Syria's new leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, announced Sunday that all weapons across the country, including those held by the PKK/YPG terrorists, would be placed under state control.
He spoke alongside Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, after an earlier meeting with Lebanese Druze leaders and vowing to end "negative interference" in the neighboring country.
Anti-regime forces, backed by Ankara, played a key role in supporting al-Sharaa's Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which headed a rebel alliance that seized Damascus on Dec. 8, toppling longtime dictator Bashar Assad.
During a press conference with Fidan, Sharaa said Syria's armed "factions will begin to announce their dissolution and enter" the army.
"We will absolutely not allow there to be weapons in the country outside state control, whether from the revolutionary factions or the factions present in the SDF (PKK/YPG) area," he added, referring to the terrorist groups.
Sharaa traded in the olive-green military shirt he sported just days ago for a suit and tie during his meetings Sunday at the presidential palace.
He also said "we are working on protecting sects and minorities from any attacks that occur between them" and from "external" actors exploiting the situation "to cause sectarian discord."
"Syria is a country for all and we can coexist together," he added.
That sentiment was on display at the colourfully-lit Christmas market in Damascus, where Batoul al-Law a dietician, said there were more Muslims than Christians.
"We have always celebrated both Christian and Muslim holidays together," she said, but "you feel that people are now happier and more comfortable."
Syria's nearly 14-year civil war killed more than half a million people and displaced more than half its population, with many of them fleeing to neighboring countries, including over 3 million in Türkiye.
Türkiye has maintained strong ties with Syria's new leaders and has maintained its opposition to a PKK/YPG-led corridor on its border near northeastern Syria.
A senior German diplomat, Tobias Tunkel, said on X Sunday that he had spoken with the PKK/YPG group's leader about rising tensions in the area "and urgent steps to diffuse them."
During his meeting with visiting Lebanese Druze chiefs Walid and Taymur Jumblatt, al-Sharaa said Syria would no longer engage in "negative interference in Lebanon at all."
Syria "will stay at equal distance from all" in Lebanon, he added, acknowledging that Syria has been a "source of fear and anxiety" for its neighbor.
Walid Jumblatt, long a fierce critic of Assad and his father Hafez who ruled Syria before him, arrived in Damascus on Sunday at the head of a delegation of lawmakers from his parliamentary bloc and Druze religious figures.
The Druze religious minority is spread across Lebanon, Syria, Israel and Jordan.
The Syrian army entered Lebanon in 1976, only leaving in 2005 after enormous pressure and mass protests following the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafic Hariri, a killing attributed to Damascus and its ally, Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah group.
Global powers including the United States and the European Union have also stepped up contacts with the war-ravaged country's new leaders, urging them to guarantee protections for women and minorities.
The foreign leaders have also stressed the importance of combating "terrorism and extremism."
Assad had long played a strategic role in Iran's "axis of resistance," a loose alliance of regional proxy forces aligned against Israel, particularly in facilitating the supply of weapons to Hezbollah in neighbouring Lebanon.
That axis has suffered heavy blows over the past year with Israeli assassination of the Hezbollah leadership in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran, on Sunday nonetheless denied that these armed groups acted as proxies, adding that: "If one day we want to take action, we do not need a proxy force."
