A U.S. defense official has told Newsweek that there has been no shift in the Pentagon‘s mission in Syria after America’s Kurdish-led partner in the fight against the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) signed an agreement to join the country’s Islamist government amid a wave of sectarian violence.
“The U.S. mission remains unchanged as we continue to work towards the enduring defeat of ISIS,” the U.S. defense official, speaking on background, told Newsweek, adding that the Pentagon was “aware” of the reporting surrounding the new deal.
The agreement, announced Monday by Syrian Interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa and Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) leader Mazloum Abdi, marked another drastic turn in Syria’s 14-year civil war three months after the fall of longtime President Bashar al-Assad.
Assad, whose ruling Baathist party had been in power for more than 50 years, fled the country as a shock insurgent offensive headed by Sharaa’s Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) faction seized major cities, eventually taking Damascus in December.
The sudden change of power raised immediate concerns of a major confrontation between elements of the former opposition, which also include the Turkey-backed Syrian National Army, and the U.S.-backed SDF, which Ankara views as linked to the separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). Turkey and the PKK signed a ceasefire deal last week.
Sharaa, who once aligned at times with ISIS and Al-Qaeda before cutting jihadi ties in 2016, has also called for national unity across political, religious and ethnic lines.
His appeals, however, have been undercut by the eruption of violence in recent days between Assad loyalists and security forces in the coastal homelands of the Alawite sect, of which the Assad family was a member, in which reports have emerged of more than 1,500 people killed, most of them civilians. Clashes have also been reported in recent weeks between Druze militias and security forces south of Damascus.
While President Donald Trump‘s administration issued a sharp warning to Damascus over the recent violence and has expressed skepticism toward Sharaa’s government, Riad Darar, adviser to the presidency of the SDF’s political wing, the Syrian Democratic Council (SDC), said that it was “natural” for Washington to play a role in orchestrating the agreement between the two sides.
“America, which does not accept any attack on human rights and does not remain silent about it, was putting great pressure on the government in Damascus after the blatant attacks and crimes that took place on the Syrian coast, and therefore it was better for everyone to reach an agreement,” Darar told Newsweek. “Because this is in the interest of the Syrian Democratic Forces and in the interest of the administration in Damascus to confront the remnants of the regime on the one hand and the factions that committed crimes on the Syrian coast.”
“Therefore, we can say that the American role was a positive role and in the interest of Syria and the Syrians,” he added.
Newsweek has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), the SDF, the Syrian Interim Government and the U.S. State Department for comment.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio also welcomed the agreement between the SDF and the Syrian interim government in a statement issued late Tuesday.
“The United States reaffirms its support for a political transition that demonstrates credible, non-sectarian governance as the best path to avoid further conflict,” Rubio said. “We will continue to watch the decisions made by the interim authorities, noting with concern the recent deadly violence against minorities.”
Just one day earlier, Rubio had condemned “the radical Islamist terrorists, including foreign jihadis, that murdered people in western Syria in recent days,” calling on Damascus to “hold the perpetrators of these massacres against Syria’s minority communities accountable.”
Yet uncertainties remain as to the extent of Sharaa and his ruling circle’s commitment toward pluralistic governance of the majority Arab Sunni Muslim nation that hosts an array of sizable ethnic and religious minority groups.
“The risk of Islamic ideology, especially in its Salafist form that excommunicates those who disagree, even Islamists, is that there is a tendency for this ideology to be reflected in the practices of the ruling leadership,” Darar said. “As for me, what has been issued so far by Mr. Ahmed Al-Sharaa has been very flexible and diplomatic, but those who speak after him still carry the roots of that ideology.”
“We do not believe that changing the dress from the style of the jihadis to civilian dress will change the idea that it carries,” he added. “Hence, we are talking about the effects of this ideology that can be reflected in practice.”
Despite trading in his mujahideen garb for Western-style suits, abandoning his nom de guerre of Abu Mohammed al-Golani for his given name and dissolving HTS, Sharaa has been thus far unable to shed his label as a U.S.-designated terrorist. But his rebranding has won him contacts with Arab and European leaders eager for opportunities to engage with the new leadership.
