The government of Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, the head of the al-Qaeda offshoot Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), signed an agreement on Sunday with American-allied Kurdish forces in the country that dramatically strips away the latter’s autonomy in exchange for Damascus recognizing “Kurdish cultural and linguistic rights.”
The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a Kurdish-led military force that liberated the former Islamic State “caliph” capital Raqqa with American help, has struggled in the past year to establish a normalized relationship with Sharaa’s jihadi government. The SDF and its political analog, the Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (DAANES), operated largely independently of the former regime of Bashar Assad, who fled the country in December 2024 after HTS had seized control of Aleppo, prompting the collapse of Assad’s armed forces before marching onto the capital.
Aleppo once again became a flash point in late December as clashes erupted between SDF Kurdish forces and government-affiliated fighters, prompting a mass exodus of Kurds and accusations from the DAANES of “war crimes.” Sharaa’s government responded with the talks that led to the agreement published on Sunday intended to give the Syrian federal government a monopoly on violence in a way that addresses concerns that the jihadist terrorist elements of that government may commit genocidal acts against the Kurds.
Sharaa, a former wanted terrorist, has insisted in international venues that he hopes to establish an “inclusive” government and protect the rights of Kurds, the Druze, Christians, and Alawites — the latter a Shiite sect that has experienced outsized persecution following the collapse of the Assad regime as a result of the Assad family itself being Alawite. His actions, however, have undermined those stated goals, in particular the imposition on the country of an Islamist constitution that requires the president to be a Muslim and facilitates the imposition of sharia on the population.
The SDF and the Syrian government confirmed the signing of the agreement on Sunday. The full terms, as published by the Kurdish news outlet Rudaw, begin with the imposition of “an immediate and comprehensive ceasefire” between the SDF and any government forces. It then lists a series of major concessions from the SDF, including the incorporation of the SDF-controlled regions of Deir ez-Zor and Raqqa, as well as al-Hasakah, into Damascus control, and the effective end of the SDF as it was previously known. Deir ez-Zor and Raqqa are not traditionally part of Rojava, or Syrian Kurdistan, and fell into Kurdish control as a result of the war against the Islamic State.
The deal specifies that the Syrian government will pivotally control the oil fields currently under autonomous Kurdish control, as well as the prisons housing thousands of Islamic State jihadis since the SDF and the United States liberated Raqqa.
The agreement asserts that the SDF will continue to exist as part of the “structures of the Syrian Ministries of Defense and Interior” and the government will hire its fighters “following necessary security vetting, granting them military ranks, financial entitlements, and logistical requirements accordingly.” Anyone associated with the Assad regime found to be in the SDF would not remain as part of the force.
In exchange for these concessions, the Sharaa government announced that it would withdraw most of its forces from the beleaguered Kurdish city of Kobani, recognize the Kurdish language and allow it to be taught in Kurdish regional schools, and receive a list of candidates from the SDF for “high-ranking military, security, and civil positions” throughout the government. Sharaa also reportedly committed to helping displaced Kurds return home.
The head of the SDF, Gen. Mazloum Abdi, is expected to meet with Sharaa in Damascus on Monday. Abdi confirmed that he had signed the agreement on Sunday and lamented it was necessary to prevent continued bloodshed in Aleppo.
“This war was imposed on us. We wanted to prevent it, but unfortunately, because it was planned by many forces, it was imposed on us,” Abdi explained. “It was planned to become a civil war, but to avoid this and prevent further meaningless bloodshed, we agreed to withdraw from Deir ez-Zor and Raqqa to Hasaka. An agreement was signed on this.”
“We are determined to protect the achievements of the revolution and the gains of our people, while preserving the specific characteristics of our region,” he reportedly continued. “We have the capability to do so.”
By Monday, however, reports began emerging that Sharaa-affiliated jihadi troops were still attacking Kurds. The North Press Agency (NPA), which covers Kurdish areas, cited SDF complains that “intense clashes are currently underway between its forces and government forces near al-Aqtan Prison in Raqqa,” a prison housing Islamic State terrorists.
“At this time, violent clashes are taking place between our forces and those factions in the vicinity of Al-Aqtan Prison in Raqqa, which houses detainees of the ISIS terrorist organization, representing an extremely dangerous development,” the SDF warned. “We present these facts to the public and hold the attacking parties fully responsible for any catastrophic consequences that may result from the continuation of these attacks.”