Syrian army, Kurdish-led SDF agree to stop deadly fighting in Aleppo

At least two people killed in clashes in northern city of Aleppo during Turkish FM Fidan’s visit to Syria.

Syrian government forces and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces have agreed to stop fighting in the northern city of Aleppo, after a wave of attacks left at least two civilians dead and several injured.

On Monday, Syria’s state news agency cited the Ministry of Defence as saying the army’s general command issued an order to stop targeting the SDF’s fighters after the deadly clashes erupted during a visit by Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan.

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Fidan said on Monday that the SDF, which controls swaths of northeastern Syria, appeared to have no intention of honouring its pledge to integrate into the state’s armed forces by an agreed year-end deadline.

The US-backed SDF is mostly made up of the People’s Protection Units (YPG), which Turkiye considers a “terrorist” organisation due to its links to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Turkiye. PKK is designated as a “terrorist group” by the United States and the European Union. In March, the PKK announced it would give up armed struggle after a call from its jailed leader, Abdullah Ocalan. Thousands of people were killed in the four decades of armed rebellion against the Turkish state.

Following the SANA report, the SDF said in a later statement that it had issued instructions to stop responding to attacks by Syrian government forces following de-escalation contacts.

Under a March agreement signed by the SDF and Damascus, the Kurdish-led force was to merge with the new Syrian army, but details were left vague, and implementation has stalled.

SDF ‘playing for time’

Syrian analyst Gamal Mansour, a lecturer in political science at the University of Toronto, told Al Jazeera that the SDF had been “playing for time” and that it was “politically inexpedient” for the group to “move the needle forward”.

Syrian forces had, however, “provoked the SDF into a kinetic movement from their strongholds of Ashrafiyah and Sheikh Maqsoud, the two neighbourhoods that they control”.

Kurdish units linked to the SDF and the Kurds’ domestic security forces retained control of the two neighbourhoods despite a disengagement agreement reached in April with the Syrian authorities.

Syria’s Ministry of Interior said on Monday that Kurdish forces attacked government personnel at joint checkpoints in the two Kurdish-majority areas.

But the SDF accused “factions affiliated with the interim government” of carrying out an attack on a checkpoint.

Both sides issued denials. The Syrian Defence Ministry denied attacking SDF positions, while the Kurdish-led force denied targeting Aleppo neighbourhoods.

Deep fracture

Integrating the SDF into state forces would mend Syria’s deepest remaining fracture in the wake of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad’s ouster last year.

Failing to do so risks an armed clash that could derail the country’s emergence from 14 years of devastating war, which killed more than 350,000 people and displaced nearly half of the country’s pre-war population of 13 million. There is a risk of potentially drawing in Turkiye, as well, which has threatened an incursion against Kurdish fighters it views as “terrorists”.

A major sticking point had been whether the SDF would remain as a cohesive unit in the new army or whether it would be dissolved and its members individually absorbed into the new military.

Turkiye, which shares a 900km- (560-mile) border with Syria, is opposed to the SDF joining as a single unit because of the group’s links to the PKK.

Kurdish officials have said a preliminary agreement has been reached to allow three divisions affiliated with the SDF to integrate as units into the new army, but it is unclear how close the sides are to finalising it.

Mansour, the analyst, said time was running out. “Fidan said four days earlier that the parties in question have run out of patience, that the SDF’s manipulation of time as a strategic asset towards creating more latitude for themselves is something that cannot be withstood by Turkiye and the other parties in question,” he said.

Fidan, whose delegation also included Turkish Defence Minister Yasar Guler and intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalin, said on Monday: “Syria’s stability means Turkiye’s stability.”

He called on the SDF to “cease to be an obstacle to Syria achieving stability, unity and prosperity”.

Asaad al-Shaibani, the Syrian foreign minister, accused the SDF of “systematic procrastination”.

Fidan’s delegation also met with Syrian interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa. According to al-Shaibani, talks also addressed “combating terrorism and preventing” a resurgence of the ISIL (ISIS) group.