Sharaa’s government has even entered into talks with Assad’s longtime ally, Russia, which seeks to maintain its military bases in Latakia and Tartous, while relations have been more tense with the former government’s other top partner, Iran. Self-styled resistance groups bearing imagery similar to that of Tehran-aligned factions elsewhere in the region have emerged as a potential threat to the new leadership, vowing to avenge slain minorities.
The foreign power to most readily embrace Sharaa’s administration, however, has been Turkey. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has stood by the Syrian interim leader amid the latest sectarian violence and also issued a statement of support for the agreement reached with Ankara’s foe, the SDF.
“We attach great importance to the territorial integrity of our neighbor Syria, the preservation of its unitary structure, and the strengthening of its unity and solidarity,” Erdogan said in a statement published by his office Tuesday and shared with Newsweek by the Turkish Embassy to the U.S.
“We regard every effort to rid Syria of terror as a step taken in the right direction,” the Turkish leader said. “The full implementation of the deal reached yesterday will serve Syria’s security and peace. The winner of this would be all our Syrian brothers and sisters.”
But Erdogan has rejected the approach of another U.S. ally with Syrian interests, Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his administration branded Sharaa as a “terrorist” as the IDF seized territory beyond the occupied Golan Heights and intensified military strikes against former Syrian government positions across the neighboring country following Assad’s defeat.
Netanyahu has also threatened further military operations against the new government on the pretext of defending the Druze community in southern Syria and has long sought to establish stronger ties with Syrian Kurds.
Prior to signing the agreement with Damascus, Abdi had expressed openness to boosting SDF relations with Israel but the prospects of such a partnership have been faded in light of the rapprochement with Sharaa’s administration.
Darar, for his part, outlined a complex constellation of conflicting foreign aims that Syria was now subject to in the lingering chaos of Assad’s downfall.
“Turkey wants Syria not to be divided because it covets all of Syria to annex it to Turkey, or make it a Turkish province,” Darar said. “Iran left after the fall of the Assad regime, which came after the elimination of Hezbollah by Israel, and it is still looking forward to returning, and therefore it can support resistance fronts that it calls Islamic, or calls them by another name, which are a mixture of the remnants of the Assad regime and some followers who were with it during its presence in Syria.”
“Russia also wants to preserve its gains, whether at the Hmeimim airport or the port of Tartus, and it also wants to restore friendship with Syria, which is to apply pressure on the wound that afflicted it after the fall of the Assad regime,” he added. “Israel wants Syria to be a divided state to remain the big sister of a minority state.”
As for the U.S., Darar said Washington’s primary interest was rooted in “eliminating ISIS,” which has threatened to resurge in Syria after its defeat six years ago at the hands of separate offensives waged by the SDF and Assad’s government. “Therefore,” he said, “American policies can change because it does not have ambitions in Syria but rather wants to draw the policies of the Middle East through Syria, and this is a dynamic matter.”
The U.S. continues to maintain around 2,000 troops in the SDF-held Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria and in the southwest desert garrison of Al-Tanf, as of the most recently provided estimates from the Pentagon.
Trump has expressed support for pulling U.S. troops out of Syria during his first term and drew back the U.S. military presence back from parts of northern Syria in a 2019 deal with Erdogan. Trump has yet to commit to a new exit since coming to office again in January, though he stated his Turkey would “hold the key to Syria” in the aftermath of Assad’s government shortly before Inauguration Day in Washington.
SDC officials expressed caution at the time against such statements and the prospect of the Trump administration fulfilling the total withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria. Now, the position of the SDF may rest on the success of the new deal that encompasses nearly all aspects of life in the self-ruling territory.
Darar said “there were disagreements” on a number of issues like the mechanisms of the SDF’s integration into the new Syrian military, the distribution of wealth and natural resources and the governance of state institutions. Similar attempts had been made to join Assad’s government in recently years, only for negotiations to repeatedly unravel.
Yet Darar felt the current deal served as a positive starting point as it “includes recognition of the Kurds and their constitutional rights, which many give an indication of recognition of self-administration, which heralds reconciliation with Turkey and the prevention of Turkish threats to the region and also an agreement that the Syrian Democratic Forces will be, in an agreed manner, part of the Syrian defense system.”
“We can talk about it as a beginning,” Darar said, “because the committees that will come will follow up on the agreement and the handover of crossings, airports and other sites, and also discuss the economic issues of handing over oil and gas and managing these matters in a manner that suits this agreement and the unity of Syria.”
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