect Syria's religious and ethnic minorities since seizing power.
Leader Ahmed al-Sharaa told Al Arabiya TV in late December that HTS would announce its dissolution "during the national dialogue conference".
He also said elections in Syria could take four years, and rewriting the constitution alone could take "two or three years".
Visiting foreign diplomats in Damascus have repeatedly stressed the need for an inclusive, peaceful transition.
With AFP
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