Abu Muhammad al-Julani, the leader of the new government in Syria, faces two major challenges in order to fulfill his vision of uniting Syria, under one central government: disarming all armed factions, and establishing a new army in place of the army of ousted President Bashar al-Assad.
YONI BEN MENACHEM -- Several of the armed factions in Syria do not trust the new regime, and refuse to hand over their weapons to the authorities. Another problem is what will happen to Assad's army officers and the thousands of volunteers for the army. Will all of them be integrated into the new army that al-Julani will establish?
Al-Julani aspires to establish a unified Syrian national army with the help of Turkey, and therefore this week he convened the leaders of most of the factions in Syria and demanded that they disarm and integrate their fighters into the new army. Al-Julani's plan is to transform the armed factions into divisions and brigades in the new army subordinate to the Ministry of Defense.
However, as mentioned, some of the factions refuse to disarm. For example, the factions supported by Turkey, the "national army" and the defectors from the Syrian army during the civil war, the "Syrian Democratic Forces", factions in the Daraa region of southern Syria led by Ahmed Odeh, who is considered "Russia's man" in the region and did not attend Al-Julani's meeting with the faction leaders at all.