Adding to the growing list of ultimatums imposed on the Kurdish SDF, the Syrian Interior Ministry has announced they are giving SDF members until the end of February to disarm fully and completely return to civilian life.
The new documents released by the Interior Ministry warn that the SDF members only have until month’s end to file paperwork to normalize their status, and that the ministry will not accept any additional paperwork in March.
The SDF and the Syrian military have been fighting off and on for weeks, and while they are nominally in a state of ceasefire right now both sides regularly accuse the other of violations, particularly around Kobane, where the fighting never really ended and the Kurdish city remains under siege.
Gen. Abdi and FM Shaibani in Munich | Image from X
SDF leader Mazloum Abdi and Syrian FM Asaad al-Shaibani are meeting this week in Munich, and while US officials are praising the talks as an historic moment, there remain substantial disagreements about what the future of northeast Syria is going to look like.
The central government insists upon full integration of the entire country under their direct control, while Abdi says the Kurds are still hoping for local autonomy within a unified country. That seems a bridge too far for the central government.
With the military having effectively brought the SDF under heel in much of the country, they’re not looking to absorb their new gains, but rather are looking to launch further operations against other minority groups in the country. The Druze in Syria’s southwest seem to be the next likely target, according to most reports.
