SpaceWar.com - Your World At War
Syria ex-rebel military chief says to dissolve armed wing
Latakia, Syria, Dec 17 (AFP) Dec 17, 2024
The military chief of Syria's victorious Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham said on Tuesday it would be "the first" to dissolve its armed wing and integrate into the armed forces.

"In any state, all military units must be integrated into this institution," Murhaf Abu Qasra, known by his nom de guerre Abu Hassan al-Hamawi, said in an interview with AFP, adding that "we will be, God willing, among the first to take the initiative (to dissolve our armed wing)".

He added that Kurdish-held areas of Syria would be integrated under the country's new leadership, adding that the group rejects federalism and that "Syria will not be divided".

"The Kurdish people are one of the components of the Syrian people... Syria will not be devided and there will be no federal entities," he said.

A US-backed, Kurdish-led administration controls swathes of north and northeastern Syria, and has recently been battling Turkish-backed groups which have captured several Kurdish towns.

Abu Qasra also called on the international community to "find a solution" to repeated Israeli strikes and an "incursion" into Syrian territory.

"We view the Israeli strikes on military sites and the incursion into southern Syria as injust... we call on the international community to find a solution to this matter," he said.

Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes on Syrian military assets in what it says is a bid to prevent them falling into hostile hands.

It has also sent troops into the UN-patrolled buffer zone on the Golan Heights.

Abu Qasra also called on Western governments to lift the "terrorist" designation from HTS and its leader Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, now using his real name Ahmed al-Sharaa.

"We call on the United States and all countries to lift this designation... on his person and the whole group," he said, describing it as "unjust" and saying that the group "will ultimately be integrated into state institutions".

The radical Sunni Islamist group has been proscribed as a terrorist organisation by Western governments including the United States and Britain.

It has recently sought to moderate its rhetoric and assure the international community that religious and other minorities will be protected in the country.


ADVERTISEMENT




Space News from SpaceDaily.com
UK opens competitive bid for GBP 75 million orbital cleanup mission
UK invests $191 mn in European satellite firm Eutelsat
Bearings Used in Space Technologies: Engineering for the Final Frontier

24/7 Energy News Coverage
Atomic 6 receives 2M Space Force award to advance next generation solar arrays
ESA and Neuraspace develop autonomous satellite navigation technologies
Planet secures 240 million euro satellite services contract with German government

Military Space News, Nuclear Weapons, Missile Defense
France says Australia defence ties repaired after submarine row
Trump: U.S. to send Patriot missiles to Ukraine, EU to pay bill
Ukraine, Russia trade blows in escalating spy war

24/7 News Coverage
Ancient zircon data reveals tectonic origin of Earth's first continental crust
Autonomous sub explores unexplored trench depths to reveal critical mineral clues
Europe launches first geostationary atmospheric sounder to boost extreme weather forecasts



All rights reserved. Copyright Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.