"National Syrian Army" to be formed with Turkish backing

A national Syrian army would be formed and the “sons of the Syrian revolution” would be the core of that army, Mustafa Seijari, head of political office in Liwa al-Motasem, an opposition fighting group, said on Sunday.

The formation of the said army would be fully backed by Turkey, Seijari also said.

In a series of tweets, Seijari announced the formation of the new national army in order to rid of the state of fragmentation between opposition’s fighting groups.

In regards to the Astana talks due to take place on January 23, Seijari told Orient Net that opposition fighting factions still had not announced a clear decision whether or not they would be attending. He added that there were still disagreements between the factions which attended the Ankara intra-Syrian consultation meetings last week.

The ceasefire would be an essential item on the agenda of the Astana talks, Seijari pointed out, negating that there was any pressure put on the factions by Turkey.

On Saturday, the last of Ankara meetings took place and a non-final draft, for conditions to take part in peace talks, had been reached. The draft stresses the importance of adhering to the ceasefire and the deploying of monitors on contact lines between opposition fighters and Assad terrorists.