Steven Sahiounie, journalist and political commentator
On March 10, SDF commander Mazloum Abdi wrote on X that the agreement signed between himself and interim Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa represents a “real opportunity to build a new Syria.”
The historic deal will ultimately see the integration of SDF-controlled armed forces into Syrian state institutions by the end of the year. The agreement is vague and does not detail how the SDF forces will be merged into what is to become a new Syrian national army.
In previous negotiations with Damascus, Abdi had wanted the SDF to join the defense ministry as a bloc retaining some authority, but the Sharaa government rejected this. Damascus envisions a unified armed force under a single central command in Damascus.
The SDF, under the command of General Abdi, is primarily comprised of Kurdish soldiers backed by America. Their political wing is an autonomous socialist government established for the past decade in northeast Syria.
The video broadcast of the signing by Abdi and Sharaa, and the accompanying handshake, came at the same time global and regional media were broadcasting the sectarian massacres along the Syrian coast carried out by rogue elements of the Syrian security forces.
Sharaa had to deal with a serious threat to his administration and his efforts to unite the country following 14 years of civil war. The US and its Western allies had been wary of Sharaa’s past allegiance to Al Qaeda and ISIS. Despite his declarations of moderation, parts of his security forces were known terrorists, including some of those who carried out the recent massacres on the coast against minorities.
Damascus has blamed armed remnants of the former Assad regime for instigating an insurgency that was followed by reprisals that killed about 1,000, according to the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights (SOHR).
The US military partnered with the SDF to eliminate ISIS. Trump had ordered the withdrawal of the 900 US troops in Syria in 2017, but the order was later rescinded. Now that Trump is back in office, and has a stated goal to end all US involvement in foreign wars, he will likely order the withdrawal.
This eventuality has led the SDF to make a deal with Damascus, because soon they may lose their US backing, which has provided cash, weapons, and supplies to the SDF for a decade. The US troops have been protecting the Kurds from Turkish attacks, while the Kurds administer prisons housing ISIS fighters and their families. When the US leaves Syria, the Kurds would be in a vulnerable position and Turkey could take the opportunity to attack them.
Sharaa knows that Syria cannot recover or start to rebuild until the US sanctions are lifted. He has to demonstrate an ability to unify the Syrian people which are a mosaic of ethnicities and religions. Bringing in the Kurds and recovering a huge swath of northeastern territory will be seen as an accomplishment by Washington.
Turkey had been a close US ally and fellow NATO member. However, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan felt betrayed by the US after they partnered with the SDF in the fight against ISIS. This endorsement emboldened the Kurds and their dreams of a homeland, “Rojava”. The SDF’s armed wing, the YPG, is linked to the PKK who have killed 30,000 people over three decades of terrorism targeting Turkey.
Turkish media, Aksam, covered the YPG’s decision to lay down their arms. Abdullah Ocalan, leader of the PKK, recently called for the laying down of arms. At first, Abdi claimed the order did not affect the SDF and YPG because they were fighting the remnants of ISIS in Syria.
However, after a meeting between Abdi and the US CENTCOM Commander General Michael Kurilla, the YPG announced the surprise move to lay down arms.
Across the Turkish media, the agreement between Abdi and Sharaa was seen as a significant shift in Syria’s political and security landscape, and diminishing the PKK/YPG’s threat to the region.
The deal signed between Sharaa and Abdi calls for SDF-controlled border crossings, an airport, and oil and gas fields in eastern Syria to become part of the Damascus administration.
The major oilfields of the northeast had been in the hands of ISIS but were taken by the US coalition, including the SDF. This deprived Damascus of revenue and the energy resources to generate electricity for the national grid. After losing the oil fields, the average Syrian household has had 30 minutes of electricity in three intervals.
With the eventual combined military of Damascus and the SDF, the fight against any resurgence of ISIS will be strengthened dramatically. This will allow for the withdrawal of US forces.
On March 12, local reports emerged of SDF forces being sent to the coast to maintain calm in the aftermath of the recent massacres.
From my perspective, both Sharaa and Abdi responded to US pressure to make a deal to unify the Kurds with the Damascus administration. Both groups have been negotiating to close the gap in their differences to make Syria a safer place.
When the Assad regime fell on December 8, most analysts viewed the Kurds as one of the biggest losers in the shuffling of the cards. But, it would now appear the Kurds have a slight advantage in this new deal. This may mean this new alliance between Damascus and the SDF may break down if clashes or disagreements should arise.
The divergent ideology of the two groups may pose a stumbling block to unity. The Kurds follow a strictly secular form of governance, but the Sharaa administration has had past ties to radical Islam, which is not a religion or a sect but a political ideology. Syria is made up of 18 various sects and can only be successfully run in a secular fashion.
To form a successful union of the Damascus administration and the SDF, perhaps the foreign jihadists must be removed from the security forces and lay down their arms, or go home.
Steven Sahiounie is a two-time award-winning journalist.
