Mazlum Kobane, the commander of the Syrian Democratic Forces, the Pentagon’s top ally in the fight against the Islamic State, is expected to meet with Masoud Barzani, former president of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and the elder statesman of Kurdish politics worldwide, three well-placed sources have confirmed to Al-Monitor. 

The meeting will likely take place this week at Barzani's mountain headquarters overlooking Erbil. The invitation was extended by Barzani through his envoy, Hamid Darbandi, who met with Kobane in northeast Syria on Monday, the sources said. 

The meeting, the first ever between the pair, will mark a major breakthrough in the Biden administration’s efforts to ease tensions between Barzani’s Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iraq (KDP), which leads the Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq, and its Syrian Kurdish partners. The efforts are part of a broader US drive to avert further escalation between Turkey and the SDF and would see Ankara, Erbil and the SDF reach an accommodation that would allow the United States to coordinate security policies with all three allies, particularly the continued threat posed by the Islamic State. The bigger prize would be lasting peace between Turkey and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) that has been waging an armed insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984. 

The dramatic changes in Syria with the collapse of the Assad regime and the rise to power of the Sunni extremist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham have added a layer of urgency for all stakeholders.