US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said President Donald Trump “personally” engaged with Syrian President Ahmad Al Shara to halt fighting between Damascus and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
"The President engaged personally not once but twice with Al Shara, and he said stop the fighting so that we can move the ISIS prisoners that are there," Mr Rubio told a press conference with Slovakia's Prime Minister Robert Fico on Sunday.
The US last week completed the transfer of nearly 7,000 suspected ISIS fighters to Iraq from prisons and camps in north-east Syria as the Syrian government extended its control into the previously SDF-held area. Mr Rubio said Mr Trump told the Syrian President that thousands of ISIS prisoners could have broken out and created havoc if the fighting between the government and SDF continued.
"Stop the fighting so that we can move these ISIS prisoners and so that you can – we have more time to work on this reintegration, the integration of the Kurds into the national Syrian forces," Mr Trump had said. Mr Rubio added that the Syrian president "did it" and has "kept his word up to this point".
"Obviously, he has to keep doing that. But that’s what we’ve been able to achieve. We’ve been able to at least get him to agree to do that," he added. Mr Rubio said that "there are other such agreements that they need to reach with the Druze, with the Bedouins, with the [Alawites], with all the elements of a very diverse society in Syria."
On January 30, Syria's government reached a milestone agreement with the SDF to gradually integrate the group into the central army as part of a transition following Bashar Al Assad's ousting in December 2024. The US-brokered accord came after weeks of fighting that sparked fears of another full-blown war.
Under the agreement, forces amassed on front lines in the north of the country are to pull back, while the government has deployed internal security forces in the SDF-held cities of Hasakah and Qamishli.
The integration will involve the formation of a military division made up of three SDF brigades, as well as the incorporation of a brigade in Kobani – also known as Ain Al Arab − into a division affiliated with Aleppo governorate.
The SDF gained control of large areas of north-east Syria during the 2011-2024 civil war − about 25 per cent of Syrian territory − before the government advance. It was run as a semi-autonomous region under the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria.
The SDF were once Washington's main Syrian ally, and played a vital role in the fight against ISIS. But its position took a major hit as Mr Trump cultivated relations with Mr Al Shara, a former Al Qaeda commander who has now brought almost all of Syria back under the authority of Damascus.
Several episodes of sectarian violence have taken place since Mr Al Assad was ousted by a rebel offensive in December 2024. The new government in Syria is led by prominent figures from Hayat Tahrir Al Sham, a former splinter group of Al Qaeda.
One of the earliest outbreaks was in March last year, when at least 1,300 Alawite civilians were killed during a government campaign to stop what it described as an insurgency by members of the former regime in the coastal region. The Assad family, who ruled Syria with an iron fist for decades, are from the Alawite sect.
Sectarian violence shook Sweida in July last year, when clashes between armed Bedouin and Druze militiamen escalated into indiscriminate bloodshed, killing hundreds of civilians, most of them Druze. Residents and human rights groups have accused Syrian troops of taking part in abuses against the Druze.
Despite a ceasefire agreed in July, the situation remains tense and access to Sweida difficult. Since the violence, Druze leaders have called for self-determination for Sweida and barred state forces from entering the city.
Druze leaders are now calling for separatism, and have appointed an unofficial local administration led by Hikmat Al Hijri, an influential cleric known for his pro-Israel stance. The body is not recognised by the government in Damascus.
