Syria’s Kurds accept sweetened ceasefire deal as US envoy Barrack declares SDF obsolete

Syria’s presidency announced on Tuesday that it had reached a new ceasefire agreement with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces under which Syrian government forces would not enter the city centers of Hasakah and Qamishli, the latter a key Kurdish-controlled city on the Turkish border. The agreement added that Syrian military forces would not enter Kurdish villages “and that no armed forces will be present in those villages except for local security forces composed of the region’s residents.” Damascus said it was granting the SDF four days to implement the terms of the agreement.

The statement appeared to be an amended version of a 14-point ceasefire agreement signed between the sides on Sunday that was later rejected by the SDF, amid continued clashes with Syrian government forces along several frontlines. The SDF said in a statement that it had accepted the ceasefire.

The stakes are especially high as some of the fighting occurred around several facilities where ISIS prisoners are being held. Syria’s Interior Ministry said on Tuesday that about 120 ISIS prisoners escaped from Shaddadi prison, which was previously under SDF control. Each side has accused the other of engineering the prisoners’ escape as clashes erupted outside the prison. The Interior Ministry said that 81 of the ISIS detainees had been recaptured. 

Meanwhile, Kurdish-led forces announced a withdrawal from the notorious al-Hol camp housing tens of thousands of ISIS-linked families, including some of the most radical jihadi women. The SDF said it was “compelled to withdraw” as a result of "international indifference towards the issue of [ISIS].” In a separate statement, SDF commander Mazloum Kobane said, “We withdrew to predominantly Kurdish areas, and protecting them is a red line.”

Syrian government forces have since assumed control of the gruesome facility, which remains a hotbed of radical extremism. 

Full-blown conflict loomed after Kobane walked out of a meeting on Monday with Syria’s president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, over differences on the terms of the agreement.

Kurds cornered

Kobane accused US Syria envoy Tom Barrack, who attended the five-hour-long meeting, of failing to honor earlier pledges during a meeting in Erbil Saturday to allow the Kurds to administer Kurdish-majority areas and preserve at least one brigade composed of SDF fighters, and to be deployed in the northeast, according to several well-placed sources familiar with the negotiations. The exchange, the sources said, was one of the most acrimonious ever between the two men. 

The Jan. 18 document calls for the SDF to integrate into the Syrian army as individuals. The agreement was more of a surrender by the SDF to all of Sharaa’s terms and was fiercely criticized by Kobane’s fellow Syrian Kurdish allies. 

It is unclear why Kobane signed the document anyway, albeit electronically. Many believe a lightning offensive by government forces pushing the SDF out of the oil-rich province of Deir Ezzor and Raqqa over the weekend appeared to have forced his hand. 

The new text appears to leave the door open on those points, though in vaguely worded language. It asserts that “both parties have agreed to integrate all military and security forces of the SDF into the ministries of defense and interior, with discussions continuing on the detailed mechanisms of integration, and that civilian institutions will be integrated into the structure of the Syrian government.”

Barrack, however, made it bluntly clear in a post on X soon after the presidency’s statement in which he described a “situation that has fundamentally changed.” The SDF had outlived its usefulness to the United States, and the central government in Syria had become the 90th member of the anti-ISIS coalition, he said, confirming in public what some Syrian Kurdish leaders had long hoped wasn’t true. 

“The US has no interest in a long-term military presence: It prioritizes defeating ISIS remnants, supporting reconciliation and advancing national unity without endorsing separatism or federalism,” Barrack noted. The US envoy acknowledged, nonetheless, that integrating SDF fighters into the national army “remains among the most contentious issues.” Barrack concluded that the agreement “represents the strongest chance yet for Kurds to secure enduring rights and security within a recognized Syrian nation-state.”

His views are closely aligned with those of Turkey, where he serves as the US ambassador alongside his role as Syria envoy. Ankara regards the SDF as a threat to its national security due to its close ties to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which waged an armed campaign for Kurdish self-rule inside Turkey before entering peace talks in 2024. 

Kobane had also asked Sharaa to give him five days to explain the agreement to his own people and work on a plan for its implementation. Ilham Ahmed, the de facto foreign minister of the Kurdish-led administration in northeast Syria, told journalists in a video news conference on Tuesday that his request was rebuffed by Sharaa. The Syrian leader had demanded a full handover of all territory and institutions under Kurdish control “immediately,” she said. “However, with or without this meeting, they wanted to go to war … and now their plan is to massacre the Kurds,” Ahmed insisted.

Gains under fire

The apparent softening in Sharaa’s stance follows a telephone call with President Donald Trump that took place after his meeting with Kobane. Trump asked Sharaa to resolve the crisis peacefully and hold off entering the city of Hasakah, likely to ensure a peaceful and orderly handover of two critical ISIS detention facilities there prior to a government takeover. Tuesday's document said Kobane could nominate a candidate from the SDF to become deputy defense minister, a post that was originally offered to and rejected by the Kurdish leader. He could also propose lawmakers for the national parliament and others to join the Syrian public sector. These mark unprecedented wins after decades of ruthless oppression by the Baath regime. 

Despite the resumption of the ceasefire, concerns persist that fighting may spread to the majority-Kurdish areas amid vows to resist by the SDF. Senior Kurdish Syrian leaders have picked up Kalashnikovs and posed with citizens on the streets as thousands of demonstrators chanted in support of Kobane and the SDF in Qamishli. The protests against Sharaa spilled over to neighboring Turkey and Iraq, where citizens thronged outside the US consulate in Erbil late Monday, spray painting “Rojava” on its walls. Rojava is the Kurdish word for "western" or "Syrian Kurdistan."

In Turkey’s border town of Nusaybin, which abuts Qamishli, hundreds of youths pushed past police barricades and breached wire fencing to cross over in an act of solidarity. While Kurdish gains in Syria are being rolled back, the spirit of the Kurdish people remains visibly uncrushed.