Syrian authorities say armed groups agree to disband, merge under defence ministry

"A meeting of the heads of the groups" with new Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa "ended in an agreement on the dissolution of all the groups and their integration under the supervision of the ministry of defence", said a statement carried by state media agency SANA and the authorities' Telegram account.

No details of the armed groups were provided.

Photos published by the state-run SANA news agency showed the country's new leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, surrounded by the heads of several armed factions -- but not representatives of the Kurdish-led forces in Syria's northeast.

#BREAKING: New Syrian Administration announces that Syrian Leader Ahmad Al-Sharaa has reached an agreement with armed factions to dissolve all formations and merge them under the Ministry of Defense. pic.twitter.com/LPAp02NfuS

— Clash Report (@clashreport) December 24, 2024

Syria's new prime minister, Mohammed al-Bashir, had said last week that the ministry would be restructured using former rebel factions and officers who defected from Bashar al-Assad's army.

On Sunday, Sharaa said the new authorities would "absolutely not allow there to be weapons in the country outside state control". 

That also applied to the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, he said.

The country's new rulers appointed Murhaf Abu Qasra, a leading figure in the insurgency against Assad, as defence minister in the interim government.

Sharaa will face the daunting task of trying to avoid clashes between the myriad groups.

Last week, the military chief of Sharaa's Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) – the Islamist group that spearheaded the offensive that toppled Assad – told AFP that Kurdish-held areas would be integrated under the new leadership, and that "Syria will not be divided".

Syria's historic ethnic and religious minorities include Muslim Kurds and Shiites – who feared during the civil war that any future Sunni Islamist rule would imperil their way of life – as well as Syriac, Greek and Armenian Orthodox Christians, and the Druze community.

Sharaa has told Western officials visiting him that the HTS will neither seek revenge against the former regime nor repress any religious minority.

Thirteen years of civil war in Syria has left more than half a million people dead and fragmented the country into zones of influence controlled by different armed groups backed by regional and international powers.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP and Reuters)