A Kurdish-led militia alliance which controls north-eastern Syria has agreed a deal to integrate all military and civilian institutions into the Syrian state, the country’s presidency says. The agreement says the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) will cease hostilities and hand over control of the region’s border posts, airport, and vital oil and gas fields. It also recognises the Kurdish minority as “an integral part of the Syrian state” and guarantees “the rights of all Syrians to representation and participation in the political process”. SDF commander Mazloum Abdi called the deal a “real opportunity to build a new Syria”. We are committed to building a better future that guarantees the rights of all Syrians and fulfils their aspirations for peace and dignity. The deal represents a major step towards unifying the fractured country, said interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa. The size of that challenge has been made clear by the recent violence in western Syria, where attacks on security forces by Assad loyalists triggered reprisals in which more than 1,000 civilians were reportedly killed, most of them members of Assad’s minority Alawite sect. The deal could also de-escalate the SDF’s conflict with neighbouring Turkey and Turkish-backed Syrian former rebel factions allied to the government, which are trying to push the alliance out of areas near the border. The SDF has tens of thousands of well-armed and well-trained fighters and currently controls more than 46,000 sq km of territory in the north-east. It defeated the Islamic State (IS) group in 2019 with the help of a US-led coalition. The SDF plays a major role in the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES), which governs the region also known to Kurds as Rojava. About 10,000 IS fighters are being detained in SDF-run prisons and about 46,000 other people linked to IS are held in several camps. The Turkish government views the biggest militia in the SDF, the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), as a terrorist organisation, while the YPG is an extension of the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) group that waged an insurgency in Turkey for decades. Between 25 and 35 million Kurds inhabit a mountainous region straddling the borders of Turkey, Iraq, Syria, Iran, and Armenia.
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