The leader of the Syrian Democratic Forces signed a deal on March 11 with Syria’s new president Ahmed al-Sharaa. It is a historic deal that is being praised across the Middle East and that has the potential to transform Syria. The reasons for this are complex and relate to the history of the Syrian civil war. It is worth understanding that history to understand how the two leaders got to this point.
Abdi was born in 1967 while Sharaa was born in 1982. The men rose to prominence in the ranks of two very different organizations. Sharaa’s Hayat Tahrir al-Sham has roots that go back to Al Qaeda. Sharaa is thus on the right of the religious and militant spectrum. Abdi, by contrast, came to leadership via associations with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a group that Turkey and western countries consider a terrorist group.
Therefore, depending on how one views these organizations, both men arrived to prominence through working with terrorist groups. Eventually Abdi came to command the Syrian Democratic Forces, which is a group created in 2015 and backed by the US to fight ISIS.
While Abdi was manuevering the SDF to defeat ISIS in the years 2015-2019, the fighters of HTS were taking control of Idlib province in northwest Syria. The SDF came to control a swath of eastern Syria. However the SDF faced attacks by Turkey and Turkish-backed groups called the Syrian National Army (SNA)
By the time the Syrian regime, with Russian and Iranian backing, had taken back much of eastern Syria, it appeared that HTS and the SDF might end up being surrounded in their areas and eventually isolated.
Fortunes changed in early December when HTS launched an offensive against the Syrian regime that caused the Assad regime to collapse on December 8. The SDF rapidly moved to fill some areas the Syrian regime was fleeing from. This appeared to set up the chance for a clash between the SDF and HTS. As HTS assumed leadership in Damascus it unified many former rebel groups and Sharaa became the president of the new Syria. Now it appeared that Damascus might seek to fight the SDF for control of Syria, if the SDF didn’t accept its rule. However, Damascus had more pressing challenges. On March 6 dozens of Syrian security personnel were killed in Latakia in northwest Syria. The response was chaotic and groups of extremists linked to Damascus and linked to the SNA went on a rampage killing hundreds of civilians.
The Latakia massacre tarnished the image of Damascus. Some wondered how things would turn out. However, behind the scenes Sharaa was in talks with Abdi. It is in that context that Abdi went to Damascus to sign an agreement the SDF calls “a real opportunity to build a new Syria.” The deal says that over time the SDF will integrate into Syria’s state institutions. This will be complex because the SDF’s ideology and that of the institutions in eastern Syria are very different than the more conservative views of HTS. However, under a new Syrian government its possible accommodation will be found.
“We are committed to building a better future that guarantees the rights of all Syrians and achieves their aspirations for peace and dignity. We consider this agreement a real opportunity to build a new Syria that embraces its components and guarantees a good neighborhood,” Abdi wrote on social media platform X. The deal will hopefully cement the rights of Kurds in Syria. It recognized “the Kurdish community is an indigenous community in the Syrian state, and the Syrian state guarantees its rights to citizenship and all its constitutional rights.”
Road map for integration
The deal is supposed to put together a road map for integration that will be completed in the next nine months. Rudaw, a Kurdish media outlet reported that the Syrian Democratic Council (SDC), the SDF’s political wing, praised the agreement. It called it a “pivotal moment.” The SDC noted that “it seeks to establish a democratic and pluralistic state that respects the rights of all its Syrian components. This state will be founded on a constitution that reflects the will of Syrians, both men and women.”
Many questions remain. Other Kurdish groups say they were not aware of the secret talks that led to the deal. The US was aware and it appears US Central Command was either supportive or at least understood that its SDF partner was about to go to Damascus to do this deal. This will lead to questions about the future of the US role with the SDF and also Operation Inherent Resolve, the anti-ISIS coalition. There are up to 2,000 US troops in Syria. Some of them are in eastern Syria and a small group are at Tanf Garrison near the Iraq-Jordan border in southern Syria. There are numerous US posts and small bases in eastern Syria.
The talks with Damascus could also lead to positive results in Turkey. Turkey has backed the SNA and often bombs the SDF. Ankara could now change its policy and the SNA might also now be dissolved. This would basically mean that Damascus would then control all of Syria and all the various groups that developed during the Syrian civil war.
The meeting between Abdi and Sharaa is historic. It is reminder of other meetings of political and military rivals. For instance, the image of the two men meeting, having discarded their military uniforms and put on suits, illustrates how leaders can seize the moment and opt for peace over war.
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