Syria leader says state to control all weapons

Syria's Ahmed al-Sharaa vows all weapons under state control; Turkey urges lifting sanctions on Syria.

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 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.