A showdown is gathering pace in Syria as the country’s new leaders demand that a powerful Kurdish-led militia backed by the United States disarm and integrate into a unified national military force.
The tensions are centered around preparations to establish a caretaker government to replace the dictatorship that fell in early December. The new leaders want the Kurdish-led militia, the Syrian Democratic Forces, to commit to giving up its weapons as a condition to be included in a national dialogue. The dialogue is supposed to lead to the formation of an administration that will govern until elections can be organized.
The dialogue over Syria’s political future will be held during a conference, but no date has been set for it yet. Hassan al-Daghim, head of the government-appointed committee tasked with planning the dialogue, said on Thursday that armed groups would not be included “unless they lay down their arms and integrate” under the Ministry of Defense. “This is a fundamental issue,” he added.
That stance has raised the prospect that the Kurdish-led administration linked to the Syrian Democratic Forces and effectively controls an autonomous region in northeastern Syria could be excluded from the national dialogue and any caretaker national government.
The Syrian Democratic Forces have consistently refused to lay down their arms since the dictator Bashar al-Assad was ousted. The militia, which is mostly made up of members of the Kurdish ethnic minority, was the main U.S. partner in the fight in Syria against the terrorist group Islamic State, which was largely defeated in 2019 after it had taken over parts of the country.
The lingering threat of the Islamic State in Syria has remained a key concern internationally, particularly among Western countries.
At a conference in Paris on Thursday to help coordinate global support for state-building in Syria, President Emmanuel Macron of France urged the interim authorities to reach a détente with the Kurdish forces, whom he referred to as “precious allies” who must be integrated into the new political system.
In the years since helping to push back ISIS, the Kurdish-led militia has consolidated control over towns in northeastern Syria and has often clashed with Turkish-backed forces there amid the maelstrom of political and ethnic divisions in the country.
Turkey, a close ally of the rebel group that led the overthrow of Mr. al-Assad and formed the interim government, has for years sought to curb the power of the Syrian Democratic Forces, maintaining that the militia is linked to Kurdish separatist insurgents inside Turkey.
Since rebels seized control of the Syrian capital, Damascus, in December, fighting between Turkish-backed forces and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces has continued to flare in the northeast.
The interim government’s forces are overstretched, experts say, and have still not secured control over the entire country, including the Kurdish-administered region there.
Manbij, a city near Syria’s border with Turkey, has been a focal point of the fighting between Turkish-backed and Kurdish-led forces. The Turkish-backed forces wrested control of the city from Kurdish-led militia in December.
Negotiating an end to the skirmishes has become among the most pressing challenges for Syria’s new leaders.
The rebel coalition that toppled Mr. al-Assad’s government appointed its chief, Ahmad al-Shara, as temporary president and set up an interim government led by officials from a regional administration it had previously run in the northern province of Idlib.
In doing so, the rebel coalition became Syria’s de facto governing party. Still, Mr. al-Shara has pledged to create an inclusive political process, draw up a new constitution and establish a caretaker administration that will govern the country until elections, which he said might take years to set up.
On Thursday, Mr. al-Shara inaugurated the seven-member committee that will plan the national dialogue over a new caretaker government. The committee has been tasked with choosing participants for the conference based on expertise and public influence, and reflecting Syria’s diversity, though there will be no set quotas for the participation of any group.
Mr. al-Daghim, the committee’s head, underlined that point at a news conference on Thursday.
“No one will be invited based on religion, institutional ties or party affiliation,” he pledged.
Still, most members of the steering committee have strong links to Mr. al-Shara and his rebel coalition, stoking concerns about his promises of inclusivity in the political process.
In recent weeks, many other militias have agreed to dissolve their forces but, in negotiations with the interim government, the Kurdish-led forces have pushed to be merged into the army as a single military bloc that can continue to patrol northeast Syria. They have also pushed for guarantees that Kurdish will be made the official language of Syria’s northeast and that their leaders will continue to administer northeast Syria.
The tensions between the Kurdish forces and the leadership in Damascus come amid uncertainty over Washington’s role in the region. American support for the Kurdish militia has been crucial to keeping threats from the Islamic State in Syria at bay.
But President Trump has not made any commitments to continue supporting the group since his inauguration last month.
Underlining the shifting situation, a freeze on U.S. international aid funding in January threatened chaos at a Syrian camp housing thousands of ISIS fighters and family members. The freeze led to a group depending on the American support to provide services and security at the camp to briefly stop its work.
At the conference in Paris on Thursday, Mr. Macron urged Syria’s interim government to reach an agreement with the Kurdish forces.
“Syria must very clearly continue to fight against all the terrorist organizations that are spreading chaos,” Mr. Macron said, adding that cooperation with Kurdish-led forces would be critical to doing so.
Addressing Syria’s new leaders, he said their responsibility toward the Kurdish fighters was “to integrate them and also to allow these forces to join in.”
Alissa J. Rubin contributed reporting.
