Syria: 80% of opposition supports forming national army

The Prime Minister of the Syrian interim government Jawad Abu Hatab said that 80 per cent of the opposition factions have agreed to form a Syrian National Army.

In an interview with the Anadolu Agency, Abu Hatab said that “reaching the formation of a national army will require many stages that are not easy”.

“All factions have a sense of the need to move from partisan work to working within one army for the future of Syria,” he said.

He explained that “the interim government began to lay the foundation for the anticipated army and chose its staff from the factions’ officers,” noting that he has recently met with a number of factions that participated in “Operation Euphrates Shield” against Daesh and discussed with them ways to turn their forces into military components within a proper organisation and a national army.

Read: HRW: Syria refugees being deported from Jordan

Abu Hatab said the army’s first task would be to protect the Syrian people and to bring down the regime, as well as combating terrorism and extremist organisations such as Daesh.