- A ceasefire came into effect between the Syrian government and the SDF for four days, while both sides work on a plan for the practical integration of the northeastern Hasakah province.
- Despite the ceasefire, government-allied groups allegedly attacked several areas, including Tal Baroud, Zarkan and Raqqa, according to the SDF’s spokesperson, Farhad Shami.
- Ibrahim Olabi, Syria’s ambassador to the United Nations, said the government is working with the US to ensure that the ceasefire holds.
- Syria’s Interior Ministry said government forces have begun taking control of the al-Hol camp in northeastern Syria, which houses families of ISIL fighters and other long-term refugees, after the SDF withdrew earlier today.
- Trump said he spoke with his Syrian counterpart, al-Sharaa, yesterday to discuss the situation in Syria’s prisons. Earlier, he had told the New York Post that he coordinated work to stop ISIL prisoners from escaping the al-Shaddadi prison.
- Tom Barrack, the US special envoy for Syria, said the Syrian Kurds are being offered “a pathway to full integration into a unified Syrian state with citizenship rights, cultural protections, and political participation”.
- In a lengthy post on X, Barrack noted that while the SDF was best positioned to work with the US to defeat ISIL in 2019, the situation on the ground in Syria “has fundamentally changed” as Damascus is now equipped to work with Washington on “counterterrorism” efforts.
Plan to integrate SDF into state institutions explained
The biggest reason for these clashes and violent confrontations this past month has been a failure to peacefully integrate SDF fighters into government institutions. Last March, there was a deal to integrate SDF fighters, who are said to number between 50 and 90,000. But in the March deal, they said they were going to form three divisions under joint Damascus and Kurdish control, and that these divisions would be separate from the rest of the army. Now they’re saying they should integrate on an individual basis after vetting. So that’s going to be a separation of these fighters from each other and from Kurdish command, which will make [for] a very dangerous situation. Some of these fighters may not be willing to integrate peacefully, so this is still a major sticking point in the negotiations.
Photos: Pro-Kurdish protesters rally in Iraq’s Erbil
