ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa said on Saturday that negotiations with northeast Syria (Rojava) are ongoing to determine the “mechanism” for implementing a landmark March deal with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). “We are proceeding with it and there are many negotiations between us and the SDF,” Sharaa said during a dialogue session held in Idlib, and expressed hope the issue “will be resolved properly in a few months.” Sharaa and SDF Commander Mazloum Abdi reached an agreement in March to integrate Rojava’s civil and military institutions into the Syrian state. The SDF is the de facto army in northeast Syria (Rojava). “We are now discussing the mechanism of its implementation,” Sharaa added. “I ask God that we do not [have to] resort to any… internal disputes.” While some steps were taken toward implementing the deal, Damascus last week canceled planned talks with the SDF in Paris, accusing Rojava of breaching the agreement by hosting representatives of minority groups for a unity conference in Hasaka. Kurds in Rojava, like other minorities in Syria, remain concerned about the centralization of power and reliance on Islamic jurisprudence in the transitional constitution that has been adopted by the interim government in Damascus. The Kurdish-led and US-backed SDF played a pivotal role in the fight against the Islamic State (ISIS) in Syria, contributing significantly to the group’s territorial defeat in 2019. The SDF seeks to join the Syrian army as a cohesive unit, but Damascus insists on integrating fighters individually into existing military formations. During the dialogue session, Sharaa added that while the SDF “express their readiness to implement the agreement… sometimes on the ground signals emanate from them that are contrary to what they say in negotiations and in the media.” The Syrian president detailed that the deal proceeds according to “the timeframe of the agreement.” There are “many negotiations between us and the SDF and there is agreement for the first time in ten years,” he said, referring to Damascus, the SDF, Turkey, and the United States, adding that they “have agreed” to the deal, saying, “if these four agree on something, it will happen.” Qutaiba Idlibi, director of the American Affairs Department at the Syrian Foreign Ministry confirmed to Rudaw’s Nalin Hassan that "negotiations and meetings are continuing” with the Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (DAANES) and “now the practical phase begins." He also said that “there is no longer anything called the Paris meeting” adding that meetings are set to take place in Damascus or in Rojava. Last week, both sides traded accusations against one another for initiating attacks on their forces in Aleppo province. In July, Elham Ahmad, foreign relations co-chair of DAANES, told Rudaw that Rojava supports a decentralized political system in Syria, arguing that centralized rule has long contributed to instability. She said decentralization would ease the burden on the central government by allowing regional administrations to oversee services, cultural affairs, language policy, and internal security.
