MADRID, Jan. 4 (EUROPA PRESS) – The jihadist authorities of Syria announced late this past Friday the start of procedures to integrate the country’s armed factions into a unified defense organization chart.
“The Syrian Ministry of Defense,” the SANA news agency, former mouthpiece of the deposed Syrian government and now employed by the new authorities, has announced, “will hold organizational sessions with military leaders to begin the process of integration of the factions in the Ministry”.
The integration of the country’s armed groups is one of the great challenges that the new acting government headed by the leader of the jihadist organization Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS) Ahmed al Shara, alias ‘Abú Mohamed al Jolani, will face. ‘, in particular with regard to the fate of the Kurdish-Arab militias of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), currently engaged in combat against backed Syrian militias for Türkiye.
This same Friday, the foreign ministers of Germany and France, Annalena Baerbock and Jean-Noël Barrot, pointed out from Damascus the importance of integrating the Kurdish militias and ending the conflict with Turkey — Ankara links the FDS with the organization of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, which it considers a terrorist organization — but they also highlighted the importance of protecting the country’s Kurdish population.
Shortly after assuming power after conquering the country last month, Al Shara promised that in the future “there will be no weapons outside the authority of the State” in a message addressed not only to the Kurds but also to the allies of the HTS and armed groups such as the so-called Southern Operations Room that operate in southern regions such as Derá, Sueida or Quneitra, key participants in the December offensive that ended up expelling former president Bashar al Assad from the country.