Photos showed interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa and SDF commander Mazloum Abdi shaking hands in Damascus on the agreement that provides for SDF-controlled civilian and military institutions in northeast Syria to be integrated with the state.
In December, insurgents toppled the regime of former President Bashar al-Assad, a member of the country’s Alawite minority who fled to longtime supporter Russia.
In his first official comment following the signing of the accord, Abdi said in a post on X that the deal represents a “real opportunity to build a new Syria.”
Implementation is due by the end of the year, but the accord does not specify how SDF’s military operation will be integrated into Syria’s defence ministry, a major sticking point in talks thus far.
The violence in the west was Sharaa’s biggest test since he seized power. A war monitor reported hundreds of civilians killed in Alawite villages since Thursday as government forces sought to crush what they described as an insurrection.
“The massacres have weakened Sharaa. He has a lot of trouble internally and with the United States. It could help him show that he is not hostile to all minorities,“ said Aron Lund, a fellow at U.S.-based think tank Century International, describing the agreement as vague.
For Abdi, the agreement is a hedge against the risk of U.S. President Donald Trump suddenly withdrawing U.S. forces, which have supported the SDF for a decade to counter Islamic State in Syria, Lund added.
The SDF has been in conflict with Turkey-backed Syrian armed groups in northern Syria for years - a conflict that has rumbled on since Assad was toppled.
There was no immediate comment on the deal from Turkey, which is a close ally of Sharaa.
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