The chief of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which spearheaded the combat towards ISIL (ISIS) in Syria, has introduced the group’s dissolution as a part of an integration plan agreed upon with President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s authorities.
Talking on the presidential palace in Damascus on Tuesday, Mazloum Abdi stated the SDF has accomplished its merger with the Syrian navy and can stop to function as an impartial pressure.
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The Kurdish-led group as soon as managed a de facto autonomous zone in Syria’s northeast, however misplaced most of its territory to a authorities offensive in January. It then signed the merger deal, which additionally included the popularity of Kurdish cultural, civil and academic rights in Syria.
“At the moment, we stand at a historic second through which we flip an vital web page in Syria’s historical past and start to open a brand new web page titled peace, stability and reconstruction,” Abdi stated in his handle.
“We would like at the present time to be the start of a real transition from the battlefields to the fields of development, and from the period of weapons to the period of peace,” he stated.
The SDF had “carried a heavy accountability throughout some of the troublesome intervals in Syria’s historical past”, he stated. However circumstances have now modified, with the nation getting into a brand new part of peace.
Due to this fact, “we announce the top of the mission of the Syrian Democratic Forces and announce with full accountability its dissolution as an impartial navy pressure”, he stated.
‘Vastly vital second’
The SDF was as soon as the primary companion of america in Syria because it battled ISIL. However after the ouster of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in December 2024, Washington fashioned shut ties with the brand new authorities in Damascus, led by al-Sharaa.
Al Jazeera’s Heidi Pett, reporting from Damascus, stated the SDF’s dissolution was a “vastly vital second for Syria”.
She stated the SDF’s fortunes shifted with Washington’s backing of al-Sharaa’s authorities and that the mixing course of had taken greater than seven months attributable to unresolved questions in regards to the group’s heavy weapons and the way forward for the YPJ, the ladies fighters.
“The YPJ had argued that they need to be built-in into the Ministry of Defence, that they’re skilled troopers – they fought towards ISIS and need to proceed being troopers,” she stated. “However Damascus was solely providing them the choice of becoming a member of the Ministry of Inside as law enforcement officials. So these unresolved questions have been a part of the explanation the dissolution wasn’t formally introduced till now.”
Nonetheless, questions stay about how the method will play out in northeastern Syria, she added.
Beneath the 50-year rule of the Assad dynasty, Kurds have been marginalised, with many denied citizenship. Abdi, in his handle in Damascus, careworn that al-Sharaa additionally recognised the preservation of the Kurds’ proper to schooling within the Kurdish language. He added that they’d work to implement schooling within the Kurdish language in the course of the present yr.
“We need to construct a brand new Syria for all its folks – the Kurds, Arabs, Turkmen and Assyrians – a unified and secure Syria that protects the way forward for its kids and ensures a dignified life for its youth,” he stated.
Washington’s envoy to Syria hailed US President Donald Trump’s position within the SDF’s merger with the Syrian state.
Tom Barrack stated Trump’s “far-sighted management” had opened the trail for the SDF’s orderly integration. He additionally stated the deal, along with recognising the Kurdish language in schooling, had secured “substantive roles” within the Syrian authorities for Abdi and the pinnacle of the Kurdish-led administration in northeastern Syria, Ilham Ahmed.
There was no affirmation from Damascus on the appointments, however in line with native media stories, Abdi shall be appointed as an adviser to al-Sharaa, whereas Ahmed shall be appointed to the administration of Parliament.
Barrack stated the transfer “pays due respect to their management, the sacrifices of our Kurdish companions, and the constructive contribution they’ve made to regional stability”.
‘Ripple impact’
Analysts, in the meantime, stated the SDF’s disbanding would assist lay the bottom for a united Syria.
“I applaud each side, particularly the federal government, for looking for the least confrontational path for the reason that collapse of the Assad regime,” stated Saleh Mubarak, a Syrian-American professor and author.
The transfer will “have a ripple impact on different rebels, within the south and possibly within the west, that Syria will stay as one nation – acknowledging and celebrating the variety we now have in each facet: faith, sect, language, race”, he instructed Al Jazeera.
However whereas al-Sharaa’s authorities has pledged to recognise Kurdish rights, together with linguistic rights, it has “to this point fallen brief” of expectations in northeastern Syria, Mubarak stated.
Nonetheless, “there’s positively some cause to have a good time right here, by way of this settlement getting so far with none main points”, he stated. “However this isn’t the top of the story. And there’s numerous expectation on the a part of the typical Kurd that that is going to be a brand new period for everybody in Syria.”
The dissolution of the SDF got here a day after the US removed Syria from its “state sponsors of terrorism” listing, a decades-old designation that got here with extreme financial restrictions. It marked one other step in nearer ties between the 2 international locations after the ouster of al-Assad.
Al-Sharaa had hailed the transfer, saying, “Syria shakes off a darkish stain and tears away a painful chapter of its previous to embark on a path of improvement, reconstruction and rebuilding.”
