AhlulBayt News Agency: According to local sources, Syria is currently ruled not by professional statesmen but by extremist sheikhs operating under the leadership of Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).
A Thursday report by The Cradle claims that the country has been divided into zones controlled by radical Sunni clerics who influence nearly every policy decision — including potential normalization talks with Israel.
These normalization efforts reportedly include the Syrian side agreeing to Israel's permanent control over the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau seized during the 1967 Six-Day War.
Sources quoted in the report assert that the extremist sheikhs, who consider religious minorities as non-believers with no right to equal status and, in some cases, subject to death, are involved in all state affairs within HTS-controlled areas. This includes the management of fuel, flour, electricity, local security, land disputes, and judicial matters.
A former local council member from Idlib stated that state institutions have no real authority. “Everything — from appointments to aid — goes through the sheikh. His word overrides any legal rule,” he said.
The report adds that each sheikh answers to a higher Sharia council overseen by a little-known authority, forming a tiered religious system of power.
Another source told the magazine that Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, the HTS leader and former al-Qaeda and Daesh affiliate, oversees a supreme religious body that connects judicial, economic, and educational clerics — even foreign negotiations occur through this religious structure.
HTS, once affiliated with al-Qaeda, took over Damascus on December 8, 2024, prompting President Bashar al-Assad to flee the country.
Months later, affiliated armed groups carried out a mass killing of Alawite civilians in coastal regions — the heartland of the minority community.
The March massacre, in which hundreds of Alawites were killed, has deepened fears among Syria’s religious minorities regarding the new militant-led power.
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