Syria's new authorities hold national conference without the participation of SDF and Druze leaders

The post-Assad regime is under pressure to show it can govern inclusively

Ahmad Al Shara, the leader of Syria's new administration, with Asaad Al Shibani, Syria's new Foreign Minister

Syria's new authorities will hold a national dialogue conference on Tuesday to listen to different political views, organisers said, as the group comes under western pressure to commit to a degree of pluralism after the removal of former president Bashar Al Assad.

The conference comes before an expected change in the Hayat Tahrir Al Sham government and as the EU eased sanctions on Syria on Monday. The bloc described it as a move in "support of an inclusive political transition in Syria, and its swift economic recovery, reconstruction, and stabilisation"

According to a senior Syrian official participating in the conference, which will last for one day, more than 600 people are expected to attend. Most are "not aligned with HTS ideologically or politically", he said. A committee mostly made up of HTS loyalists has issued the invitations for the conference. According to the agenda, it will focus on seeking justice for former regime victims, building institutions, rights and freedoms, and economic reform.

HTS leader Ahmad Al Shara or one of his senior aides will make brief remarks at the beginning of the conference, the source said, giving it high visibility.

A number of attendees include Raed Al Saleh, head of the White Helmets civil defence organisation, which operated in the northern governorate of Idlib when HTS ruled there before Mr Al Assad's downfall. Osama Kadi, a Syrian economist seen as close to the Muslim Brotherhood, activists Alia Mansour and Osama Abu Zeid, as well as Mazen Darwish, an Alawite civil figure who spent three years as a political prisoner, is also expected to attend.

Syrian activist Hanin Ahmad, who will attend Tuesday's meeting, said that although the conference does not comprise a “real national dialogue” that would create legitimacy for the new order, she will attend "because it is a duty, although I might not agree with the results".

Members of the Kurdish-run autonomous administration in north-east Syria and the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) will be absent from the talks, as will the Druze community's spiritual leader Hikmat Al Hijri, who has welcomed the removal of Mr Al Assad. Mr Al Hijri has called for an inclusive civil administration to replace the former regime, meaning that the new state must be secular.

Hassan Al Daghim, spokesman for the conference, said the organisers had been in touch with the Kurdish people through the community and not "through an organised military gatekeeper".

"Kurds are part of the Syrian state and Syrian society. We listen to them directly," he told media channel Hashtag. "And we also don’t take a quota approach – not by party or social group or sect, because honestly, we saw what that did in Lebanon and Iraq. We are our land, and we talk with each other as Syrian men and women, in all their own competences and ideas. And if we disagree, if these opinions come together, in the end, the general picture of Syrian society will be drawn.”

Many of those attending gathered on Monday evening at a reception hosted in the capital's Damascus Rose Hotel. The hall was emptier than it may have been had more than two days' notice been given for the event, which Mr Al Shara promised would be "a direct platform for discussions, to listen to different points of view" on the country's political future.

A member of the former Syrian opposition government told The National that he had not been able to take up his invitation because of time constraints.

"The conference is a gradual step towards the better, an exercise, but we do not believe that there will be great results from the conference,” the official said.

The source did not expect the conference to result in the formation of a committee charged with drafting a new constitution for Syria, but said a temporary legislative council will “perhaps be formed” to fill the current vacuum left by the dissolution of Syria’s former parliament.

Among the well-known figures who declined to attend are the veteran dissident George Sabra, and former diplomat Jihad Maqdisi, who is well-connected in Washington. Samir Nashar, a veteran political dissident, said he declined because for the conference to be effective, it has to come up with enforceable decisions, and “not just recommendations”.

Rebel groups appointed Mr Al Shara as President at the end of last month. Formerly known as Abu Mohammad Al Jolani, he fought for Al Qaeda in Iraq before eventually breaking from the group and creating HTS, which led an 11-day offensive from northern Syria that ousted Mr Al Assad on December 8.

He is facing difficulties convincing some members of the country's minorities to cede control of territory to the new central government. Among them are the Druze in the south of Syria and the SDF, who have made huge territorial gains in the course of the civil war. HTS forces are also engaged in a campaign to disarm regime remnants.

Mr Al Shara has promised a transitional government that will “build new Syrian institutions” in the lead-up to free and fair elections, without setting a deadline. He has not mentioned pluralism or democracy directly but said that Syria will be "governed by shura", a form of collective decision-making in Islam, after the Assad regime's ”tyranny”.

Many Syrians had hoped to have a national conference with a wide range of members chosen from each region and decision-making powers, similar to the 1919 Syrian National Congress that proclaimed the Hashemite monarch Faisal as King of Syria. This approach was advocated by the Kurdish human rights lawyer Radeef Mustafa, a fierce critic of the Syrian Democratic Forces, who said he was “honoured” by the invitation and that the meeting will still be an “important national occasion".