SYRIA might not hold elections for the next four years, interim leader Ahmad al-Sharaa told a Saudi interviewer on Sunday.

Mr Sharaa, previously known by his nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Julani, heads the al-Qaida offshoot Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which swept the Bashar al-Assad government aside earlier this month.

He said dialogue between different Syrian forces was needed before agreement on a new constitution and elections, and pointed to the mass dislocation of people by a 14-year civil war, with millions having fled abroad, as a reason it would take time to establish an accurate electoral roll.

But given his group’s record of authoritarian rule in Idlib, where it ran a Turkey-backed regional regime from 2017, opponents fear the delay will be used to avoid commitment to a democratic future.

HTS has allowed Syrian government ministries to continue running mainly under the same personnel, and says it will honour the rights of all Syria’s ethnic and religious minorities, despite Mr Sharaa’s previous attacks on the Alawite community during the long civil war.

But it has been more ambiguous on women’s rights, with HTS spokesman Obeida Arnaout telling Lebanese TV on December 20 that women were not suited for certain roles, such as in the military, while he added women’s suitability for positions in law and the judiciary would be assessed in due course by “experts.”

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reports the HTS authorities are arresting hundreds of suspected Assad loyalists. Separately, it reported an Israeli air raid over Damascus on Sunday that killed 11 people.