Former US official: Al-Sharaa must protect minorities

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Transcript

00:00Let's start with Syria, and then we'll talk a bit more about Lebanon.

00:04So we heard General Petraeus speaking to me just now,

00:08and he says that the new Syrian leader is, quote, saying all the right things.

00:14And you've sort of been saying something quite similar as well.

00:17I mean, is he doing the right things as well as saying them?

00:21He's saying the right things. He's doing some of the right things.

00:25And I know for me personally, the movement that I would like to see more of on his part

00:30is an effort to protect minorities.

00:32I know he keeps saying this over and over again.

00:34We've seen some horrific attacks.

00:36We saw one just a couple weeks ago against a church.

00:39You know, and that's not the first one where a church in Syria was attacked.

00:43It was not even well covered here in the United States.

00:46And so what happens when you see that is that you need to see very loud moves

00:51against any effort, against terrorists, against extremists, in their effort to threaten.

00:57So he needs to hold those perpetrators to account very loudly and harshly.

01:02And we haven't exactly seen enough of that yet.

01:04So there are certain things that he still needs to be better about.

01:08And then there are other things that are promising, for example.

01:12The partnership between the army and the Kurds, for example.

01:15This is a significant one.

01:16The way they crafted the new government and the fact that they've involved

01:20and included individuals of different faiths and different backgrounds.

01:24Some women as well, right?

01:26So there are positive steps.

01:29This is, I don't mean to imply that this is an easy task.