Syria Placed Under Islamist Rule for Five Years by New Interim Constitution

In December, the Sunni Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) took over Syria in an internationally-backed offensive. HTS was formerly known as Jabhat al-Nusra, and al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) before that. Today, their leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (formerly known as Abu Mohammad al-Jolani) signed a new declaration of an interim constitution.

The actual constitution doesn’t appear to be totally written at this point, interestingly enough, despite being made law of the land. There is a seven person committee appointed by the HTS to draft it, with the stipulation that the country will be placed under Islamist rule for the next five years, ahead of another future final constitution going into effect.

The declaration places certain conditions on the constitution, including a requirement that the president of Syria must always be a Muslim and that Islamic Law will be the main source of jurisprudence.