Syrian Kurdish leader in Damascus for talks on military integration

Syrian Kurdish leader Mazloum Abdi was in Damascus on Sunday for fresh talks with officials on integrating his forces into those of the central military, the Kurds' armed forces said.

Abdi signed a deal in March with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa to merge the Kurds' semi-autonomous administration into the government by the end of 2025, but differences between the two sides have held up its implementation.

"A delegation from the leadership of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) is currently meeting with officials from the Damascus government in the Syrian capital, as part of discussions related to the military integration process," the Kurdish-led SDF said in a statement, adding its commander-in-chief Abdi was among them.

The government has yet to issue a statement about the meeting.

The SDF control large swathes of Syria's oil-rich north and northeast, and with the support of a US-led international coalition, were integral to the territorial defeat of the Islamic State group in Syria in 2019.

The question of its integration into the state has proven complicated since the ouster of Bashar al-Assad a year ago.

Despite his agreement to merge with the new government, Abdi has repeated calls for decentralization – which Syria's new Islamist authorities have rejected – and tensions between the Kurds and the government have occasionally erupted into clashes.

In December, a Kurdish official told AFP on condition of anonymity that Damascus had proposed splitting the Kurdish-led forces into three divisions and a number of brigades, including one for women.

The forces would be deployed under SDF commanders in Kurdish-controlled areas, the official said.

Syria's foreign minister later said the government was studying the Kurds' response.

That same month, Abdi said that "all efforts are being made to prevent the collapse of this process" and that he considered failure unlikely.

Türkiye, an important ally of Syria's new leaders, sees the presence of Kurdish forces on its border as a security threat, and has publicly called for them to be integrated into the state.