Syria ex-rebel military chief to dissolve armed wing

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.