These claims were quickly refuted by Iran’s Kurdish opposition parties. “We did not receive any weapons during the time of the demonstrations in Iran,” Hejar Berenji, stateside representative of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI) told Fox News.

Siamand Moeini, a senior leader in the armed Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK), similarly denied the report. “We as PJAK, as I know, have not received anything. As for others, I cannot answer,” he told Middle East Eye.

Hana Yazdanpanah, foreign representative for the Iraq-based Kurdistan Freedom Party (PAK), which has a wide following in Iran, told Middle East Eye that their fighters only have their “old Kalashnikov[s] that we fought ISIS with for five years and the weapons they abandoned after its defeat.” She added: “We have received no single weapon from the US at this time.”

Mohammed Nazif Qaderi, a senior official of the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI), told the Kurdish news agency Rudaw: “Those statements made are baseless and we haven’t received any weapons. The weapons we have are from 47 years ago, and we obtained them on the Islamic Republic’s battlefield, and we bought some from the market.”

Immediately after the US and Israel launched their air campaign against Iran in late February, Tehran embarked on a barrage of missile and drone attacks against Kurdish targets in northern Iraq. Iranian drone strikes targeted KDPI camps in the Koya district, along with a KDPI headquarters in Erbil province. (AW)

Image: Middle East Forum via Wikimedia Commons

Briefing for the first time as deputy special envoy for Syria, Claudio Cordone highlighted the ceasefire and “integration” agreement reached between the Syrian transitional authorities and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in late January. Cordone said hostilities had ended and that implementation work was progressing, including reported deployments of Interior Ministry forces in al-Hasakeh and Qamishli, alongside discussions on local governance and political appointments.

The agreement includes provisions on the return of displaced people and the protection of Kurdish civil and educational rights, building on last month‘s Presidential Decree 13, guaranteeing Kurdish linguistic, cultural and citizenship rights.

The transition briefing raised concerns about detention and accountability for rights abuses. In remarks delivered to the Security Council, Cordone said the UN is monitoring transfers of detained suspected ISIS collaborators, both Syrian and non-Syrian, to Iraq. He stressed that any proceedings must respect fair trial standards, while urging states to repatriate their nationals among the detained.

UN officials warned that relative stabilization in the northeast has not prevented renewed volatility elsewhere. In Suwayda (Sweida), renewed clashes between government forces and local Druze armed groups have reportedly caused material damage and electricity outages. Protests calling for self-determination have also resurfaced, prompting UN calls for confidence-building measures within full respect of Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.

In southern Syria, UN officials cited continued Israeli incursions and operations, including reports of aerial herbicide spraying that damaged crops. They called for respect for international law and withdrawal from areas the UN describes as occupied in violation of the 1974 Disengagement of Forces Agreement.

Humanitarian officials emphasized that insecurity is compounding acute civilian need. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that recent clashes have displaced tens of thousands, and that about 130,000 people remain displaced across al-Hasakeh, ar-Raqqa and Aleppo governorates, with a large majority women and girls. UN officials also reported flooding in Idleb and northern Latakia that killed two children and damaged or destroyed roughly 2,000 tents, affecting over 5,000 displaced people.

The next political milestone, Cordone said, is the formation of the People’s Assembly, with additional seats still to be filled and further presidential appointments pending. He stressed that meaningful representation, rights protection, missing-persons recovery, and transitional justice remain central to a credible transition.

From JURIST, Feb. 16. Used with permission. Internal links added.

See our last report on the transition process in Syria

Map: PCL

A last-minute “permanent ceasefire” may mean that northeast Syria is back from the brink of Arab-Kurdish ethnic war. But ceasefires have repeatedly broken down since fighting resumed earlier this year, with Damascus demanding disbandment of the Rojava autonomous zone, and the integration of its institutions—including its military wing, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF)—into the central government. While the new pact sets a more “gradual” pace for this integration, the Kurdish aspiration to regional autonomy and the central government’s insistence on centralization may prove a long-term obstacle to peace. In Episode 315 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg weighs the odds for avoiding a conflict that holds the potential for escalation to genocide, with the connivance of the Great Powers that so recently backed the SDF to fight ISIS.

