Political uncertainty shrouded the fate of large areas in north-eastern Syria on Sunday, two days after a deal contained fighting between the government and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces near urban areas.
Neither side has disclosed details of the implementation of the US-brokered deal, which reiterated commitments by the SDF to integrate its fighters and civic bodies into the Syrian state. The group has lost the bulk of its holdings in eastern Syria, including reservoirs, and oil and gasfields, to a government advance in the past two weeks, providing a major boost to the cash-strapped central government led by President Ahmad Al Shara.
A Kurdish source close to SDF decision-making circles expected the deal, the third such agreement in less than a year, to "go well" because Turkey, "the big elephant in the room", did not get its way.
The source credited US President Donald Trump with helping to seal the deal. "This time we managed through the Trump administration and Trump personally to find a solution," they said.
Syria's UN representative Ibrahim Olabi told Arab News that the deal would take a month to implement fully, starting "with the security component".
The government has been expanding control over Arab areas once controlled by the SDF as part of a self-declared autonomous region. On Sunday, senior officials oversaw the opening of schools in Deir Ezzor and Raqqa – two Arab-majority governorates, state media reported.
Reflecting the unresolved schism, thousands marched on Sunday in demonstrations supporting Kurdish "resistance" in the SDF-controlled cities of Hasakah, Qamishli and Malikiyah in the north-east, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said. State media also reported demonstrations in Raqqa against SDF control of Arab areas in the governorate.
There were few signs of the latest deal being implemented on Sunday, beyond a freeze in fighting. Government forces and tribal auxiliaries continued to surround the northern Kurdish-majority city of Kobani in Aleppo governorate, and were deployed on the outskirts of the provincial capital of Hasakah, as well near two roads leading to the border with Iraqi Kurdistan, a security source in Jordan said.
The source said that although the deal provides for a substantial, de facto SDF security presence in Kurdish-populated cities, this would fade. "Al Shara will start building up proxies within the Kurds as an alternative to the SDF. The Americans will support him because he has become far more important to them, especially amid the confrontation with Iran."
Under the agreement, forces from both sides will pull back from the front lines, while government troops will be deployed to the centres of Hasakah and Qamishli. The integration of forces will involve the creation of a military division comprising three SDF brigades, as well as the incorporation of a brigade in Kobani into a division affiliated with Aleppo governorate.
The SDF has suffered a sharp erosion of US support since May last year when Washington started establishing relations with the government of Mr Al Shara, a former Al Qaeda operative. Mr Al Shara has become an American ally and anti-terrorism partner, supplanting the SDF. Although the US has become the dominant power in Syria, Turkey retains substantial influence and is the main regional backer of Mr Al Shara.
