United States (International Christian Concern) — Speaking before gathered world leaders Thursday, Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa urged the international community to come alongside Syria as it rebuilds.  

“Syria is reclaiming its rightful place among the nations of the world,” he said. 

The General Assembly speech was the first for a Syrian president since 1967, when President Nureddin al-Atassiy addressed the gathering shortly after Damascus lost control of the Golan Heights to Israel and just a few years before losing power to the Assad family, which has run the country since a 1970 coup. 

The Assad family dynasty consistently repressed religious minorities and conducted large-scale military operations against its people. Bashar Assad, who was overthrown by Sharaa in a December 2024 coup, repeatedly used chemical weapons against his own people. 

Sharaa has spoken regularly about the need to uphold human rights and defend ethnoreligious minority communities such as the Alawites, Druze, and Kurds. However, members of his military and associated militias have engaged in repeated, large-scale massacres in minority areas. 

While community representatives have criticized the new Sharaa administration for failing to provide security or justice, Sharaa promised in Thursday’s speech to continue investigating the violence, which has killed hundreds.  

“I promise to bring anyone whose hands are tainted with the blood of Syrian people to justice,” he said. 

Negotiations between Syria and Israel are ongoing, with the issue of Druze safety and security a key point, along with an Israeli military presence in the country’s southeast. 

The Sharaa administration is also in negotiations with the semi-autonomous Kurdish region in the northeast and its military arm, the SDF. While Sharaa, backed by the United States and Turkey, supports full SDF integration into the national military, Kurdish leaders and many in the international human rights community believe the SDF should retain some degree of autonomy and urge a federal model of local empowerment. 

Last week, news broke that several of the seniormost U.S. diplomatic officials working on Syria were abruptly removed from their posts. Speaking to Reuters, one diplomat said the ouster was partially due to disagreements between the diplomats and Tom Barrack, the U.S. ambassador to Turkey and Special Envoy for Syria. 

While the SDF signed a deal in March to integrate with Syrian forces, the accord did not specify how the merger would be implemented. Analysts at the time suggested it may have been little more than a hedge against the possibility of a sudden U.S. withdrawal. 

Integration with government forces was originally scheduled to take place by the end of the year, but the process has seemingly stalled since July. High-level negotiations collapsed, and Kurdish authorities have indicated an unwillingness to adhere to decisions made by the Sharaa government, citing a lack of diversity in the transitional government. 

For his part, Sharaa has consistently rejected Kudish demands for a decentralized form of government, insisting instead that all of Syria must operate under Damascus’s direct control. 

Civil society leaders and minority communities instead advocate for a federalized system in which administrative authority and military powers are shared between Damascus and local authorities. Such a structure allows minority communities to protect themselves against attacks — including from forces tied to the central government itself. 

At a recent event on Capitol Hill titled Fortifying Religious Freedom in Syria, civil society groups gathered in support of decentralization. Speakers included Nadine Maenza, Ambassador Sam Brownback, Representative Frank Wolf, and representatives of the Druze, Alawite, Kurdish, and Christian communities. 

A central theme of the event was the successful model established in the semiautonomous Kurdish region in the northeast. Panelists and keynote speakers urged U.S. policymakers and the Syrian government to safeguard this model and extend it to other minority communities. 

“Their inclusion in the Syrian Government would strengthen all of Syria,” event organizer Nadine Maenza said afterward, referring to the Kurdish region in the northeast. “A united Syria, with decentralization or federalism, gives this beautiful country its best chance at peace and stability.” 

In an op-ed published Thursday in The Hill, Ambassador Brownback likewise urged the international community to support decentralization in Syria.  

“The transitional government’s response has been woefully inadequate,” he wrote. “Despite promises of protection, investigations have been superficial, many if not most perpetrators remain free, and in some cases government forces have themselves been implicated.” 

Explaining his vision for a federal Syria, Brownback called for a system in which “Alawite, Christian, Druze, Kurdish, and Sunni-majority regions could maintain their own accountable security forces, while a central government would oversee foreign policy, the economy, and national defense.” 

“This would not be easy,” he admitted, “but it could help prevent sectarian cleansing, deter extremist recruitment, and restore trust that no group will be abandoned to its enemies.” 

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