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A Kurdish military commander met with Syria’s leader in Damascus on Wednesday in the presence of a US envoy to discuss stalled efforts to integrate the country’s autonomous Kurdish administration into the Syrian state.

Mazloum Abdi of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) -- the Kurdish administration’s de facto army -- and President Ahmed al-Sharaa first struck an accord for integration in March with US backing, but its implementation has been held up by differences between the two parties.

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The Kurds, who control vast swathes of territory in Syria’s north, including oil and gas fields, have demanded a decentralized system of governance, which the new authorities in Damascus have rejected.

“A meeting is taking place between a delegation led by the chief of the Syrian Democratic Forces, Mazloum Abdi, and the Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa,” a Kurdish Syrian official said on condition of anonymity.

The official added that Tom Barrack, the US ambassador to Turkey and special envoy for Syria, was also attending.

The delegations were expected to discuss “the relationship between the autonomous administration and the government in Damascus, as well as economic and military issues,” the official said.

The powerful US-backed SDF spearheaded the offensive that ultimately led to the territorial defeat of the ISIS in Syria.

Al-Sharaa, whose forces led the offensive that toppled former Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad after more than 13 years of civil war, has called for the dissolution of all militant groups in Syria.

In an interview in May, Abdi emphasized the need for a “decentralized Syria where all its components live with their full rights,” an outcome he accused Syria’s new authorities of opposing.

The same month, Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani warned that delaying the integration of the autonomous Kurdish administration could “open the door to foreign interference, and fuel separatist tendencies.”

With AFP

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