Syria leader says state to control all weapons
This handout image made available by the Telegram channel of the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) early on December 17, 2024 shows Ahmed al-Sharaa (formerly known as Abu Mohammed al-Jolani), head of the group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) which led the lightning offensive that ousted president Bashar al-Assad, receiving the director of the Middle East and North Africa department at Britain’s Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office in Damascus. File Photo: AFP
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 defence 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.