DAMASCUS: Syria’s new leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa said Sunday all weapons would come under state control during a press conference with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, who urged the lifting of sanctions on Syria. Sharaa said that after upcoming consultations with defense and military officials on a new structure for the military, armed "factions will begin to announce their dissolution and enter” the army.
"We will absolutely not allow there to be weapons in the country outside state control, whether from the revolutionary factions or the factions present in the SDF area,” he added, referring to the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces. Turkey views the main component of the US-backed force, which controls swathes of north and northeast Syria, as being linked to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), its outlawed domestic foe. "We are working on protecting sects and minorities from any attacks that occur between them” and from "external” actors trying to exploit the situation "to cause sectarian discord”, Sharaa added. "Syria is a country for all and we can coexist together,” he added. Fidan told the press conference that US president-elect Donald Trump knew better than to continue Washington’s backing for the Kurdish-led fighters over supporting the security needs of its NATO ally Turkey.
"When we look at it from America’s interests, as a mathematical calculation — whether Turkey or a terrorist organization like the PKK is more important — Mr Trump sees the mathematics immediately,” Fidan said. The Turkish diplomat said that "the sanctions imposed on the previous (Syrian) regime need to be lifted as soon as possible”. "The international community needs to mobilize to help Syria get back on its feet and for the displaced people to return,” he added.
Regional powerhouse Saudi Arabia is also in direct contact with Syria’s new authorities, having supported the opposition to Assad for years during Syria’s civil war, and will send a delegation to the country soon, Syria’s ambassador in Riyadh said. During his meeting with visiting Lebanese Druze chiefs Walid and Taymur Jumblatt, Sharaa said Syria will no longer exert "negative interference in Lebanon at all”.
He added that Damascus "respects Lebanon’s sovereignty, the unity of its territories, the independence of its decisions and its security stability”. Syria "will stay at equal distance from all” in Lebanon, Sharaa added, acknowledging that Syria has been a "source of fear and anxiety” for the country.
Walid Jumblatt, long a fierce critic of Assad and his father Hafez who ruled Syria before him, arrived in Damascus Sunday at the head of a delegation of lawmakers from his parliamentary bloc and Druze religious figures. The Druze religious minority is spread across Lebanon, Syria and the Zionist entity. He met with Sharaa at the presidential palace, where the new Syrian leader wore a suit and tie instead of the olive-green military shirt he sported just days ago.
Walid Jumblatt accuses the former Syrian authorities of having assassinated his father in 1977 during Lebanon’s civil war. The Syrian army entered Lebanon in 1976, only leaving in 2005 after enormous pressure following the assassination of former prime minister Rafic Hariri, a killing attributed to Damascus and its ally, Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group. – AFP