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This development came to light this week as Syrian interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa was on his second trip to Moscow to meet with Vladimir Putin. As during his last one in October, the chief issue on the table was Russia maintaining its two major military bases in Syria, on the Mediterranean coast at Khmeimim and Tartous.

Speaking at a press conference before their meeting on Jan. 28, al-Sharaa thanked Putin for the “historic” role Russia has played in the “stability of the region”… a strange euphemism for the years of savage bombardment of Syria to keep al-Sharaa’s own rebel forces from taking power! Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, for his part, said before the meeting that “the presence of our soldiers in Syria” would be discussed. (PRI, Al Jazeera, NYT)

Abdulkarim Omar, a senior Syrian Kurdish official, told The Telegraph in Qamilshi as the Russians withdrew that Moscow had sacrificed its outpost in Rojava in order to a secure a continued presence on the government-controlled coast. “Russia wants to retain its base on the Mediterranean,” he said.

In some tentative good news, Damascus and the SDF agreed Jan. 30 to a “permanent ceasefire” that would see Kurdish-led forces and institutions gradually integrated into the structures of the interim government. The speed and completeness of this integration has been the critical factor at issue between the two sides, and has led to ceasefires repeatedly breaking down over the past weeks. In welcoming this latest deal, SDF commander-in-chief Mazloum Abdi said: “There was a threat of genocide against our people.” (Rudaw, Rudaw)

Photo: SOHR

My Office monitored an alarming increase in the use of the capital punishment in 2025, especially for offences not meeting the “most serious crimes” threshold required under international law, the continued execution of people convicted of crimes committed as children, as well as persistent secrecy around executions.

This threshold is established by Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil & Political Rights. The increase primarily came from executions for drug-related offenses in a small number of retentionist states. These are countries that continue to retain capital punishment, as opposed to the growing number of abolitionist states. which do not employ the death penalty.

Türk stressed that the death penalty does not function as an effective crime prevention tool, and can kill innocent people. He further emphasized the serious implications for marginalized groups: “In practice, the death penalty is also often applied arbitrarily and discriminatorily, in violation of fundamental principles of equality before the law.”

The report specifically addressed the conduct of several countries, including Iran. The UN estimated that at least 1,500 individuals were executed in Iran in 2025—at least 47% for drug offenses. Türk said this figure suggests a “systemic use of capital punishment as a tool of State intimidation.” Iran Human Rights Monitor reported similar concerns in December, stating that “political death sentences” have especially targeted ethnic minorities, including Kurds and Baloch.

Saudi Arabia also had a high figure, with at least 356 executions—78% for drug-related offenses. At least two of those executed were killed for offenses committed as minors, which raises concerns over the rights of children under international law.

Joey Shea, Saudi Arabia researcher at Human Rights Watch, described a “record surge” in executions in the country, and called for an international response. “Governments should immediately press Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s authorities to halt all executions,” she said.

Forty-seven executions occurred in the US in 2025—the highest number in 16 years. Experts have continued to express concerns about “torture or cruel punishment” implications of the expanding use of gas asphyxiation, introduced by some states in 2024.

Türk also discussed Afghanistan, Somalia, Singapore, China, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, and Belarus.

The report did note some “encouraging steps” taken last year. For example, the Constitutional Court in Kyrgyzstan upheld a prohibition on the death penalty, ruling that an attempt to reintroduce it was unconstitutional. Temur Shakirow, director of the International Court of Justice Europe & Central Asia Programme, praised the measure, saying:

Justice systems in all countries are vulnerable to error or abuse, and the death penalty makes any such failure irreversible. Maintaining the abolition of capital punishment therefore remains essential to the effective protection of the right to life.

Türk called on all retentionist states to cease executions, downgrade all current death sentences, and begin to take steps towards abolition.

From JURIST, Jan. 19. Used with permission.

