Beirut, Dec. 17, (dpa/GNA) – Ahmed al-Sharaa, Syria’s de facto leader following the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad, said on Tuesday that he plans to dissolve armed groups in the country and integrate their fighters into a state army.
“The fighters are being readied to join the Defence Ministry and will all be subject to the law,” al-Sharaa, the head of Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), declared at a meeting with the Druze community, according to HTS.
Alongside HTS and its allies, a multitude of armed groups are active in Syria. Among them are Turkey-affiliated and Kurdish militias, who are locked in a conflict in the north of the country and failed this week to secure a truce in US-led mediation efforts.
“We need the mindset of the state, not the mindset of the opposition,” al-Sharaa was quoted as saying on Tuesday. For the country’s diverse ethnic groups to coexist, he said that a “social contract” was necessary to ensure “social justice.”
According to the HTS central command, he also met army major Jamil al-Saleh, who reportedly congratulated al-Sharaa on the successful “revolution.”
Following the overthrow of Syria’s long-time ruler al-Assad, HTS had relieved all soldiers of the state army from service.
Furthermore, Israel’s military claims to have destroyed more than 80% of the military capabilities of Syria’s army, in unprecedented attacks on the neighbouring country.
GNA