Peace talks between Syria and Kurdish fighters are picking up pace with a proposal to bring three militia units into the national army, The National has been told.
However, the death of two Syrian soldiers in a murky incident this week highlights the tension hanging over the negotiations, even as the US applies pressure on the two sides to reach a deal.
Talks have reached advanced stages on integrating the US-backed, 40,000-member militia, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) into the post-Bashar Al Assad order, without major changes to its structure. However, little appears ready to be signed on paper, with the SDF demanding international guarantees for any arrangement, Syrian sources told The National.
In the latest unrest, Syria's authorities accused the SDF of killing two soldiers on a river front line. Syria's Defence Ministry said a "guided missile" launched by the SDF resulted in "the martyrdom of two soldiers and the serious injury of another". It accused the SDF of "rejecting all previous understandings and agreements.”
The SDF issued a statement saying "this information is incorrect," adding that the two soldiers were apparently killed by a landmine explosion.
A US-brokered ceasefire on October 7 halted urban warfare between government forces and SDF-linked fighters in a Kurdish area of Aleppo, Syria's industrial centre and the country's second-largest city. The fighting threatened to bring down a vague integration deal reached in March between President Ahmad Al Shara and SDF commander Mazloum Abdi. The SDF is secular, while the government is led by Hayat Tahrir Al Sham (HTS), a former splinter group of Al Qaeda founded by Mr Al Shara.
Two Syrian sources with knowledge of the talks said that sporadic talks between the government and the SDF on implementing the integration deal have taken a more serious turn since October 7, due to US pressure.
The talks, the sources said, have centred on streamlining the SDF into three divisions, one in the province of Raqqa, one in Deir Ezzor and one in Hasakah. Only Hasakah has a large Kurdish population, as opposed to the two other provinces, which are largely Arab.
Syrian army officers would have joint authority with former SDF commanders over the divisions in Raqqa and Deir Ezzor, but a scant role in Hasakah, where the bulk of the Kurdish component of the SDF will be based, the sources said. There would also be three SDF counter-terrorism units, with operational control retained by Kurdish commanders, according to the two sources.
"This sounds good to Abdi, because the Kurds would retain significant authority. But he does not trust that the arrangement would last," one of the sources said. "He wants an unequivocal guarantee by the US and other western countries." On relinquishing natural assets, such as oil fields, the source said that there are little obstacles, because Damascus appears willing to guarantee a de facto share to Hasakah.
However, the second source said that the even if Damascus has the "political will' to cede some control to Kurds, Turkey sees any recognition of SDF gains in the last decade as "a step toward partition". Ankara is the main non-Arab backer of the current government.
US military presence in Syria has helped prevent attempts by forces loyal to the new Damascus government, and to Turkey, from making major inroads into SDF areas, in contrast to major government offensives on Alawite and Druze areas this year. The new authorities have secured regional backing but struggled to find accommodations with minorities in the mainly Sunni Muslim country.
The US set up the SDF in 2015 as the local ground component in the war against ISIS in Syria, which left the SDF in control of areas containing the bulk of Syria's commodities and energy production. However, Washington has also sought ties with the post-Assad government.
A regional official who has been following the Kurdish issue in Syria said that if the current talks fail, the SDF will "move toward retrenchment" in Hasakah, where it has its core constituency, unlike the mostly Arab areas now under its control further east. "I do not see a stabilisation," the official said.
