Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa said on Thursday that many of the public’s demands are “legitimate,” stressing the importance of national unity at this “historic moment,” nearly a year after the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad.
In a phone call made during a meeting between the governor of Latakia and local dignitaries and neighborhood committees, al-Sharaa said: “Over the past two days, we’ve seen many legitimate popular demands, though some of them were politically driven, to call things by their name.”
He stressed that the state is “fully prepared to listen to all demands and discuss them seriously.”
He continued: “We will keep facing many objections, because no authority enjoys complete consensus. I understand that many of the demands raised in the past two days are justified, while some are politically motivated.”
He added that “even in federal states, there is strong central authority over sovereign institutions.”
According to comments carried by the Syrian state news agency SANA, the Syrian president emphasized that “national unity is an essential pillar that cannot be abandoned,” saying it was “time to end the state of division that has been instilled in Syrians for more than sixty years.”
He also said that “the Syrian coast is one of the top national priorities in the current phase, because it overlooks major global trade routes and will form a very strong economic link between us and all countries in the region.”
He added: “Syria’s geography is interconnected and integrated, and separating any part of it from the rest is extremely difficult. The coast cannot have an isolated authority of its own, cut off from other regions. Its resources are directly tied to the eastern region, and vice versa. Syria without a coastline loses a key part of its strategic and economic strength.”
Al-Sharaa added: “Many of the ideas promoted by people with narrow interests in separation or federalism reflect political ignorance on this issue.”
He argued that “we must all think with a strategic mindset and long-term goals. Narrow visions do not build a country, and states that embraced power-sharing 30 years ago are now worse off than they were before.”
The Syrian president acknowledged that “the challenges Syria faces are complex and require a high level of awareness and responsibility to achieve the most important goal: a unified and stable Syria.”
He continued: “We now have two central tasks in the coming phase: protecting the country from internal and external threats, and pursuing economic development.”
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