A Syrian opposition-led governing body will begin an 18-month transition period, including six months to draft a new constitution, the head of Syria’s largest opposition coalition told Middle East Eye on Sunday.

Hadi al-Bahra spoke to MEE on the sidelines of the Doha Forum conference, just hours after Syrian rebels toppled Bashar al-Assad, ending his family’s 54-year authoritarian rule after nearly 14 years of war.

Al-Bahra is president of the Syrian National Coalition, an alliance of opposition groups formed in exile after the 2011 uprising against Assad.

He said his opposition coalition should be expanded to include “new elements of the opposition” and then tasked with forming an interim government to serve as the country’s president until a new constitution is ratified.

Al-Bahra said the transition should be in line with United Nations Security Council Resolution 2254, adopted on December 18, 2015, which sets out a roadmap for Syria’s political transition, including a nationwide ceasefire, accountability for atrocities and a freer and fairer one Elections under a new constitution.

Rebel fighters entered Damascus without resistance around 5 a.m. local time and quickly captured the international airport, the state television building and many other strategic government facilities.

Government troops and personnel reportedly withdrew from their positions, allowing the rebels to take over smoothly.

Assad himself reportedly boarded a plane before the rebels reached the capital and fled to an unknown location. His current whereabouts are unclear.

Its prime minister, Mohammad Ghazi al-Jalali, has agreed with the rebels to remain in Syria and support the transition to a new system.

“We appreciate that the prime minister did not run away like the president,” Al-Bahra said.

“He took a risk and stayed. But then he was reassured knowing that no one would harm him. And then he volunteered to create a transition plan and organize the transition.”

Al-Bahra spoke about the need to preserve Syria’s institutions and protect the economy in the next phase.

“We don’t want to destroy the current state institutions. We want to keep them going,” he said.

He explained that current officials will remain in their posts and only political appointees will be replaced. The priority will be to improve government services through training and “new blood” in the authorities, including through “high-tech skills”.

“We need to restart the economy,” he said, but noted that would require support from other countries.

“Syria needs humanitarian assistance,” he said, noting that aid to Syria has fallen by 26 percent this year.

“We need to launch early recovery projects to make people’s lives easier and also start improving people’s livelihoods and providing them with employment opportunities,” he said.

“If we manage to get the economy going again within one and a half to two years, we will become less dependent on humanitarian aid.”

“World record”

Al-Bahra said the rebels had set a “world record” by liberating the capital Damascus in less than two weeks after rebel groups led by Abu Mohammed al-Jolani’s Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) launched their attack offensive from the northern province of Idlib had begun.

“We did this when the international community was in the process of normalizing its relations with Assad,” he said.

“They believed he won, but they never understood that the Syrian crisis had its own dynamics.”

Al-Bahra said his vision for the new Syria was a “united country and people in which all citizens have equal rights and responsibilities.”

Al-Bahra spoke about the role of the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which controls large parts of eastern Syria, and said it must sever its ties with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a Kurdish armed group described as a terrorist organization by Turkey , the USA and the EU.

He said the SDF “did not clearly stand on the side of the Syrian revolution” and sided with the Assad government on many occasions.

He said the opposition expects the SDF to cut ties with the PKK to be included in the transition period.

“They should become a 100 percent Syrian organization with the same goals,” he said.

Al-Bahra said Syrian exiles could now return to their homes if they had not been destroyed by fighting. More than half of the population has been either internally displaced or forced to live as refugees in other countries since Assad’s violent suppression of the uprising in 2011.

“Now they have the opportunity to return home,” he said.

“My house in Damascus was confiscated by the government and Hezbollah. A high-ranking Hezbollah leader lived in my house. Now I can free my house, at least get it back. And I could visit Syria more often, and I can have the opportunity to stay in Syria.”