Military Command Member In Damascus Countryside: We Are Ending Mandatory Military Conscription – The New Syrian Army Will Be An Army Of Volunteers

Samir Saleh, a member of the military command in Damascus countryside told Hiwar TV (U.K.), in a January 11, 2025 interview, that the new Syria will end military conscription and the new army will be an army of volunteers. He said that Syrians considered conscription to be a "guillotine" used to cut off the heads of the young generation and that people would pay everything they had to protect their children from the threat of death in the military. However, Saleh emphasized, Syrians will encourage their children to volunteer for the army as respectable and valued people, and they will be tasked with protecting the country’s borders rather than controlling the country.

Samir Saleh: "First of all, we now have a ministry of defense. We have a military structure that is different from before. If you remember the issue of the mandatory military conscription – we saw it as a guillotine, used to cut off the heads of the young generation in Syria. The moment your son reached recruitment age, he was threatened with death, or you had to pay everything you had to protect him.

"Thank God, mandatory military conscription is annulled for the next stage. It does not exist anymore. The Syrian army will be an army of volunteers. We will encourage our children, all Syrian children, to volunteer for the army – as respectable people and valued people – and their mission will be to defend the country's borders, rather than take control of the country."