SDF says reached deal on army integration

HASAKEH

The YPG-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF)’s leader, Mazloum Abdi, has announced to AFP that he had reached a "preliminary agreement" with Damascus on the integration of his troops into Syria's military and security forces.

Abdi met Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa in Damascus last week, along with US. .envoy Tom Barrack and US commander Brad Cooper.

While SDG, which control large swathes of Syria's oil-rich northeast, had signed an agreement with the new Syrian authorities in March to merge their civil and military institutions, the deal's terms were not implemented.

"What is new in our recent talks in Damascus is the shared determination and strong will to accelerate the implementation of the terms" of the agreement, Abdi told AFP in an interview at a base in the northeastern city of Hasakeh.

"The most important point is having reached a preliminary agreement regarding the mechanism for integrating the SDF and the [Kurdish] Internal Security Forces within the framework of defense and interior ministries," he added.

The Washington-backed SDF and Kurdish security forces consist of around 100,000 male and female members, according to them.

Abdi said that military and security delegations from his forces are currently in Damascus to discuss the mechanism for their integration.