Talks between Damascus, SDF ‘have collapsed’: Kurdish official

Negotiations have collapsed between the Syrian president and the chief of the country’s Kurdish-led forces, a Kurdish official told AFP, as the army deployed reinforcements to flashpoint areas in the north.

President Ahmed al-Sharaa and Mazloum Abdi, who heads the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), were meeting to discuss a ceasefire agreement that included integrating the Kurds’ administration into the state.

The agreement had marked a blow for the Kurds’ long-held ambitions of preserving the de facto autonomy they had exercised in swathes of northern Syria for over a decade.

“The negotiations held yesterday in Damascus between General Mazloum and Mr al Sharaa have collapsed entirely,” Kurdish official Abdel Karim Omar told AFP, blaming the central government for the breakdown.

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“Their sole demand is unconditional surrender. A firm and decisive stance from the international community is urgently required,” he added.

Syria’s Kurds carved out a de facto autonomous region under their control in the north of the country at the height of its civil war.

Al-Sharaa has refused to entertain the idea of decentralization or federal rule, and insisted the army must deploy across Syria.

Despite the ceasefire between the two sides, brief clashes erupted on Monday in ar-Raqqah city in northern Syria, with an AFP correspondent hearing heavy bombardment.

Ar-Raqqah was once ISIS’s facto capital in Syria.

On Tuesday, the AFP correspondent in ar-Raqqah saw a large convoy of armored vehicles and vehicles carrying soldiers heading toward the city of Hasaka, a Kurdish bastion that is also home to a sizeable Arab population.

Meanwhile, the SDF was calling for “young Kurds, men and women” both within and outside Syria to “join the ranks of the resistance.”

In Hasaka, an AFP journalist saw dozens of civilians, including women and elderly people, carrying arms and manning checkpoints as they heeded the SDF’s call to defend.

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