Syria will not take part in meetings with Kurdish-led SDF in Paris, state TV says

Syria will not take part in planned meetings with Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in Paris, Syria’s state news agency quoted a government source as saying on Saturday, casting doubt over an integration deal signed by the two sides in March.

The SDF was the main fighting force allied to the United States in Syria during fighting that defeated Islamic State in 2019 after the group declared a caliphate across swathes of Syria and Iraq.

In March, the SDF signed a deal with the new Islamist-led government in Damascus to join Syria’s state institutions.

The deal aims to stitch back together a country fractured by 14 years of war, paving the way for Kurdish-led forces that hold a quarter of Syria to merge with Damascus, along with regional Kurdish governing bodies.

It did not specify how the SDF will be merged with Syria’s armed forces, however. The SDF has previously said its forces must join as a bloc, while Damascus wants them to join as individuals.

The source was quoted by the news agency SANA as saying that Damascus would not be involved in negotiations with any side that aims to “revive the era of the former regime”.

The source was responding to a forum hosted by the Kurdish-led group which governs northeast Syria on Friday in which it called for the review of the constitutional declaration issued earlier this year by Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa.

Participants also criticized the country’s Islamist-led government over sectarian clashes in Syria’s southern province of Sweida and the coastal region.

“The current constitutional declaration does not meet the aspirations of the Syrian people…it should be reviewed to ensure a wider participatory process and a fair representation in the transitional period,” a final communique issued after the forum read.

The source told SANA the forum resembled an attempt to present proposals that were contrary to the March agreement and that the Syrian government would not attend planned meetings in Paris with the group. The report gave no further details of the meetings, which had not been previously announced.

It accused the Kurdish-led group of hosting “separatist figures engaged in hostile acts,” holding the SDF fully responsibility for its implications, including the reimposition of sanctions and the “summoning of foreign intervention”.

The ongoing dispute is the latest in a recent conflict between the Syrian administration and the SDF after clashes between the group and government forces earlier this month.