Agencies
Beirut/Damascus
All Syrian opposition armed groups are to be dissolved and united under the Defence Ministry, Syria’s transitional government announced on Tuesday.
The leaders of various militias agreed to the measure following a meeting with Ahmed al-Sharaa, the country’s new de facto ruler.
Al-Sharaa - previously known by his nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Joulani - had made clear that he would not allow armed groups to operate outside state control.
Al-Sharaa’s Hayat Tahrir al-Sham formed a transitional government after leading the alliance that finally toppled strongman Bashar al-Assad on December 8.
The country has been deeply divided since protests broke out in 2011 and a civil war with international involvement ensued.
Conflict continues in the country’s north, where Kurdish militias, backed by the United States in the struggle against the Islamic State terror group, are fighting forces supported by Turkey.
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.
"Since the fall of the Assad regime, this is perhaps the most important development that has happened in Syria,” said Al Jazeera’s Resul Serdar, reporting from Damascus. He explained that immediately after the fall of al-Assad’s regime, opposition fighters from across the country streamed into Damascus, with some of them claiming different territories of the capital.
"The main fear was how these groups that had been fighting against the regime during the course of 13 years of the civil war – groups that are heavily armed – how they are going to merge and unite,” Serdar said. Following a sweeping offensive over two weeks ago that catapulted Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) into power in Damascus, the country’s new rulers appointed Murhaf Abu Qasra, a leading figure in the rebellion that toppled al-Assad, as defence minister in the interim government.