Syria's new administration is looking for a centralized future, while the U.S.-backed terrorist group YPG, the Syrian wing of the PKK, still insists on autonomy in the northeast. Damascus reiterated its rejection of federalism on Wednesday following a meeting with YPG leader Ferhat Abdi Şahin, code-named Mazloum Kobani, calling on the YPG to join the ranks of government forces.
Şahin and interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa first struck an accord for integration in March with U.S. backing, but its implementation has been held up by differences between the two sides. Şahin met with Syria's leader in Damascus on Wednesday in the presence of a U.S. envoy to discuss stalled efforts to integrate the YPG into the Syrian state.
The YPG, which controls vast swathes of territory in Syria's north, including oil and gas fields, has demanded a decentralized system of governance, which the new authorities in Damascus have rejected.
A Syrian government source told the official Al-Ekhbaria television channel on Wednesday that Damascus remained committed to "the principle of 'One Syria, One Army, One Government,' and categorically rejects any form of division or federalization."
"The Syrian army is the national institution that unites all children of the homeland, and the state welcomes the integration of Syrian fighters from the SDF into its ranks within the approved constitutional and legal frameworks," the source said, referring to the umbrella body Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) dominated by YPG terrorists. The source also warned that any delays in implementing integration risked hindering efforts to "restore security and stability to all regions."
In an interview with the TV channel Kurdistan 24, U.S. Ambassador to Türkiye and special envoy to Syria Tom Barrack said that while he recognized the SDF's role in the fight against Daesh, it had to accept the "reality" that "the only future path for them is Damascus."
Al-Sharaa had previously called for the dissolution of all armed groups in Syria.
Meanwhile, in an interview in May, Şahin 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 self-styled autonomous administration could "open the door to foreign interference, and fuel separatist tendencies."
Barrack, told The Associated Press (AP) after the meetings in Damascus that there are still significant differences between the sides.
Barrack's meetings came after a move by the Trump administration took effect this week, revoking a terrorism designation of the former insurgent group led by al-Sharaa, which was behind a lightning offensive last December that ousted Syria's longtime autocrat Bashar Assad. Revoking the designation was part of a broader U.S. engagement with al-Sharaa's new, transitional government.
Under the March deal, the SDF forces would merge with the new Syrian national army. The agreement, which is supposed to be implemented by the end of the year, would also bring all border crossings with Iraq and Türkiye, airports and oil fields in the northeast under the central government’s control. Detention centers housing thousands of Daesh members, now guarded by the YPG, would also come under government control.
However, the agreement left the details vague, and progress on implementation has been slow. A major sticking point has been whether the YPG would remain as a cohesive unit in the new army or whether the force would be dissolved and its members individually absorbed into the new military.
Barrack said that it is still "a big issue” between the two sides. "I don’t think there’s a breakthrough,” Barrack said after Wednesday’s meetings. "I think these things happen in baby steps, because it’s built on trust, commitment and understanding."
He added that, "For the two parties that have been apart for a while and maybe had an adversarial relationship for a while, they have to build that trust step by step.”
Barrack said that though "we’re not there” yet, Damascus had "done a great job" in presenting options for the YPG to consider. "I hope they will and I hope they’ll do it quickly,” he said.
A key turning point for Syria came when U.S. President Donald Trump met with al-Sharaa in Saudi Arabia in May and announced that Washington would lift decades of sanctions, imposed over Assad's government. The U.S. played a key role in brokering the deal announced in March between al-Sharaa's government and the YPG and urged it to integrate with Damascus.
Barrack said Washington has "complete confidence in the Syrian government and the new Syrian government’s military,” while the YPG has been a "valuable partner” in the fight against Daesh and that the U.S. "wants to make sure that they have an opportunity ... to integrate into the new government in a respectful way.” The U.S. has begun scaling down the number of troops it has stationed in Syria. There are about 1,300 U.S. forces now, but Barrack said Washington is in "no hurry” to pull out completely.
In the interview with the AP, Barrack also downplayed reports of possible breakthroughs in talks on normalizing ties between Syria and Israel.
"My feeling of what’s happening in the neighborhood is that it should happen, and it’ll happen like unwrapping an onion, slowly ... as the region builds trust with each other,” he said without elaborating.
Since Assad’s fall, Israel has seized a U.N.-patrolled buffer zone in Syria bordering the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights and has launched hundreds of airstrikes on military sites in Syria. Israeli soldiers have also raided Syrian towns outside the border zone and detained people whom they said were militants, sometimes clashing with locals.
