Syrian minister rejects Kurdish-led SDF’s proposal to arm its own military faction. syrian war news
Integrating Syria’s numerous armed groups into a unified command structure is a priority for the new government.
Syria’s new defense minister has said it would not be right for US-backed Kurdish fighters based in the country’s north-east to maintain their own faction within the broader unified Syrian armed forces.
Speaking to Reuters news agency in Damascus on Sunday, Murhaf Abu Qasra said the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) were delaying dealing with the complex issue.
The SDF, which carved out a semi-autonomous region through 14 years of war, is in talks with a new administration in Damascus led by former rebels who ousted President Bashar al-Assad on December 8.
SDF commander Mazloum Abedi (also known as Mazloum Kobani) has said that one of his central demands is decentralized governance, saying in an interview with Saudi Arabia’s Asharq news channel last week that the SDF would seek to build a coalition with the Ministry of Defence. Ready for unification with but “a military bloc”, and without disintegrating.
Abu Qasra rejected that offer on Sunday.
Abu Qasra, who was appointed defense minister on December 21, said, “We say that they will enter the Ministry of Defense within the hierarchy of the Ministry of Defense and will be distributed in a military manner – we have no problem there.”
“But for them to remain a military faction within the Defense Ministry, such a faction within a larger institution, is not right.”
One of the minister’s priorities since taking office has been to unify Syria’s numerous anti-al-Assad factions into a unified command structure.
However, doing so with the SDF has proven challenging. The United States considers the group a key ally against ISIL (ISIS), but neighboring Turkey views it as a national security threat linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
Abu Qasra said he had met with SDF leaders but accused them of “procrastination” in talks over their unification and said it was “the right of the Syrian state” to incorporate them into the defense ministry, like other former rebel factions.
He was appointed to the transitional government about two weeks after Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the rebel group to which he is affiliated, led the attack that ousted al-Assad.
The minister said he hoped the unification process, including the appointment of some senior military figures, would be completed by March 1, when the transitional government’s time in power ends.
Asked how he responded to criticism that a transitional council should not make such appointments or make such sweeping changes to the military infrastructure, he said that “security issues” had forced the new state to prioritize the matter. Have motivated for.
“We are in a race against time and every day brings a change,” he said.
The new administration was also criticized over its decision to give ranks to the new army to some foreigners, including Egyptians and Jordanians.
Abu Qasra acknowledged that the decision had generated controversy, but said he was not aware of any foreign fighters requesting extradition.
