In a big step for Syria, U.S.-backed Kurdish forces will merge with government army

The Syrian Democratic Forces, the Kurdish-led coalition that joined with U.S. troops to fight Islamic State, has agreed to integrate with the same interim Syrian government forces who were previously affiliated with Al Qaeda, officials said.

The two groups struck the deal Monday after days of deadly sectarian violence between government forces and those loyal to the deposed Assad regime rocked Syria and killed hundreds of civilians.

While the SDF was largely uninvolved with those clashes, it has long been opposed to both the old and new Syrian leadership. The new truce will see two of Syria’s largest warring groups join forces despite the apparently contradictory allies both previously kept.

The agreement, which was reached following a meeting in Damascus on Monday between Syrian interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa and SDF leader Mazloum Abdi, will see the SDF cede control of the civil and military institutions it controls in northeastern Syria, including an airport and oil and gas fields, the Syrian government said in a statement.

The deal also outlines the guarantee for the rights of all Syrians to “representation and participation in the political process” regardless of “religious and ethnic backgrounds,” a statement from the Syrian government said.

The SDF’s Abdi on Monday hailed the agreement as a “real opportunity to build a new Syria.”

 “We are committed to building a better future that guarantees the rights of all Syrians and fulfils their aspirations for peace and dignity,” he said in a post on X.

The deal marks a significant step for Sharaa, who has vowed to lead a more unified and inclusive Syria representative of the country’s myriad ethnic and religious groups.

It could also help assuage mounting fears on the international stage that Sharaa may backslide into his former identity as a jihadist leader with links to the Islamic State and Al Qaeda.

Those concerns had risen in recent days, with a deadly outbreak of violence across Syria killing hundreds of civilians, mostly from the Alawite community — the small Islamic sect to which the Assad family belongs — according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The pact is “the right step forward and it’s giving reassurance to Syrians and it symbolizes unity,” Rahaf Aldoughli, a lecturer in Middle East and North African Studies at Lancaster University in England.

“Still, there are so many challenges,” she said in a phone interview on Tuesday.

Sharaa has vowed to hold to account those responsible for the violence, in which attacks on security forces by Assad loyalists appeared to trigger a wave of retaliation.

The eruption of the worst violence since the Assad regime was swept from power late last year highlighted the many complex challenges Sharaa faces in seeking to unify and ensure the security of a nation fractured and scarred by more than a decade of civil war.

Syria’s Kurds, who were denied basic rights under the Assad’s regime, have been among among the minority groups anxiously awaiting clarity on what the future will hold under Sharaa’s leadership.

The deal between the SDF and Syrian government could also help deescalate the militia alliance’s ongoing conflict with Turkey and Turkish-backed Syrian rebel groups connected the government, though the SDF on Tuesday reported an “unprecedented escalation of attacks” in parts of northern and eastern Syria.

Turkey did not appear to immediately comment on the deal struck between the SDF and Syrian government. In a statement on Monday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said the country condemned “all kinds of attacks targeting Syria’s unity, prosperity and social peace in the strongest way” in response to the violence that rocked the nation.

Meanwhile, Arab neighbors welcomed news of the deal, with Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs calling it an “important step towards consolidating civil peace, enhancing security and stability, and building a state of institutions and law.”