Syria faces major challenges in efforts to integrate US-backed SDF into military - analysis - Seth J. Frantzman

 

by Seth J. Frantzman

The US under Trump aims for a stable, unified Syria, with Barrack tasked to achieve this, including bringing the SDF into Damascus.

 

A person holds flags as people celebrate after the Kurdish-led and US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which controls much of Syria's oil-rich northeast, has signed a deal agreeing to integrate into Syria's new state institutions, the Syrian presidency said on Monday, in Damascus, Syria Mar

(photo credit: REUTERS/KHALIL ASHAWI)

 

US Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack, President Donald Trump’s special envoy for Syria, continues to try to help Damascus achieve its goals. He has played a key role in engaging with Syria after Trump met Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa.

There are many hurdles in Syria, however, and one of them is the question of integrating the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in eastern Syria with the new Syrian army.

There are hurdles because there are major ideological differences between many new Syrian army commanders, who fought alongside Sharaa as part of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), and the SDF. The SDF is largely a Kurdish organization that has roots in the far Left, while HTS is largely an Arab group that is extremely conservative and Islamic.

Barrack met with Mazloum Abdi, the leader of the Kurdish-led and US-backed SDF and Sharaa on Wednesday. He told reporters there were still gaps that remain between Damascus and eastern Syria.

SYRIAN DEMOCRATIC FORCES and US troops are seen during a patrol near Turkish border in Hasakah, Syria, in November. (credit: RODI SAID / REUTERS)

The key question appears to revolve around whether eastern Syria will receive some kind of autonomy within a federal Syrian state. How unified will the state be, and how top-down will it be ruled from Damascus?

Prior to the Syrian civil war, the Assad regime denied rights to Syrians and also excluded many Kurds in eastern Syria from having basic rights, including even citizenship for some of them.

After the regime began fighting its own people in 2011 and 2012, the Kurds were able to free themselves from this oppression via the People’s Protection Units (YPG). There are other Kurdish political parties in Syria, such as the KNC or ENKS, but the YPG mostly suppressed them in eastern Syria.

The situation has now changed. With the war over and ISIS defeated, Syria is supposed to be unifying under the new government.

The SDF has a lot to offer Damascus. It is a US-trained organization and has standard uniforms and arms. It is likely better trained than some of the Syrian government’s new divisions. This is a ready-made large security force that can aid Syria in stability.

Nevertheless, Damascus is wary of groups that want a federal structure. In essence, it doesn’t want the regions or ethnic groups being too independent. It has already clashed with Druze and Alawites.

Rudaw media in the autonomous Kurdistan Region of northern Iraq reported on the important meeting between Barrack, Sharaa, and Abdi. Unlike the high hopes in March, when Sharaa and Abdi first met, this meeting seems to have run into some troubles. The US military in Syria has supported the meetings.

“The Syrian government has reaffirmed its readiness for dialogue with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to bolster national unity, while firmly rejecting any moves toward division or federalization, reiterating its unwavering commitment to the principle of ‘one Syria, one army, one government,’” Rudaw reported. Damascus says it welcomes “any path that would enhance the unity and territorial integrity of Syria.”

Eastern Syria can't have too much autonomy

The new Syrian government, however, doesn’t want eastern Syria to have too much autonomy. This means it doesn’t want it to end up like the Kurdistan Regional Government of northern Iraq, which is very autonomous.

Barrack appears to agree with Damascus’s view. Damascus has been cautioning that “any delay... does not serve the national interest, but rather complicates the scene.”

Barrack’s comments after the meeting have raised eyebrows. On Thursday, he told Rudaw it appeared that the SDF had been “slow” in working with Damascus. In essence, this appears to blame the SDF for the current hurdles.

“I think SDF has been slow in accepting and negotiating and moving towards that, and my advice to them is to speed that,” Barrack told Rudaw. “There is only one road, and that road is to Damascus.”

This has led some online commentators to suggest that Barrack is too supportive of Damascus, or that his views are derived from him also being ambassador to Turkey. Ankara doesn’t want the SDF to become autonomous.

Some have also compared Barrack to the previous US envoy to Syria during Trump’s first term, James Jeffrey. Jeffrey was also seen as being supportive of Ankara’s views and critical of the SDF.

During the first Trump term, the US didn’t stop a Turkish invasion in 2019 that targeted the SDF, or another invasion in 2018 that targeted Afrin, a Kurdish region in northwest Syria. The SDF was portrayed as a temporary, tactical, and transactional relationship that was primarily working with US Central Command.

The US State Department appeared to distance Washington from the SDF. Things have now changed. The US has moved to end sanctions on HTS and also end sanctions on Damascus.

The Trump administration wants Syria to be stable and unified. Barrack is tasked with achieving this. Bringing the SDF into the fold in Damascus is part of the goal.

Seth J. Frantzman

Source: https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/article-860645

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