US envoy Barrack pushes deal between Syria's Sharaa, Kurdish commander Kobane
The talks come amid shifting dynamics on the ground and a reduced US military presence in the northeast.
The US special envoy to Syria Tom Barrack met with Syria’s interim president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, and with the commander-in-chief of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, Mazlum Kobane, in Damascus on Wednesday in an effort to advance a deal to integrate the Kurdish-led region and its armed forces with the central government.
The meetings that were held separately between Sharaa and Barrack and between the latter and Kobane highlight mounting US pressure on the SDF to reach an accord, sources familiar with the substance of the process told Al-Monitor.
France’s acting ambassador to Damascus, Jean Baptiste Faivre, the Kurds’ de facto foreign minister, Ilham Ahmed, and the Kurds’ top negotiator with Damascus, Foza Yusuf, were also present in the meeting between Kobane and Barrack. Syria's foreign minister, Assad al Shaibani, took part on behalf of the central government in what was described by the sources as a "stormy" encounter.
The United States does not want to engage in the specifics of an agreement, pushing instead for one to be realized as soon as possible amid mounting frustration with perceived Kurdish obduracy, the sources said.
