00:00Oliver McTernan is co-founder and director at Forward Thinking, an NGO focused on peace in the Middle East.
00:07He joins us now. Hello, Oliver. Are you seeing positive early signs that Syria is going to do the right orderly things for a peaceful transition?
00:16Well, what we hear coming out of it, and especially from the leadership of the rebels, the liberation army, would say it's good sounds.
00:29I think when they talk that there should be no revenge, that's very important.
00:35And I think the signs are that they are looking for an inclusive future, and let's hope that can be realized.
00:44We are hearing reports that the IDF troops are close to Damascus.
00:49Israel is flatly denying this, saying they are simply hammering targets that could hold chemical weapons, etc.
00:56Talk to me about the importance of Israel and the influence that Israel could have in this.
01:02Well, I think if those reports are true, then it's deeply worrying.
01:07Because what, and if the reports of the Israeli bombing of the military sites are accurate, again, deeply worrying.
01:17I fear that we've got to learn the lessons of Iraq.
01:21If you destabilize the structure that is there in terms of security structure, the risk rather than transform it, the risk is that you get chaos.
01:33And I think that Israel is playing a very, very high risk game.
01:39Of course, Damascus, if you're on the top of the Golan Heights and you look down, you can actually see the city of Damascus.
01:46So we're talking about a very, very narrow space.
01:50We saw in Northern Ireland and in South Africa's peace process that people viewed by some as terrorists ultimately were perfectly able to engage in a peace process.
02:00Do you believe that a group like HTS, led by al-Julani, have what it takes to do exactly that?
02:08Yes. And it's essential that anyone with constituency, anyone who has a serious following, needs to be included.
02:18The United Nations have called for a united and inclusive future.
02:23That will only come if all of the parties now are involved in a process that hopefully can lead to elections and a government that represents the variety of cultures and beliefs and political views that is part of Syria.
