DAMASCUS, Syria: Syria’s new authorities announced Tuesday that they had reached an agreement with the country’s armed groups on their dissolution and integration into the regular defence forces under the Ministry of Defence.
Syria’s leader Ahmed al-Sharaa met with heads of armed groups and reached the agreement to come together as one force, according to the new Syrian general administration.
A statement by the new administration, as carried by SANA and the authorities’ Telegram account, said, a meeting between al-Sharaa and the heads of the groups “ended in an agreement on the dissolution of all the groups and their integration under the supervision of the ministry of defence.”
Syria’s new leaders agreed on the dissolution of all the armed groups and their integration under the supervision of the ministry of defence.
However, the Kurdish-led and United States-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) group in northeastern Syria is not part of the deal, Al Jazeera reported.
On Sunday, al-Sharaa had said the new authorities would “absolutely not allow there to be weapons in the country outside state control”.
That also applied to the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, al-Sharaa said.
Last week, the military chief of Sharaa’s Hayat Tahrir al-Sham — the group that spearheaded the offensive that toppled president Bashar al-Assad — told AFP that Kurdish-held areas would be integrated under the new leadership, and that “Syria will not be divided”.
Thirteen years of civil war in Syria has left more than half a million people dead and fragmented the country into zones of influence controlled by different armed groups.
Syria’s interim Prime Minister Mohammed al-Bashir had said last week that the ministry would be restructured using former armed groups and officers who defected from Bashar al-Assad’s army.
Following a sweeping offensive over two weeks ago that brought Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) into power in Damascus, the country’s new rulers appointed Murhaf Abu Qasra as defence minister in the interim government.
Reassurance to Western Powers
Al-Sharaa has sought to reassure Western officials visiting him that HTS will neither seek revenge against the former regime nor repress any religious minority.
He said his primary focus is on reconstruction and achieving economic development and that he is not interested in engaging in any new conflicts.
Syrian opposition fighters seized control of Damascus on December 8, forcing al-Assad to flee after more than 13 years of war, ending his family’s five decades-long rule.
Forces under the command of al-Sharaa have installed a three-month transitional government.
Sanctions on Syria
Meanwhile, Qatar called on Tuesday for the quick removal of sanctions on Syria.
We call for intensified efforts to expedite the lifting of international sanctions on Syria,” Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesperson Majed al-Ansari told a regular briefing.
Qatar’s call came a day after a high-level delegation visited Damascus. The Qatari embassy there reopened on Sunday.
“Qatar’s position is clear,” Ansari said. “It’s necessary to lift the sanctions quickly, given that what led to these sanctions is no longer there and that what led to these sanctions were the crimes of the former regime.”
The international community has not rushed to lift sanctions on Syria, waiting to see how the new authorities exercise their power.
