Syria Defence Minister rejects Kurdish militias’ proposal for independent military bloc

Syria’s new Defence Minister has rejected a proposal by Kurdish militias to form their own bloc within the country’s armed forces, as tensions between Damascus and the US-backed militias continue to rise.

As the Syrian interim government – which took power following the rebel takeover and the fall of the  Assad regime in December – continues to solidify its rule throughout the country, a crucial part of that has been to unify Syria’s many armed factions into a unified command structure under the Defence Ministry.

While the numerous former rebel factions and groups have agreed to that demand, Kurdish militias under the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have increasingly resisted that effort over the past month, with SDF leader, Mazloum Abdi, having stated that a key demand is a decentralised administration which would treat the Kurds as “a military bloc” without being disbanded.

According to Reuters news agency, Syrian Defence Minister, Murhaf Abu Qasra, rejected that proposal, saying that the SDF should “enter the Defence Ministry within the hierarchy of the Defence Ministry and be distributed in a military way – we have no issue there. But for them to remain a military bloc within the Defence Ministry, such a bloc within a big institution is not right.”

Abu Qasra also accused the SDF of procrastinating in the integration talks. Those tensions between the new Syrian government and the Kurdish militias have now led to an intensification in violent clashes in north-east Syria’s Tishrin Dam area, with government forces having reinforced Syrian National Army (SNA) forces fighting against SDF fighters.

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