ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Tom Barrack, US President Donald Trump’s Special Envoy for Syria and Iraq, welcomed the dissolution of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) as “absolutely historic” following SDF chief Mazloum Abdi’s announcement of the disbanding of the Kurdish-led force to merge with the Syrian army.
In a post on X late Tuesday, Barrack hailed President Trump’s “far-sighted leadership” for having “opened the path for the SDF’s orderly integration into Syrian state institutions - transforming past division into lasting partnership and restoring to the Syrian people the opportunity to shape their common future.”
“This is what real integration looks like: not winners and losers, but former counterparts with differing points of view crafting a diplomatic solution to strengthen the sovereign nation of Syria. One army, one government, one state,” said Barrack, praising President Trump’s role in the dissolution as consistent with the Syrian “national framework” in which “united Syria for all takes shape.”
The SDF was founded in 2015 a coalition of Kurdish, Arabs, Assyrian, Armenian and Turkmen forces that spearheaded the fight against the Islamic State (ISIS) backed by the US-led international coalition and eventually defeated ISIS in Baghouz in lower Euphrates in eastern Syria in the Spring of 2019.
In the process, at least 11,000 men and women fighters from the SDF paid the ultimate price in defeating the jihadists of ISIS and other terrorist groups.
The remarks come as Abdi on Tuesday announced the dissolution of the Kurdish-led force as part of an integration agreement, declaring its mission complete.
"We hereby announce, as of today, the conclusion of the mission of the Syrian Democratic Forces, and we responsibly declare its dissolution as an independent military force," Abdi said in Damascus following a meeting with Syrian interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa.
"We will always carry the memory of our martyrs, and hold their sacrifices in our hearts and conscience - for they did not fight for the sake of war, but for a day when Syrians would no longer need to fight," he added.
SDF fighters have been incorporated into the Syrian army as brigades while remaining deployed in the Kurdish region. Abdi announced on Thursday that the integration process had been completed.
"We want this day to mark a real transition: from the battlefield to the field of development, from the era of arms to the era of peace, and from defending Syria to building Syria," Abdi said on Tuesday.
The SDF and the Syrian government signed an agreement on January 29 to integrate the force, along with the Kurdish region's security and administrative bodies, into state structures, following weeks of clashes between both sides.
The US is one of the key guarantors of the January 29 agreement, with Barrack having held numerous meetings with Sharaa and Abdi since he assumed his position as Trump’s envoy for the war-torn country.
Barrack also confirmed that Abdi and Elham Ahmad, head of Rojava's foreign relations office, will have positions in the government as well as the recognition of Kurdish as an official language of instruction.
“Recognizing the Kurdish language in education and securing substantive roles for our valued partners Mazloum Abdi and Ilham Ahmed within the Syrian government pays due respect to their leadership, the sacrifices of our Kurdish partners, and the constructive contribution they have made to regional stability - turning yesterday’s separations into tomorrow’s shared purpose,” he noted.
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