Social media footage appeared to show masked men pouring liquid on the tree in Suqaylabiyah, a Christian-majority town in the centre of the country, though it is not entirely clear if they were trying to fuel or quell the fire.
Syria – a diverse country made up of lots of different religious and ethnic groups – is just weeks into a new regime, following 50 years of the rule by the Assad family and 13 years of civil war.
HTS, which has promised to protect the rights and freedoms of minority groups in Syria, said that foreign fighters had been detained over the incident.
Christmas celebrations are taking place across the country without indications of further incidents.
In the Kassa neighbourhood of Damascus, people called for the foreign fighters HTS said were behind the attack to leave, according to the BBC.
“If we’re not allowed to live our Christian faith in our country, as we used to, then we don’t belong here anymore,” one demonstrator told AFP news agency.
Christians attend a Christmas mass at the Lady of Damascus church, after the ousting of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, on Christmas Eve. (Photo: Amr Abdallah Dalsh/ Reuters)“We’re talking about a country that’s pretty big, and one burning of one tree in one place,” he told The i Paper. “Almost immediately, we saw HTS come out and condemn it. I find that positive, and I wouldn’t say that we’ve got evidence to suggest that anything else is going on.
Dr Hellyer added: “There’s a lot of expectation that there’s going to be either a complete catastrophe immediately or everything’s got to be perfect immediately. And I think it’ll be more messy than that.”
Syria’s de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa – who was formerly head of HTS and used the nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Jolani – announced the agreement on Tuesday.
HTS is seeking to consolidate power and unite Syria after a violent and repressive Assad regime.
Despite having ties to al-Qaida, HTS has vowed not to discriminate against any religion or ethnicity, and has denounced revenge killings and said it will govern inclusively.
It has confirmed that, as under the previous regime, 25 December will be a national holiday.
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