Rubio holds joint talks with Syria's FM and SDF commander in Munich

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio held a joint meeting on Friday with his Syrian counterpart and the head of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference.

What happened: Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani sat next to SDF commander-in-chief Gen. Mazloum Kobane during the meeting with Rubio, some two weeks after a ceasefire was reached between both sides.

After weeks of clashes in northeastern Syria, the government and the SDF agreed on Jan. 30 to a comprehensive ceasefire, which included plans to integrate Kurdish fighters into the national military. For months, the government under Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa had been negotiating with Kobane over a US-brokered deal that would integrate the SDF and extend state control over much of the northeast, which has been under Kurdish administration.

Speaking to reporters following the meeting in Munich, Kobane called it a “positive session."

“Generally, the meeting went well,” he said. “We discussed the issue of integration, the fate of the Kurdish people, the current situation in Syria, and the future of Syria."

As Amberin Zaman notes in her Al-Monitor Turkey newsletter, the last time Kobane was in Europe he was the head of the European wing of the Kurdistan Workers Party, which remains on the US list of designated terrorist organizations.

The Trump administration’s Syria envoy, Tom Barrack, posted a photo of the meeting to X, captioned, “A picture is worth a thousand words — a new beginning.”

Last month, Barrack said Washington believed Damascus could handle the country’s continued fight against the Islamic State, signaling a major shift in US policy toward the Kurdish forces that had partnered with American troops to defeat ISIS.

The Trump administration has thrown its weight behind Sharaa, a former jihadist who took power in Syria over a year ago after his forces ousted longtime Syrian dictator President Bashar al-Assad. Sharaa has pledged to unify the country, which remains deeply fractured after more than 13 years of civil war. Several waves of sectarian violence targeting Kurds, Alawites and Druze over the past year have raised questions in Washington about his ability to lead.

Background: The Munich Security Conference, which opened Friday and goes until Sunday, is bringing together a number of Middle East officials that also include Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan, Qatari Foreign Minister and Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf al-Salam, Gulf Security Council secretary-General Jasem Mohamed Albudaiwi, Kuwaiti Prime Minister Ahmad Abdullah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein and President of Iraq’s Kurdistan Region Nechirvan Barzani.

In January, the conference withdrew an invitation for senior Iranian officials amid the Islamic Republic’s violent repression of protests and riots in the country. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi was reportedly set to attend.

Two panels will be featured on Iran, one with Reza Pahlavi, the son of the deposed former shah of Iran and a prominent opposition figure. The other panel includes US Sen. Lindsey Graham, a vocal critic of the Islamic Republic and a confidant of Trump.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Friday that he met Pahlavi at the conference.

Know more: Other relevant discussions include a Saturday event on cooperation in the Caspian Sea region featuring Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and a Friday town hall on the Sahel.