Syria’s interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa and Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) chief Mazloum Abdi signed an agreement on March 10 to integrate the Kurdish-led SDF into Syria’s state institutions. A statement by the Syrian Presidency said a pact was reached to “integrate all civil and military institutions in northeast Syria [Rojava] under the administration of the Syrian state, including border crossings, the [Qamishli] Airport, and oil and gas fields.” The statement emphasized that “the Kurdish community is indigenous to the Syrian state, which ensures this community’s right to citizenship and all of its constitutional rights.”
The agreement further vowed to “guarantee the rights of all Syrians to representation and participation in the political process and in all state institutions based on competence, regardless of their religious and ethnic backgrounds.” It called for a “ceasefire across all Syrian territories,” and effectively pledged the SDF’s “support to the Syrian state in its fight against the remnants of [the] Assad [regime] and all threats to its security and unity.”
The agreement between Sharaa and Abdi is considered a breakthrough, as the Rojava leadership had previously rejected centralized rule, insisting on decentralization in post-Assad Syria. Moreover, the Kurdish National Council (ENKS), an umbrella group of Kurdish opposition parties in Rojava, last week accused the new leadership in Damascus of making unilateral decisions that excluded ethnic and religious minorities. Both the ENKS and the Democratic Autonomous Administration in North & East Syria (DAANES) additionally criticized the National Dialogue Conference held in Damascus late last month as “exclusionary” for lacking Kurdish representation. The conference was intended to pave the way for the formation of an inclusive government and the drafting of a constitutional declaration. (Rudaw)
Image: Rudaw
Status of Syrian oil-fields under integration deal
It should be noted that some of the oil-fields under control of the SDF are jointly held with US troops, a potentially complicating factor in bringing them under central government control.
Turkey still bombing Rojava
Kurdish forces that control much of northeast Syria said nine people from the same family were killed March 16 in a Turkish air-strike on a farm outside Kobane. (TNA)