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Syria’s government has reached a deal with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) that controls the north-east of the country that will integrate the group into the national army and achieve a nation-wide ceasefire.
The agreement will place the north-east under Syrian government control for the first time since the Kurdish-led authority gained autonomy of the region in 2012 during the civil war..
The deal, which is to be carried out by year’s end, will place all public institutions in north-east Syria – including borders, airports and oilfields – under Syrian government control.
The deal will also recognise Kurdish rights – long denied under the Assad regime, which banned the Kurdish language from schools and prohibited Kurdish holidays.
The text of the agreement also said all Syrians would be able to participate in the country’s new political process, regardless of religious or ethnic background.
The deal is a major breakthrough for Syria’s transitional president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, who early on engaged the SDF in negotiations to consolidate Syrian government control over the country.
It resolved an open question about what would happen to the SDF after the ousting of Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, on 8 December by a rebel coalition led by Islamist rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).
Turkish-backed rebel groups, now part of the Syrian army, had been engaged in near-daily clashes with the SDF since the toppling of the Assad regime until the announcement of the deal.
The announcement of the agreement prompted cheering crowds to take to the street in Raqqa, north-east Syria and in Damascus.
The agreement came just after the Syrian defence ministry announced the end of its military operation against Assad loyalists in the Syrian coast. Combat had started after fighters loyal to the ousted Assad regime launched a coordinated attack on Syrian security forces across the coast on Thursday.
The fighting triggered a five-day battle in north-west Syria that killed more than 1,000 people, including at least 745 civilians. The attack also triggered revenge killings of mostly Alawite civilians in villages across the north-west.
According to war-monitor Syrian Network for Human Rights, Assad regime loyalists killed 211 civilians and 172 Syrian security forces, while Syrian government forces killed 396 civilians and unarmed prisoners.
Al-Sharaa promised accountability for the killings, saying: “We will hold accountable, with full decisiveness, anyone who is involved in the bloodshed of civilians, mistreats civilians, exceeds the state’s authority or exploits power for personal gain.”
It is unclear how the spate of killings will affect the process of the SDF’s handing over of military authority to the state, as Syria’s Kurdish population is wary after decades of historical oppression under the Assad regime.
The Syrian government also needs to make a deal with the Druze community in southern Syria, which has retained autonomy under the country’s new rulers.
Syria also faces an Israeli incursion in the south, with Israeli leaders threatening military intervention in the country if the central government harms the Druze population. Druze leaders in turn, have rejected any Israeli intervention in the country.
On Monday night shortly after the agreement was signed between Damascus and the SDF, the Israeli air force bombed military sites in Daraa, southern Syria, according to Syria TV, a government aligned broadcaster.
