Syria's new leader Ahmad al-Chareh received representatives of the country's Christian clergy in Damascus on Tuesday.
The meeting came against a backdrop of concern among Syrian minorities as they awaited guarantees from the authorities installed by a rebel coalition led by a radical Sunni group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).
In a multi-religious country traumatised by nearly 14 years of civil war, the coalition overthrew the government of Bashar al-Assad on 8 December.
Faced with the titanic challenges of reconstruction and reconciliation, the new authorities need to make one reassuring gesture after another to minorities who are worried after recent incidents.
First meeting with Christian representatives
This is all the more so as the government of Bashar al-Assad, whose family from the Alawite Muslim minority had ruled the country unchallenged for more than half a century, had long posed as the protector of minorities - while repressing all dissent.
On Tuesday, the new Syrian General Command reported on its Telegram account that "the head of the new Syrian administration, Ahmad al-Chareh, is meeting a delegation from the Christian community" in the first meeting of its kind.
Photos show Mr. al-Chareh, wearing a suit and tie, meeting with several representatives of Christian churches, including the Orthodox, Catholic, Armenian Orthodox, Anglican and Syriac Orthodox churches.
Inclusive transition
Hundreds of Christians in Damascus had demonstrated last week when a Christmas tree was set on fire in a small town in central Syria. That act of vandalism perpetrated by masked men - foreign fighters from a jihadist group, according to an NGO - was condemned by a local HTS leader.
Similarly, thousands of Alawite Syrians demonstrated on 25 December in several Syrian towns after a video showed an attack on one of their shrines.
On the other hand, a woman has been appointed interim governor of the Central Bank for the first time, an internal source told French news agency AFP on Tuesday. Maysaa Sabrine, a financial specialist, had been the first deputy governor of the Central Bank of Syria since 2018.
Kurdish forces
The new authorities must also reassure the international community, and diplomatic delegations have been flocking to Damascus for several weeks now.
The head of Syrian diplomacy, Assaad al-Chibani, reported a telephone call on Tuesday with his Egyptian counterpart Badr Abdelatty, with the two men emphasising the role of their countries in "the stability and prosperity of the region."
In another illustration of the new authorities' efforts to open up, Mr. al-Chareh received on Monday, for the first time, a delegation from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a coalition dominated by Kurdish fighters and supported by Washington, an official speaking on condition of anonymity told AFP.
