Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces to merge with Syrian state institutions in landmark deal

Syria’s interim government says it has reached a landmark agreement with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces to integrate the group into state institutions.

Interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa announced the deal on Monday, saying it was aimed at “ensuring the rights of all Syrians in representation and participation in the political process and all state institutions based on competence, regardless of their religious and ethnic backgrounds.”

The deal will also recognize as an integral part of the state Syria’s Kurdish community, tens of thousands of whom were previously denied citizenship under the decades-long rule of the Assad regime.

News of the deal is one of the biggest developments in the country since the rebel alliance led by Sharaa toppled the former President Bashar al-Assad in December.

By integrating the Kurdish community, it hopes to guard against the possibility of further sectarian strife in the country, which suffered through more than a decade of civil war before Assad’s downfall.

The SDF, which was not part of the rebel alliance that overthrew Assad, is presently the most powerful non-governmental force in the country and holds strategic territories, primarily in the northeast.

Under the new deal, those areas would come under the control of the central government.

Executive committees have been tasked with making sure the agreement is implemented by the end of the year.

While the SDF has been a key US partner in the fight against ISIS, it is largely made up of fighters from a group known as the Peoples’ Protection Units (YPG), which is considered a terrorist organization by neighboring Turkey.

In the days following Assad’s ousting, it repeatedly clashed with Turkish-backed militants, raising concerns among US officials and experts about the security of the more than 20 detention facilities and camps holding suspected ISIS members and their families in northern Syria.

Neighboring countries Turkey, Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon have all offered to help secure prisons holding ISIS suspects.

Michael Rios contributed to this report