Syrian government and Kurdish-led SDF fail to progress on military merger

A deal penned in March stipulated that the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) would integrate with state institutions by the end of the year, but its implementation has since stalled.

Syrian government officials have held talks with the commander of the main Kurdish-led force in the country over plans to merge it with the national army, state media reported, adding that no “tangible results” had been achieved.

The Kurdish-led and US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said in a statement on Sunday that a delegation led by top commander Mazloum Abdi (also known as Mazloum Kobani) held talks with government officials in Damascus related to the military integration process.

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A major sticking point has been whether the SDF would remain a cohesive unit in the new army or whether it would be dissolved and its members individually absorbed. The group has tens of thousands of fighters and is the main force yet to be absorbed into Syria’s military.

State TV said the meeting did not produce “tangible results” and that the sides agreed to hold further meetings at a later date.

The leadership in Damascus under President Ahmed al-Sharaa inked a deal in March with the SDF, which controls large swathes of Syria’s oil-rich north and northeast. The Kurdish-led force was to merge with the Syrian army by the end of 2025, but there have been disagreements on how it would happen.

The deal also would bring all border crossings with Iraq and Turkiye, as well as airports and oil fields in the northeast, under the central government’s control. Prisons holding about 9,000 suspected members of the ISIL (ISIS) group are also expected to come under government control.

Turkiye considers the SDF a “terrorist” organisation because of its association with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which has waged a decades-long armed conflict on its soil, although a peace process is now under way.

Ankara sees the presence of Kurdish forces on its border as a security threat and has publicly called for them to be integrated into the state, but not as a single unit.

The SDF insists on a decentralised system of governance that would allow it to maintain its influence in the areas it controls. Tensions between the SDF and the government – which opposes calls for decentralisation – have occasionally led to violence.

In late December, clashes broke out between security forces and SDF fighters in the northern city of Aleppo during a visit to Syria by Turkiye’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan.

Last month, Fidan urged the SDF to not be an obstacle to Syria’s stability and warned that patience with the group was running out.