Key talks on integrating Kurdish-led forces into Syria’s central government have concluded without a tangible agreement, with both sides agreeing to further meetings.
DAMASCUS: Talks between Syrian Kurdish leaders and government officials on military integration have ended without producing tangible results.
Syrian state television, citing a government source, reported the Sunday meeting “did not produce tangible results on speeding up the implementation of the agreement on the ground”.
The sides agreed to hold further meetings.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said a delegation including its chief Mazloum Abdi met officials in Damascus “as part of discussions related to the military integration process”.
The SDF said the talks had concluded and details would be published later.
Abdi signed a deal in March with President Ahmed al-Sharaa to merge Kurdish civil and military institutions into the government by the end of 2025.
Differences have held up its implementation.
The SDF controls large swathes of Syria’s oil-rich north and northeast.
It was integral to the territorial defeat of the Islamic State group in Syria in 2019 with US-led coalition support.
Integration has proven complicated since the ousting of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad a year ago.
Both sides have traded accusations of obstructing efforts to implement the agreement.
Abdi has repeated calls for decentralisation, which Syria’s new Islamist authorities have rejected.
Tensions have occasionally erupted into clashes, most recently in Aleppo city last month.
In December, a Kurdish official told AFP that Damascus had proposed splitting the Kurdish-led forces 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.
That same month, Abdi said “all efforts are being made to prevent the collapse of this process”.
Turkey, an important ally of Syria’s new leaders, sees the presence of Kurdish forces on its border as a security threat.
It has publicly called for them to be integrated into the state.
Last month, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan urged the SDF not to be an obstacle to Syria’s stability.
He warned that patience with the SDF was running out.
Turkey shares a 900-kilometre border with Syria.
It has launched successive offensives to push Kurdish forces from its frontier.
