US envoy Tom Barrack hailed a “pivotal inflection point”, however famous that there was once nonetheless difficult paintings to be completed to finalise main points of a complete integration deal
Reuters
19 January, 2026, 11:50 am
Final changed: 19 January, 2026, 11:54 am
Syrian military team of workers glance on from an army automobile deployed within the town of Tabqa, after the withdrawal of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), in Tabqa, Syria, January 18, 2026. Photograph: REUTERS/Karam al-Masri
“>
Syrian military team of workers glance on from an army automobile deployed within the town of Tabqa, after the withdrawal of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), in Tabqa, Syria, January 18, 2026. Photograph: REUTERS/Karam al-Masri
Highlights:
New integration deal seems to be blow for Syria’s Kurds
Syrian forces clutch oil-rich areas, key dams
SDF head showed the gang agreed to withdraw from two Arab-majority provinces
Kurdish chief, Syrian president to fulfill on Monday
Syria and the principle Kurdish preventing power struck a wide-ranging deal to carry Kurdish civilian and army government below central authorities keep watch over on Sunday, finishing days of preventing through which Syrian troops captured territory together with key oil fields.
US envoy Tom Barrack hailed a “pivotal inflection point”, however famous that there was once nonetheless difficult paintings to be completed to finalise main points of a complete integration deal.
Stay up to date, apply The Trade Usual’s Google information channel
The phrases of the deal seemed to be a big blow for the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which ran a semi-autonomous area in Syria’s northeast for greater than a decade.
SDF head Mazloum Abdi showed in a later commentary that the gang agreed to withdraw from two Arab-majority provinces – Deir al-Zor, the rustic’s primary oil- and wheat-producing house, and Raqqa, house to key hydroelectric dams alongside the Euphrates.
The SDF had resisted integration into the Islamist-led authorities that has dominated Syria since Bashar al-Assad was once toppled in overdue 2024.
The 14-point deal printed by way of Syria’s presidency featured the signatures of each Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa and Abdi, who perceived to have signed one after the other, state media reported.
Abdi stated he’s set to fulfill Sharaa in Damascus on Monday and would percentage the main points of the settlement with the general public after his go back, Kurdish media reported.
The SDF head stated they remained dedicated to protective the “achievements” of the Kurdish area within the northeast. “This war was imposed on us. We wanted to prevent it, but unfortunately, because it was planned by many forces, it was imposed on us,” Kurdish media quoted him as pronouncing.
New deal items tricky phrases
Syria’s authorities and the SDF engaged in months of talks remaining 12 months to carry Kurdish-run army and civilian our bodies below Syrian state establishments by way of the top of 2025.
However after the closing date handed with little growth, clashes broke out and grew into a central authority offensive on Kurdish-held spaces. Sunday’s settlement stated the clashes must finish, even supposing intermittent preventing was once nonetheless reported in some spaces.
The deal stipulates that every one SDF forces will likely be merged into the central defence and inside ministries as “individuals” and now not as complete Kurdish devices. The latter have been a SDF call for.
It additionally says all border crossings, fuel and oil fields and prisons and camps preserving Islamic State combatants and affiliated civilians captured after the gang’s defeat in 2017 can be passed over, every other level the SDF had lengthy resisted.
A Syrian authorities legitimate stated safety at the ones places remained “quite good” on Sunday night time and that Damascus was once willing for a transition of keep watch over “that doesn’t impact the mission to defeat the Islamic State, and does not provide an opportunity for Islamic State elements or cells” to destabilise safety within the house.
The federal government will officially take over Deir al-Zor and Raqqa. Syrian state media printed footage of citizens in Raqqa celebrating the predicted handover.
The Syrian legitimate stated the handover must happen throughout the subsequent 24 to 48 hours and was once “the most important indication of the seriousness behind implementing this plan.”
The deal did seem to supply some concessions. It stated the SDF may just nominate army and civilian figures to suppose key roles within the central authorities and that Hasakeh province, which has a sizeable Kurdish inhabitants and is the principle stronghold of the SDF, would have a governor appointed by way of consensus.
It additionally commits the SDF to expelling all non-Syrian figures affiliated to the Kurdistan Employees’ Celebration (PKK), a Kurdish militant workforce which fought a decades-long insurgency in Turkey.
Sharaa had accused the PKK of hijacking SDF decision-making and combating growth in integration, which the SDF denies.
US cornered between two allies
Turkey’s international ministry stated it was hoping the “agreement will contribute to the security and peace of the Syrian people, as well as the entire region, particularly Syria’s neighbours”.
“With the recognition of the realities on the ground, we hope that all groups and individuals in the country fully understand that Syria’s future lies not in terrorism and division, but in unity, integration and cohesion,” it added.
The preventing has cornered the USA between its longtime give a boost to for the SDF as a key spouse in preventing Islamic State, and its new backing for Sharaa, who has pledged to unite Syria below one central authorities that protects all Syrians.
Barrack met with SDF head Abdi within the Kurdistan area of Iraq on Saturday and with Sharaa in Damascus on Sunday.
Syrian troops saved up their advance on Sunday even after the USA army had publicly suggested them to prevent. A senior Kurdish commander instructed Reuters sooner than the deal was once introduced that the USA must interfere extra forcefully to finish the preventing.
Kurdish issues about Sharaa’s authorities were deepened by way of bouts of sectarian violence remaining 12 months, when just about 1,500 Alawites have been killed by way of government-aligned forces in western Syria and loads of Druze died in southern Syria, some in execution-style killings.
