Two Druze insurgent teams in Syria declared on Monday their willingness to affix a nationwide military after anti-regime fighters ousted Bashar Assad final month.
The new Syrian authorities face the mammoth problem of rebuilding state establishments formed by the Assad household’s repressive five-decade rule, together with the military and safety apparatuses which have all however collapsed.
“We, the Men of Dignity movement and the Mountain Brigade, the two largest military factions in Sweida, announce our full readiness to merge into a military body… under the umbrella of a new national army whose goal is to protect Syria,” the teams from south Syria’s Sweida province stated in a joint assertion.
They added, nevertheless, that they might categorically reject “any factional or sectarian army used as a tool in the hands of the authorities to suppress the people, as was the case with Bashar Assad’s army.”
“We as military factions have no designs or roles in administrative or political affairs,” they added, calling for “civil and political work in a participatory manner that places the human being at the center of priorities.”
“It is our role to commit to protecting public facilities and ensure their stability until security is established in the country,” they added.
The new management final month unveiled a plan to dissolve the myriad of armed teams working in Syria and combine them into the navy.
Syria’s new chief Ahmed al-Sharaa instructed Al Arabiya TV final month that “weapons must be in the hands of the state alone” and authorities would welcome “whoever is armed and qualified to join the defense ministry”.
The Druze, who additionally dwell in Lebanon, Israel and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, make up about 3% of Syria’s inhabitants, round 700,000 individuals.
Sweida is the heartland of Syria’s Druze minority.
Beyond defending themselves from assaults within the areas the place they dwell, Syria’s Druze largely stayed on the sidelines of Syria’s civil battle that started in 2011. Many managed to keep away from obligatory conscription.
Residents of Sweida have lengthy complained of discrimination and the dearth of fundamental providers.
When Assad fell, the province had witnessed anti-regime demonstrations for greater than a 12 months.
Source: www.dailysabah.com