The Kurdish-led militia that controls northeast Syria agreed on Monday to merge with the nation’s new authorities, marking a serious breakthrough for Damascus in its efforts to unify a rustic wrestling with violent turmoil.
The settlement, introduced by the workplace of Syria’s presidency and signed by each events, stipulated that the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces would combine “all civil and army establishments” into the brand new Syrian state by the tip of the yr, together with its prized oil and gasoline fields.
The deal additionally outlined “the rights of all Syrians to illustration and participation within the political course of,” amid repeated pledges by Syria’s new management to kind an inclusive authorities after years of sectarian strife.
The timing of the settlement, which got here amid violent clashes in Syria’s coastal area which have left greater than 1,300 folks lifeless, signaled a second of reprieve for Syria’s new interim president, Ahmed al-Shara.
For the reason that insurgent coalition headed by Mr. al-Shara toppled the dictator Bashar al-Assad in December, the brand new authorities has sought to unify the complicated internet of insurgent teams working throughout Syria — probably the most highly effective of them being the Kurdish-led forces within the northeast. Nonetheless, the safety state of affairs has remained unstable, and the Kurdish militia has been among the many most difficult teams to deliver beneath the brand new authorities’s fold.
Syria’s new authorities has ordered all armed teams within the nation to dissolve, and in latest weeks, a number of distinguished militias have agreed to work with the brand new authorities, regardless of their skepticism about sweeping guarantees to create an inclusive authorities. As a insurgent chief, Mr. al-Shara commanded an armed group as soon as allied with Al Qaeda, and skeptics query whether or not he has given up its former hard-line jihadist views.
It stays unclear whether or not these militias have dissolved as directed and totally built-in right into a single nationwide military beneath Mr. al-Shara’s authority, or if they’ve merely agreed to cooperate with Mr. al-Shara’s authorities however stay as semi-independent forces in areas they successfully management.
For years, the Kurdish-led militia has been the principle U.S. accomplice within the combat in Syria in opposition to the Islamic State, and made hard-fought territorial positive aspects amid the nation’s civil struggle, to the extent that it now administers a de facto state in Syria’s northeast. The group has lengthy sought to place itself because the protectors of Syrian Kurds, who make up about 10 p.c of the nation’s inhabitants.
Regardless of the breakthrough on Monday, there have been some questions that have been left unanswered.
For one, it remained unclear whether or not the S.D.F. could be allowed to function as a definite army bloc inside Syria’s armed forces, a key demand in latest months by the Kurdish-led administration. It was additionally unclear how precisely the decision for “a cease-fire on all Syrian territories” could be carried out as stipulated within the settlement.
Even on Monday, combating continued to rage within the northeast between Kurdish-led forces and armed teams backed by Turkey, an in depth ally and backer of the brand new authorities in Damascus.
Turkey has lengthy considered the S.D.F. as an extension of Kurdish separatist insurgents who’ve fought the Turkish state for 4 a long time. Amid dramatic modifications in Syria’s political panorama, many Kurds have grown unnerved on the prospect of ending up worse off beneath a authorities supported by their longtime foe, Turkey.
