New military commander for Syria’s south

Syrian defence minister Murhaf Abu Qasra has named a new military commander to oversee the country’s southern region in an attempt to restore the government’s control within the area and to stabilise security, The New Arab reported on January 23rd.

Binyan Ahmed Al-Hariri, a former commander in the Sunni Islamist group Ahrar Al-Sham, has been selected to lead the military.

Al-Hariri will lead the Syrian military in the southern region of Horan, an area that has been under the control of various armed groups for years. The Horan region spans across Syria’s border with Israel and Jordan, containing parts of the Quneitra, Deraa and Al-Suweida governorates. Parts of the Quneitra and Deraa provinces, along with Mount Hermon and the UN buffer zone, are currently being occupied by Israel.

The move seems to be in response to the Israeli occupation of Syrian territory, according to Horan Free Gathering’s Ayman Abu Mahmoud, who told The New Arab’s Arabic language edition Al-Araby Al-Jadeed.

Israel has occupied hundreds of square kilometres of Syrian territory in the days following Assad’s removal in December last year.

Local reports claim that Israeli forces have begun constructing as many as six military bases on the seized Syrian territory.

Israeli forces are reportedly exploiting the power vacuum in the south of Syria as a pretext to further extend their occupation of Syrian territory, according to Abu Mahmoud, who is urging the military to strengthen its presence across the entire southern region and work with the UN to reassert control.

Syrian defence minister Abu Qasra said in a statement on January 22nd that the Syrian government is in talks with some countries to push Israel to withdraw. However, he did not reveal which countries it is engaging with.

Since the overthrow of the Assad regime, Syria’s government has been working to unify the disparate rebel factions into a national army. In December, 40 rebel factions in the south agreed with the country’s de facto leader, Ahmed Al-Sharaa, to give up their heavy weaponry and join the Syrian Defence Ministry.

The New Arab