Photo: ICHRI

The Syrian interim government and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) reached an agreement Jan. 18 to immediately halt fighting and integrate SDF-held areas into state institutions. The deal follows days of renewed clashes, in which government forces routed SDF strongholds in the city of Aleppo and then pushed east, taking several towns that had been under the control of the Kurdish-led autonomous administration. Just hours before the agreement was reached, autonomous authorities in the Kurdish region, known as Rojava, had announced a “general mobilization” in support of the SDF, citing an “existential war” launched by Damascus against their territory.

Syrian interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa said the agreement was signed remotely with SDF commander Mazloum Abdi, who was unable to come to Damascus due to bad weather. Earlier in the day, Sharaa met at the presidential palace with the US special envoy for Syria, Tom Barrack, who seems to have had a hand in brokering the agreement.

Key provisions of the agreement include the integration of SDF personnel “individually” into the Syrian Army rather than as a unified force, the full handover of SDF-held areas of Deir ez-Zor and Raqqa provinces, and the integration of all institutions and employees of the Democratic Autonomous Administration of North & East Syria (DAANES) into national ministries. The deal also establishes the central state’s control over all border crossings and energy resources, including oil and gas fields.

Implementation of a March 2025 integration agreement between Sharaa and the SDF/DAANES had stalled after the SDF pushed to be incorporated into the Army as a unified bloc, a demand rejected by Damascus.

Barrack said the US “looks forward to the seamless integration” of the SDF and the Syrian Army in the fight against ISIS.

The new agreement references and pledges to uphold a decree issued by al-Sharaa two days earlier guaranteeing cultural, linguistic and citizenship rights to Syria’s Kurdish population.

Significantly, it also calls for the removal of the heavy military presence from the contested town of Kobani (Ain al-Arab), and the formation of a local security force drawn from the city’s residents, under joint administration by municipal authorities and the Ministry of Interior.

The agreement also calls for transfer of massive detention camps for suspected ISIS collaborators from SDF control to that the Syrian government. (Rudaw)

Photo: Rudaw

Jordan also carried out a series of air-strikes supposedly targeting drug traffickers in the closing days of December—the latest in ongoing intermittent Jordanian strikes aimed at breaking up the Captagon smuggling networks in Syria. (LWJ)

The past week also saw joint British and French strikes on supposed ISIS targets near Palmyra. (BBC News)

Turkey’s Defense Ministry meanwhile said it stands ready to help Syria’s interim government in its ongoing “counter-terrorism” operation against Kurdish fighters in Aleppo, while adding that the Aleppo operation has so far been “carried out entirely by the Syrian army.” (France24)

Image: Pixabay

But the fighting appears to spreading into the Kurdish heartland. The town of Deir Hafer, east of Aleppo, is also coming under shelling from government forces. The town is held by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), main military wing of the Kurdish-led autonomous administration that controls much of the country’s east.

With several casualties in both Aleppo and Deir Hafer, the clashes mark the deadliest outbreak of fighting since an agreement last March to merge the SDF and autonomous administration into Syria’s new government. The deal has still not been implemented, with both sides at odds over the terms. (Rudaw, Rudaw, France24)

In a grim irony, this comes exactly a decade after the peak of the massive bombardment of Aleppo by the Assad regime.

Map: Google

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“These personnel will assist in surveillance and coordination with US forces at the al-Tanf base in Syria to ensure that IS does not exploit the security vacuum,” al-Sudani said, according to Kurdistan24. Al-Tanf, in southeastern Syria, is the main US outpost in that country.

The announcement that US troops will remain at Ain al-Asad represents a reversal of plans for a full withdrawal initially slated to be completed by last month. US Central Command only acknowledged that the withdrawal was underway in late September, pointing to a change in plans.

The decision to allow the US troops to stay was made in response to “developments in Syria,” al-Sudani said. This presumably refers to the fall of the Assad regime in December 2024, after the draw-down agreement between the US and Iraq was reached. The initial plan, reached last fall, would have brought the number of US troops inside Iraq from 2,500 to fewer than 2,000, with most based in the Kurdistan region. (Task & Purpose)

Photo: Spc. Timothy VanDusen/US Army via Task & Purpose