Integrating Syria’s myriad armed teams into unified command construction is a precedence of the brand new authorities.
Syria’s new defence minister has stated it will not be proper for US-backed Kurdish fighters primarily based within the nation’s northeast to retain their very own bloc inside the broader built-in Syrian armed forces.
Talking to the Reuters information company in Damascus, Murhaf Abu Qasra stated on Sunday that the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) was procrastinating in its dealing with of the advanced situation.
The SDF, which has carved out a semi-autonomous zone by means of 14 years of conflict, has been in talks with the brand new administration in Damascus led by former rebels who toppled President Bashar al-Assad on December 8.
SDF commander Mazloum Abdi (often known as Mazloum Kobani) has stated one in all their central calls for is a decentralised administration, saying in an interview with Saudi Arabia’s Asharq Information channel final week that the SDF was open to integrating with the Ministry of Defence however as “a army bloc”, and with out dissolving.
Abu Qasra rejected that proposal on Sunday.
“We are saying that they’d enter the Defence Ministry inside the hierarchy of the Defence Ministry and be distributed in a army approach – we’ve got no situation there,” stated Abu Qasra, who was appointed defence minister on December 21.
“However for them to stay a army bloc inside the Defence Ministry, such a bloc inside an enormous establishment isn’t proper.”
One of many minister’s priorities since taking workplace has been integrating Syria’s myriad anti-al-Assad factions right into a unified command construction.
Nonetheless, doing so with the SDF has proved difficult. America considers the group a key ally in opposition to ISIL (ISIS), however neighbouring Turkiye regards it as a nationwide safety risk linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Staff’ Get together (PKK).
Abu Qasra stated he had met the SDF leaders however accused them of “procrastinating” in talks over their integration, and stated incorporating them within the Defence Ministry like different former insurgent factions was “a proper of the Syrian state”.
He was appointed to the transitional authorities about two weeks after Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the insurgent group to which he belongs, led the offensive that overthrew al-Assad.
The minister stated he hoped to complete the combination course of, together with appointing some senior army figures, by March 1, when the transitional authorities’s time in energy is about to finish.
Requested how he responded to criticism {that a} transitional council shouldn’t make such appointments or perform such sweeping adjustments to the army infrastructure, he stated “safety points” had prompted the brand new state to prioritise the matter.
“We’re in a race in opposition to time and each day makes a distinction,” he stated.
The brand new administration was additionally criticised over its determination to provide some foreigners, together with Egyptians and Jordanians, ranks within the new army.
Abu Qasra acknowledged the choice had created a firestorm however stated he was not conscious of any requests to extradite any of the international fighters.
