Syrian groups must disarm to take part in national dialogue, official says
DAMASCUS, Feb 13 (Reuters) - Groups that refuse to lay down their arms and submit to the defence ministry's authority will play no part in a national dialogue on Syria's future, a committee set up to prepare for a national conference said on Thursday.
The statement raises the prospect of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which hold much of northern and eastern Syria, being excluded from the national conference unless they disarm in line with the demands of the new Damascus government.
The seven-member preparatory committee was launched on Thursday to lay the ground for the national conference, which interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa has said will produce a statement forming the basis of a constitutional declaration.
The new Syrian administration wants the U.S.-backed SDF to become part of the national armed forces but has rejected an SDF proposal for the Kurdish-led group to be merged into the army as a single military bloc.
Hassan al-Dughaim, the spokesperson for the preparatory committee, said the SDF "do not represent our people". "We are talking about a national dialogue. Whoever does not lay down his arms ... will have no role in the national dialogue," he said, speaking during a news conference in Damascus.
Sharaa, in a January 31 interview with The Economist, said the SDF was ready to integrate its forces into the state but more time was needed to reach an agreement.
Sharaa, whose Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group led the offensive that toppled Bashar al-Assad on December 8, said earlier this month that the preparatory committee would hold consultations across Syria, and then invite "those we think represent the Syrian people" to the national conference.
Alongside Dughaim, a researcher in Islamic affairs, the committee includes Mohammed Mastet, a former official in the HTS-affiliated government of northwestern Syria, Youssef al-Hijr, a former HTS politburo chief, and Mustafa al-Moussa, who also served in the HTS-affiliated government of the northwest.
It also includes two women - Hind Kabawat, a Christian and part of the opposition to Assad who worked for interfaith tolerance and women's empowerment - and Houda Atassi, co-founder of International Humanitarian Relief, an NGO.
Prominent Syrian Kurdish politician Saleh Muslim criticised the preparatory committee as being made up of one political "colour" and said it did not reflect Syria's ethnic and religious diversity.
"Our fears are that personalities and parties that conform to the desires of Salafist (Islamist) movements ... will be invited with the aim of achieving their ambitions instead of the interests of the Syrian people," he said.
A Syria-focused Western diplomat said the committee was not as inclusive as they had hoped, noting that six of its members were Sunni Muslims and saying the majority of them had strong links to Sharaa or HTS.
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