Under pressure, Kurdish militia resumes integration talks with Damascus

New Syrian government's drive to extend its authority has been boosted by endorsement from Washington

A Kurdish delegation from north-east Syria, left, meets representatives of the Syrian government in Damascus on June 1. AFP

The mostly Kurdish militia that controls large parts of eastern Syria is seeking to resurrect an integration deal with Damascus following moves by the US, its main backer, to bolster the authority of the new central government established by the former rebel group Hayat Tahrir Al Sham (HTS).

The March 10 agreement faltered after the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the US-backed militia, convened a conference of Kurdish political groups in April that demanded that Syria be governed under a federal system. However, the SDF's position has been undermined by the recent Turkish and Saudi-brokered rapprochement between Washington and the HTS-led government in Damascus.

Syrian authorities and the Kurdish-led force exchanged more than 400 prisoners on Monday in an effort to "reduce tensions on the ground", said the deputy governor of Aleppo province, Mulham Al Akidi.

The SDF-dominated administration in the east "supports Syria’s unity and sovereignty", a Kurdish delegation said in a statement issued after a meeting with Syrian officials in Damascus on Sunday. The statement said that there would be another round of talks soon, but it did not specify a date.

The statement made no reference to the future of the SDF, which seeks to remain a separate unit rather than being absorbed into the new Syrian armed forces of the Damascus government. The secular SDF is the second-most powerful faction in Syria, after HTS, the religious armed group that led the rebel offensive that toppled former dictator Bashar Al Assad in December. Syria's President Ahmad Al Shara is also the leader of HTS.

Restoring control of the east to the central authorities would further strengthen Mr Al Shara, whose international acceptance as Syria's new leader received a major boost after his meeting with US President Donald Trump in Saudi Arabia last month.

The US special envoy to Syria Thomas Barrack, a close Trump ally who also serves as the US ambassador to Turkey, met Mr Al Shara in Damascus last week and announced that Washington would lift Syria's designation as a state sponsor of terrorism. He said the US would "give this young government a chance by not interfering, not demanding, by not giving conditions".

The Kurdish delegation said they also discussed the thorny issue of returning displaced people to the east during the talks on Sunday. Many among the three million population of the area were forcibly displaced after Kurdish militias who were forerunners of the SDF captured the area from the Assad regime starting in 2012, the year after the start of an uprising against the former president.

The Kurdish militias expelled thousands of Arab families but many Kurds were also forced to leave after Turkey carved out a zone of control in the area in 2018.

The two sides agreed to explore "mechanisms to facilitate the return of displaced persons to their areas and addressing the obstacles hindering this return". They also agreed to reactivate an agreement for Damascus security forces to enter a mostly Kurdish neighbourhood in the northern city of Aleppo, the Kurdish delegation said.