Kurdish-led SDF agrees to integrate into new Syrian government, presidency says

PHOTO CAPTION: Members of the YPG-dominated SDF stand together as they hold their weapons in Hassakeh, Syria, Dec. 6, 2024. (Reuters Photo via Daily Sabah)

CAIRO (Reuters) -The Kurdish-led and U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which controls much of Syria's oil-rich northeast, has signed a deal agreeing to integrate into Syria's new state institutions, the Syrian presidency said on Monday.

The deal, which included a complete cessation of hostilities, was signed by interim Syrian president Ahmed al-Sharaa and the SDF's commander, Mazloum Abdi.

Under the deal, whose text was posted online by the presidency, all civilian and military institutions in northeast Syria will be integrated within the state, which will thus take over control of borders, airports and oil and gas fields.

The SDF agrees to support the government in combating remnants of deposed president Bashar al-Assad's regime, and any threats to Syria's security and unity.

Since Assad was overthrown by Sharaa's Islamist forces in December, groups backed by Turkey, one of Sharaa's main supporters, have clashed with the SDF, the main ally in a U.S. coalition against Islamic State militants in Syria.

The SDF is spearheaded by the YPG militia, a group that Ankara sees as an extension of Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants who have fought the Turkish state for 40 years.

Turkey regards the PKK, YPG and SDF as terrorist groups, and Sharaa's new Damascus administration had been pressing the SDF to merge into newly-minted state security forces.

Abdi had previously expressed a willingness for his forces to be part of the new defence ministry, but said they should join as a bloc rather than individuals, an idea that was rejected by the new government.

The U.S. and Turkey's Western allies list the PKK as a terrorist group, but not the YPG or the SDF.

 (Reporting by Jaidaa Taha and Menna Alaa El Din; Editing by Tomasz Janowski and Kevin Liffey)