Syria’s new leaders try to unite rebel factions under a single government

Syria’s new leadership has taken steps to unite disparate rebel factions under a single government in the wake of Bashar Assad’s ouster.

Under a new accord, a number of rebel factions agreed to dissolve themselves, according to a report Tuesday by SANA, the Syrian state-run news service. The agreement suggested that the new administration was making progress in asserting its authority over the country.

The rebel groups agreed to be integrated under the Defense Ministry, the SANA report said. Pictures posted to social media Tuesday showed Ahmad al-Sharaa, the leader of the offensive that overthrew the Assad dictatorship this month, meeting with dozens of rebel faction leaders, many of them clad in military uniforms.

Al-Sharaa, formerly known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani, has participated in official meetings recently wearing a business suit rather than a military uniform. Since his faction, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, took power, he has presented himself as more the statesman and less the rebel leader, and has espoused relatively moderate political positions despite past links to Islamist extremists.

On Sunday, he said at a news conference that the “logic of a state is different from the logic of a revolution.” He spoke standing alongside Turkey’s foreign minister, Hakan Fidan.

“We absolutely will not allow for weapons outside the framework of the state,” al-Sharaa said, adding that he was referring both to rebel groups and a Kurdish-led militia, the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, which is separate from the rebels.

The Syrian Democratic Forces control an autonomous region dominated by Kurds in northeastern Syria, while the rebel groups hold sway in other parts of the country. Those groups, in accord with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, played a central role in toppling the Assad dictatorship.

The SANA report said all rebel factions signed onto Tuesday’s unity agreement. But The New York Times was not able independently verify that.

The Syrian Democratic Forces did not appear to be part of the agreement.

Farhad Shami, a media official for the Syrian Democratic Forces, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Kurdish-led force has been battling the Islamic State terrorist group inside Syria for years with U.S. military backing. Neighboring Turkey is hostile to the Kurdish force, viewing it as an extension of a Kurdish group in Turkey that has been fighting the Turkish state for decades. Analysts said disbanding rebel factions was a logical step for the Syrian leaders vying to establish a single national military.

“They are trying to build a state,” said Dareen Khalifa, a senior adviser at the International Crisis Group. “You can’t build a state while you have a million and one militias running around doing their own things.”

Khalifa, who met al-Sharaa this week, said she was under the impression that dissolving the rebel factions was a top priority for Syria’s new leaders because “wayward factions” were acting outside their command in parts of rural Syria.

Beyond dissolving rebel factions, the new administration has taken other actions to build a new Syrian state, including appointing a caretaker prime minister to lead a transitional government until March 1. Al-Sharaa has also said a legal committee would draft a new constitution for the country.