A general was appointed on Saturday as Syria’s presidential envoy to oversee the implementation of the Jan. 29 deal with the U.S.-backed YPG terrorist group, according to state media.
The Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA), citing the Presidency's media directorate, said Brig. Gen. Ziad al-Ayesh has been assigned to follow up on the accord and facilitate integration under the authority of the Syrian state.
The Presidency said the appointment is intended to enhance the presence of state institutions, remove administrative obstacles, and activate public services in areas covered by the agreement.
Al-Ayesh hails from the village of Arjah al-Jawalah in the countryside of Hassakeh province in northeastern Syria, according to Syrian media outlets. He holds a degree in Sharia from Al-Ouzai University in Lebanon and a master's degree in business administration from Idlib University in northwestern Syria.
Prior to the fall of the Assad regime on Dec. 8, 2024, al-Ayesh headed civil affairs at the Interior Ministry of the Salvation Government in Idlib.
On Jan. 30, the Syrian government announced that it had reached a "comprehensive agreement" with the YPG aimed at ending division in the country and launching a new phase of integration. It said the deal covering the cities of Hassakeh and Qamishli and the integration of military forces complements a previous agreement signed on Jan. 18.
The latest agreement followed a military operation by the Syrian Army in which it regained large areas in eastern and northeastern Syria after repeated YPG violations of a March 2025 accord.
Syrian authorities have taken over management of Qamishli airport as part of an ongoing process to integrate YPG and institutions into the national government, state media reported Saturday.
The SANA news agency, citing the General Authority of Civil Aviation and Air Transport, said officials had toured the facility on Saturday after assuming control and "discussed mechanisms to restart its operations."
The head of the authority, Omar al-Husari, said on X that taking over the airport was "an important institutional step in the process of unifying the management of airports under the umbrella of the state."
YPG had taken over the airport following the fall of longtime dictator Bashar Assad just over a year ago.
While it was not open to civilian flights, Russia had used part of the facility as a base before withdrawing last month.
Qamishli is the only airport in northeastern Syria, and for years served as a lifeline for the region's residents, particularly during nearly 14 years of civil war beginning in 2011, during which there were regular flights between it and Damascus.
The airport had remained under the government's control during the war, and continued to receive flights up until Assad's overthrow.
In November 2019, Russian forces turned the airport into a military base to oversee the implementation of an agreement that followed Türkiye’s large-scale cross-border operations in Syria to drive out the YPG from areas it occupied near the Turkish border.
