Syria's future hinges on ability of new rulers to unite: Petraeus

Former top US general warns of need to keep an eye on ISIS, noting failings in Iraq

- Arvind Jayaram

The future trajectory of Syria following the fall of the Assad regime will hinge on the ability of its new rulers to unite various factions in the country, a former top US general has said, noting the American failings in Iraq that allowed the ISIS terror group to flourish in the Middle East.

"What will happen now is an effort to bring everyone together," said General David Petraeus in a conversation with former top diplomat Bilahari Kausikan at the NUS Middle East Institute's (MEI) 2024 Round-up that took place at the Orchard Hotel on Dec 11.

"It depends very much on the ability of HTS leaders and those carry-overs from the Syrian government that are working with them now to bring everybody together that they possibly can under the umbrella of this new government, so that you don't end up with a new civil war between the different factions that are in Syria," he said.

He was referring to the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the leading rebel faction that deposed the Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad - which had ruled the country for 24 years - on Dec 8 after a lightning offensive that swept into Damascus in under two weeks.

He said that besides the HTS, other key factions in Syria are the Turkish-supported Free Syrian Army in the north and the Syrian Democratic Forces, which mainly comprise Syrian Kurds.

"They need to stay to keep an eye and pressure on the Islamic State. We learnt the hard way that if you don't do that, forces like that can reconstitute. That's how the Islamic State was able to rebuild itself in the wake of the withdrawal of US combat forces in late 2011," he said, referring to ISIS.