Syrian defence minister rejects Kurdish proposal for its own military bloc

Syria's new defence minister said on Sunday it would not be right for U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters based in the country's northeast to retain their own bloc within the broader integrated Syrian armed forces.

Speaking to Reuters at the Defence Ministry in Damascus, Murhaf Abu Qasra said the leadership of the Kurdish fighters, known as the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), was procrastinating in its handling of the complex issue.

The SDF, which has carved out a semi-autonomous zone through 14 years of civil war, has been in talks with the new administration in Damascus led by former rebels who toppled President Bashar al-Assad on Dec. 8.

SDF commander Mazloum Abdi has said one of their central demands is a decentralised administration, saying in an interview with Saudi Arabia's Asharq News channel last week that the SDF was open to integrating with the Defence Ministry but as "a military bloc", and without dissolving.

Abu Qasra rejected that proposal on Sunday.

"We say that they would enter the Defence Ministry within the hierarchy of the Defence Ministry, and be distributed in a military way - we have no issue there," said Abu Qasra, who was appointed defence minister on Dec. 21.

"But for them to remain a military bloc within the Defence Ministry, such a bloc within a big institution is not right."

One of the minister's priorities since taking office has been integrating Syria's myriad anti-Assad factions into a unified command structure.

But doing so with the SDF has proved challenging. The U.S. considers the group a key ally against Islamic State militants, but neighbouring Turkey regards it as a national security threat.

Abu Qasra said he had met the SDF's leaders but accused them of "procrastinating" in talks over their integration, and said incorporating them in the Defence Ministry like other ex-rebel factions was "a right of the Syrian state".

Abu Qasra was appointed to the transitional government about two weeks after Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the Islamist group to which he belongs, led the offensive that ousted Assad.

He said he hoped to finish the integration process, including appointing some senior military figures, by March 1, when the transitional government's time in power is set to end.

Asked how he responded to criticism that a transitional council should not make such appointments or carry out such sweeping changes of the military infrastructure, he said "security issues" had prompted the new state to prioritise the matter.

"We are in a race against time and every day makes a difference," he said.

The new administration was also criticised over its decision to give some foreigners, including Egyptians and Jordanians, ranks in the new military.

Abu Qasra acknowledged the decision had created a firestorm but said he was not aware of any requests to extradite any of the foreign fighters.