Syria’s new defence minister stated on Sunday it will not be proper for U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters primarily based within the nation’s northeast to retain their very own bloc throughout the broader built-in Syrian armed forces.
Chatting with Reuters on the Defence Ministry in Damascus, Murhaf Abu Qasra stated the management of the Kurdish fighters, generally known as the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), was procrastinating in its dealing with of the complicated challenge.
The SDF, which has carved out a semi-autonomous zone by way of 14 years of civil conflict, has been in talks with the brand new administration in Damascus led by former rebels who toppled President Bashar al-Assad on Dec. 8.
SDF commander Mazloum Abdi has stated considered one of 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 Defence Ministry 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 throughout the hierarchy of the Defence Ministry, and be distributed in a army method – we have now no challenge there,” stated Abu Qasra, who was appointed defence minister on Dec. 21.
“However for them to stay a army bloc throughout the Defence Ministry, such a bloc inside a giant establishment will not be proper.”
One of many minister’s priorities since taking workplace has been integrating Syria’s myriad anti-Assad factions right into a unified command construction.
However doing so with the SDF has proved difficult. The U.S. considers the group a key ally in opposition to Islamic State militants, however neighbouring Turkey regards it as a nationwide safety menace.
Abu Qasra stated he had met the SDF’s leaders however accused them of “procrastinating” in talks over their integration, and stated incorporating them within the Defence Ministry like different ex-rebel factions was “a proper of the Syrian state”.
Abu Qasra was appointed to the transitional authorities about two weeks after Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the Islamist group to which he belongs, led the offensive that ousted Assad.
He 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 of 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 daily makes a distinction,” he stated.
The brand new administration was additionally criticised over its choice to offer 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.
