On paper, the settlement to combine a strong, U.S.-backed Kurdish pressure into the nationwide military and establishments of the “new” Syria guarantees unity, peace, and mutual respect for the nation’s long-disenfranchised Kurdish minority.
The deal on “rules” brings a much-needed increase to Syria’s interim president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, following the bloody crackdown on armed Assad-regime remnants that had mounted a number of assaults on forces of the brand new authorities.
In a matter of days, that violence left an estimated 800 to 1,500 Syrians lifeless and buried in mass graves – largely from the Alawite minority and together with many civilians – and tarnished Mr. al-Sharaa’s pledge to stop sectarian revenge.
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Bringing the U.S.-allied Kurdish militia beneath the umbrella of Syria’s military sends an vital message about nationwide cohesion amid heightened issues over minority rights, which weren’t assuaged by the “new” Syria’s interim structure.
The Syria-Kurds deal, signed March 10, comes as Gen. Mazloum Abdi, commander of the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), assesses President Donald Trump’s presumed want to restrict assist and shrink the U.S. army footprint of some 2,000 troops in Syria.
The SDF controls northeast Syria, its wealthy oil and gasoline fields, and detention camps that, in line with america, maintain greater than 9,000 Islamic State fighters and their households.
Beneath the take care of Mr. al-Sharaa’s authorities, the SDF agreed to combine “all civil and army establishments” with the brand new Syrian state by the top of the 12 months, beneath “one flag.” Syrians celebrated the deal as a key step towards unification, with flag-waving and gunfire in Damascus and in Kurdish-controlled areas of the northeast.
But Syria’s interim structure, authorised Thursday by Mr. al-Sharaa, solely vaguely enshrines the rights of minorities. It maintains Arabic as the one official language, in addition to the “Arab” identifier within the Syrian Arab Republic. Notably, the SDF settlement references the “Syrian state,” whereas Mr. al-Sharaa signed as head of the “Syrian Arab Republic.”
The structure has disenchanted Kurds, the nation’s largest non-Arab minority, who make up 10% of the inhabitants however weren’t particularly talked about. The political wing of the SDF, the Syrian Democratic Council, declared its “full rejection” of the draft structure, warning in an announcement that it “reproduces authoritarianism in a brand new kind” and restricts political exercise. Kurdish information retailers broadcast footage of avenue marches in opposition to the textual content.
And whereas Mr. al-Sharaa has referred to as for disbanding all of Syria’s mosaic of armed militias – together with his personal Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which in early December led the toppling of the Assad dynasty – vital questions stay about how the SDF integration might be achieved.
“It’s very symbolic, it’s historic, however on the identical time we’ve to place this into context,” says veteran Syrian journalist Ibrahim Hamidi, editor-in-chief of the London-based on-line journal Al Majalla.
“Each [sides] wanted the settlement and wished to purchase time. … It’s a win-win,” says Mr. Hamidi, of the nine-month timeline to resolve variations. “However does it imply they addressed the divide between Arabs and Kurds? No.”
Shifting energy steadiness
Earlier than the autumn of President Bashar al-Assad, he notes, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham had a pressure of 17,000, whereas the SDF had marshaled 70,000 fighters skilled and geared up by america to battle the Islamic State, which misplaced its maintain on territory in 2019.
However the SDF’s numerical benefit has been altering since December, with recruitment rising the forces beneath Mr. al-Sharaa’s command to 50,000 males, and an allied reserve of one other 50,000, says Mr. Hamidi.
Not but clear is how the Trump administration plans to deal with the SDF, which acquired $186 million in U.S. funding final 12 months. The Division of Protection request for $148 million for 2025 famous that American assist was “vital” for detaining Islamic State fighters and to “stop the group’s resurgence.” However media stories counsel that the Pentagon has drawn up withdrawal plans with 30-, 60-, and 90-day choices.
“The [Syrian] authorities has this grasp plan to kind a brand new military, a brand new construction, and it’s a must to slot in. … They need to dilute the militias,” says Mr. Hamidi, who interviewed key officers on a current journey to Syria and has interviewed Normal Abdi. The federal government expects SDF fighters, for instance, to hitch the military not as a bunch however as people, and to not serve of their native area.
Such circumstances are anathema to the SDF particularly, which views itself as a mandatory bulwark of safety for Syria’s Kurds.
The brand new interim structure affirms that “The state ensures the cultural range of Syrian society in all its elements, and cultural and linguistic rights for all Syrians.” It additionally bans paramilitary formations separate from the military.
The Turkey issue
One other problem is that whereas Mr. al-Sharaa’s regime-toppling offensive loved robust Turkish assist, Turkey considers the SDF to be a Syrian offshoot of the Kurdistan Employees’ Social gathering (PKK), which Turkey deems a terrorist group.
In late February, from his jail cell in Turkey, PKK chief Abdullah Ocalan referred to as on his fighters to “lay down their weapons” after a four-decade wrestle and to “dissolve” the PKK.
Mohammed Dirki, a Kurdish civil engineer dwelling in Damascus, notes the American hand within the Syria-SDF deal.
“The Syrian authorities is to be the guarantor between Turkey and the SDF. It can assist clear up issues between them,” he says.
“If you find yourself ready of power, you may converse,” says Mr. Dirki. “Kurds gained a voice because of their alliances with America. … For certain there was American strain for this settlement to happen. With out it, this settlement would have been not possible.”
One other ethnic Kurd in Damascus, Salah Surakji, has his personal perspective. He spent six years in detention, and misplaced his brother and 6 different members of his household, who he says are amongst 1,500 Kurdish “martyrs” from Damascus killed in Syria’s civil warfare.
Such sacrifices had been made not only for the Kurdish trigger, he says, however for the liberty of your complete nation.
Mr. Surakji figures the SDF represents simply 15% of Syria’s Kurds.
“We agree with the SDF on the rights of the Kurds; nevertheless, we don’t agree with the SDF on its rules [of federalism],” he says. “Our nation should stay united.”
Relinquishing weapons
That’s the said goal of the SDF settlement with Damascus, which, as obscure as it’s, “is certainly a milestone for Syrian Kurds,” says Mohammed A. Salih, a senior fellow on the Philadelphia-based International Coverage Analysis Institute and an knowledgeable on regional Kurdish affairs.
Nonetheless, he cautions, integrating the SDF right into a nationwide military might be “extraordinarily difficult,” not least due to current violence.
“One factor that minority teams in Syria realized is that they can’t put down their weapons, as a result of even when Ahmed al-Sharaa says all the fitting issues, there are such a lot of rogue parts in his newly shaped army – from the jihadis to the Turkish-backed forces – which performed a significant position in killing of Alawites,” he says.
Each these teams have a “robust animosity” towards the Kurds and SDF, Mr. Salih says, so it could “be very unrealistic” for Kurds to belief Mr. al-Sharaa’s phrase alone and quit their army capabilities.
“If the SDF is even partially dismantled, that may very well be a doomsday situation for Kurds beneath the present circumstances, given the violence within the coastal areas and Mr. Sharaa’s personal contradictory strikes relating to Kurdish rights,” he says.
Dominique Soguel and Walaa Buaidani in Damascus, Syria, supported reporting for this story.
