Trump demands end to clashes with Kurds in call with Syria's Sharaa

US President Donald Trump told Syria’s interim president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, in a phone call on Monday that he wanted the violence unfolding between Syrian government forces and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to end, well-placed sources speaking on background told Al-Monitor. The sources said that Trump had secured a pledge from the Syrian leader to not enter al-Hasakeh as the Syrian army advanced nearer to the Kurdish-held city. 

In a readout of the call, the Syrian presidency said that “both sides had emphasized the need to guarantee the Kurdish people’s rights and protection within the framework of the Syrian state.” At the time of publication, the White House has not issued a readout of the call.

The call came soon after Sharaa met with SDF commander in chief Mazlum Kobane to finalize the ceasefire agreement that was announced yesterday. They also agreed to continue working together against ISIS, the Syrian presidency’s readout noted.

The ceasefire agreement, which was hailed by US Syrian envoy Tom Barrack as a historic step, effectively amounted to the SDF’s capitulation to nearly all of Damascus’ demands under the integration deal signed by the two leaders in March 2025. Kobane signed the deal, albeit using an online signature, on Sunday, as Syrian government forces pushed the SDF out of its majority-Arab strongholds of Raqqa, Tabqa and Deir ez-Zor, where most of Syria’s oil is located.

Monday’s meeting between Kobane and Sharaa did not go well, with senior Syrian Kurdish official Foza Yusuf telling the Amargi news outlet that “no positive outcome came.” Damascus, she said, was demanding a “full surrender of the Kurds.” She did not elaborate on the details of the talks. The sources briefing Al-Monitor said Sharaa had brought forward new demands during his meeting with Kobane, among them a request that the SDF hand over control of al-Hasakeh. The SDF leader reportedly declined, noting that the text of the ceasefire agreement had been signed on Sunday and that further concessions were not acceptable.

Kobani has not yet commented on his meeting with Sharaa at the time of publication.

It remains unclear whether the ceasefire agreement and its 14 conditions are still valid. However, Sharaa apparently overplayed his hand. Syrian Kurdish officials believe Turkey, which has long campaigned for the dissolution of the SDF and the Kurdish-led autonomous administration in northeast Syria, pushed him to extract more from the agreement.

Whether it is in effect or not, clashes between the SDF and government forces raged throughout the day, and the Syrian army announced a curfew in the city of al-Shaddadi, which it seized from the SDF after Islamic State fighters escaped from a prison there. The sides traded accusations over the breakout of the jihadi detainees. The SDF said nine of its members have been killed and 20 others wounded in fighting near another detention facility, al-Aqtan, northeast of Raqqa. 

Sunday’s agreement was fiercely criticized by many Kurds in Syria and beyond who considered it an act of surrender and one of betrayal by the United States. In Erbil, in Iraq’s Kurdistan region, large rallies were held outside the US Consulate, with demonstrators waving Kurdistan flags and calling on Washington to condemn the Syrian army’s attacks on Kurdish-held areas of Syria. Prior to the fall of the Assad regime in December 2024, the SDF was Washington’s top partner in the fight against the Islamic State. It has since embraced Sharaa, whose government joined the anti-ISIS coalition during his visit to the White House last November.

The SDF lost more than 11,000 women and men in the fight against the jihadis, who were defeated in 2019 after the battle of Baghouz. Continued conflict between the SDF and the government would likely create a fertile environment for an ISIS resurgence.

ISIS sleeper cells continue to mount attacks against SDF and Syrian government forces. On Dec. 13, a lone gunman from the militant group killed two US soldiers and a US civilian interpreter in Palmyra. On Friday, the US Central Command said it had killed an al-Qaeda-affiliated leader with ties to the ambush.