On March 10, a historic agreement was signed between Syria’s transitional president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, and the commander of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF, a Kurdish-led coalition), General Mazloum Abdi, to integrate the autonomous Kurdish institutions of Northeast Syria into the state. Three months later, General Michael Kurilla, who leads the US Central Command for the Middle East, delivered a positive assessment, telling the US House Armed Services Committee in Washington on June 10 that integration was going well despite some friction points. Kurilla added that Turkey, engaged militarily against Kurdish forces since 2016, was now playing a constructive role.
The March 10 agreement brought a glimmer of hope in the face of the immense security and economic challenges confronting Damascus authorities since the fall of dictator Bashar al-Assad on December 8, 2024; it also spared Sharaa from international opprobrium following massacres carried out by his own forces against the Alawite minority in early March. The renewed unity of Syria, splintered by Druze and Kurdish autonomy demands, will depend on the success of this process, which must conclude by year’s end.
US pressure proved decisive in bringing about the agreement. Since Donald Trump’s return to the White House, the prospect of a US withdrawal from Syria has loomed. Kurdish forces, strategic US partners in the fight against the Islamic State group (IS) since 2014, would no longer enjoy American protection from Turkish threats; Turkey views the SDF as an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which Ankara has designated as a terrorist organization.
Patience and openness
The Trump administration decided on a gradual disengagement, which began in mid-May. The plan called for reducing troops from 2,000 to 1,000 and retaining only one of the eight bases in Northeast Syria. Washington, which has drawn closer to Syria since the meeting between Trump and al-Sharaa in Riyadh on May 14 and the announcement of the lifting of US sanctions on the country, is demanding the return of Damascus’s sovereignty over its entire territory.
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