Syrian minister rejects Kurdish-led SDF proposal for own military bloc | Syrian war news
Integrating Syria’s countless armed groups into a single command structure is a priority of the new government.
Syria’s new defense minister said it would be wrong for US-backed Kurdish fighters based in the country’s northeast to maintain their own bloc within the broader integrated Syrian armed forces.
Speaking to the Reuters news agency in Damascus, Murhaf Abu Qasra said on Sunday that the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) were dragging their feet on the complex issue.
The SDF, which created a semi-autonomous zone through 14 years of war, is negotiating with a new administration in Damascus led by former rebels who demolished President Bashar al-Assad on December 8.
SDF commander Mazloum Abdi (also known as Mazloum Kobani) said one of their central demands is decentralized governance, saying in an interview with Saudi Arabia’s Asharq News channel last week that the SDF was open to integration with the Ministry of Defense, but as a “military block”, and without disbanding.
Abu Qasra rejected that proposal on Sunday.
“We are saying that they would enter the Ministry of Defense within the hierarchy of the Ministry of Defense and be deployed in a military manner – we have no problem with that,” said Abu Qasra, who was appointed defense minister on December 21.
“But for them to remain a military block within the Ministry of Defense, such a block within a large institution is not right.”
One of the minister’s priorities since taking office has been the integration of Syria’s myriad anti-Assad factions into a single command structure.
However, doing so with the SDF proved challenging. The United States considers the group a key ally against ISIL (ISIS), but neighbors Turkey greetings it as a threat to national security linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
Abu Qasra said he had met with SDF leaders but accused them of “dragging” in their integration talks, and said their inclusion in the Ministry of Defense like other former rebel factions was “the right of the Syrian state”.
He was appointed to the transitional government about two weeks after Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the rebel group to which he belongs, led an offensive that ousted al-Asad.
The minister said he hoped the integration process, including the appointment of some senior military officials, would be completed by March 1, when the transitional government’s time in power should end.
Asked how he responded to criticism that the transitional council should not make such appointments or implement such sweeping changes to military infrastructure, he said “security concerns” had prompted the new state to make the issue a priority.
“We are in a race against time and every day makes a difference,” he said.
The new administration has also been criticized for its decision to give some foreigners, including Egyptians and Jordanians, ranks in the new army.
Abu Qasra acknowledged the decision had caused a storm, but said he was not aware of any requests to extradite any of the foreign fighters.
