Syrian Kurdish leader Mazloum Abdi is in Damascus for talks on integrating his forces into the central military, a key step in a stalled merger deal.
DAMASCUS: Syrian Kurdish leader Mazloum Abdi is in Damascus for fresh talks on integrating his forces into the central military.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said a delegation was meeting officials in the capital on Sunday.
“The discussions are related to the military integration process,” the SDF said in a statement.
Abdi signed a deal in March to merge the Kurds’ semi-autonomous administration into the government by the end of 2025.
Differences between the two sides have held up its implementation.
The SDF controls large swathes of Syria’s oil-rich north and northeast.
The force was integral to the territorial defeat of the Islamic State group in Syria in 2019.
The question of its integration has proven complicated since the ousting of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad a year ago.
Abdi has repeated calls for decentralisation, which Syria’s new Islamist authorities have rejected.
Tensions have occasionally erupted into clashes.
In December, a Kurdish official said Damascus had proposed splitting the SDF into three divisions and a number of brigades.
The forces would be deployed under SDF commanders in Kurdish-controlled areas.
Syria’s foreign minister later said the government was studying the Kurds’ response.
Abdi said that month that “all efforts are being made to prevent the collapse of this process”.
He added that he considered failure unlikely.
Turkey, an ally of Syria’s new leaders, sees Kurdish forces on its border as a security threat.
Ankara has publicly called for them to be integrated into the state.
