Syrian authorities say armed groups agree to disband and merge under defence ministry
The move aims to unify the country after years of civil war
Syria’s de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa reached an agreement on Tuesday with former rebel faction chiefs to dissolve all groups and consolidate them under the defence ministry, according to a statement from the new administration.
“A meeting of the heads of the groups” with al-Sharaa “ended in an agreement on the dissolution of all the groups and their integration under the supervision of the ministry of defence”, said a statement carried by state media agency SANA and the authorities’ Telegram account.
Prime Minister Mohammed al-Bashir had said last week that the ministry would be restructured using former rebel factions and officers who defected from Bashar al-Assad’s army.
Sharaa will face the daunting task of trying to avoid clashes between the myriad groups.
The country’s new rulers appointed Murhaf Abu Qasra, a leading figure in the insurgency that toppled Bashar al-Assad, as defence minister in the interim government.
Syria’s historic ethnic and religious minorities include Muslim Kurds and Shi’ites – who feared during the civil war that any future Sunni Islamist rule would imperil their way of life – as well as Syriac, Greek and Armenian Orthodox Christians, and the Druze community.
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Sharaa has told Western officials visiting him that the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group he heads, a former al-Qaeda affiliate, will neither seek revenge against the former regime nor repress any religious minority.
