Kurdish leader vows to speed up SDF integration into Syrian state

The leader of Syria’s Kurds, Mazloum Abdi, said in a post on X that he had reiterated his commitment to integrating the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) — the military branch of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) — into the central state of Damascus.

“I just had a wonderful phone call with Ambassador Tom Barrack [the U.S. envoy to Syria and Lebanon] to discuss the results of the meeting with President Sharaa at the White House and our commitment to accelerating the integration of the SDF into the Syrian state,” he wrote.

Abdi praised Donald Trump’s invitation to Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharrah, thanking him “for giving the Syrian people a chance at greatness.” He described the development as “a step toward a more prosperous and secure future for our people in a unified Syria.”

“Syria’s accession to the Global Coalition Against Daesh represents a crucial step to strengthen collaborative efforts and consolidate initiatives to permanently defeat Daesh and eliminate its threat to the region,” he added.

After meeting with Sharaa in early October, Abdi announced that he had reached a “preliminary agreement” with the central government in Damascus on integrating his forces into Syria’s national security apparatus.

The agreement followed months of tension between Damascus and the Kurdish administration, which had led to clashes in the Sheikh Maqsoud Kurdish neighborhood of Aleppo and around the Tishrin Dam in northern Syria.

The Kurds, a major ethnic minority controlling large, resource-rich areas of northeastern Syria (notably oil and wheat), had on March 10 signed an agreement to integrate their civilian and military institutions into the central government within a year.

The SDF and the security forces under the Kurdish autonomous administration together number about 100,000 men and women. Backed by the United States, the SDF served as the main force in the fight against the Islamic State (IS), which was defeated in Syria in 2019.