The SDF calls for dialogue and cooperation to secure peace and stability while affirming it’s ready to defend the rights and safety of local populations
Aug 11, 2025– based on a report by Atoun Jan in Qamishli, Syria at North Press via thefreeonline at https://wp.me/pIJl9-Hjv Telegram t.me/thefreeonline/3844
The hugely successful conference of “Unity of Communities” held in the city of Hasakah, northeastern Syria, on Aug. 8, 2025 – North Press
In a dramatic turn on August 9, 2025, Damascus announced it would withdraw from planned talks in Paris with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), citing their recent “Unity of Position” conference in Hasakah as a violation of the crucial March 10 integration agreement.
HTS led Government sources denounced the gathering as an attempt to “internationalize” Syrian affairs and accused it of undermining centralised national unity .
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QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) https://npasyria.com/en/128136/– The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) issued on Saturday 9th August 25 a statement calling on the Syrian government, its allied factions, and Turkey-backed groups to immediately cease all violations of the ceasefire agreement signed in April 2024.The SDF detailed that the hostile factions have launched more than 22 attacks on northern and eastern Syrian territories, employing heavy weapons alongside ground offensives
What’s at the heart of the dispute? The March 10 deal—involving interim President Ahmad al-Shara a and SDF commander Mazloum Abdi—was crafted to fuse SDF forces into state institutions, secure minority rights, and establish a cease-fire
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“When the originally ‘State Socialist Secular’ Assad regime began to finally win the Syrian civil war with Russian help they allowed the militants of dozens of Jihadi factions, (which had grown up on cash and arms from the Sunni Gulf dictatorships, Turkiye and the US), to take refuge in the Idlib area on the Turkish border.
Idlib is next to Afrin, Aziz and Al Bab which were occupied in the first two Turkish invasions and which were also settled with jihadi factions, becoming Turkish mercenaries used to attack, occupy and ethnically cleanse Kurdish areas.. And now partly integrated into the ‘New Arab Army’
Idlib was soon ruled by Al Qaeda, renamed HTS, protected by Turkish bases and supplied across the border. Meanwhile the US and Israel continued to strangle the Syrian State which was further impoverishing under strict sanctions. With Russia distracted by the Ukraine war and Israel again blitzing their Lebanese allies, the entrenched regime collapsed in December 2024 in the face of a HTS breakout offensive and a demoralized military.
The new Western supported “interim” regime declared itself democratic while denying any local government to the various ethnic and religious communties with ministers picked from former HTS terrorists, offering in the far future a parliament retaining a third of seats for itself.“
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“The new Sunni army is packed with these uncontrolled Idlib jihadis and Turkish mercenaries and ISIS cells and have participated in or led in terrorist pogroms against Shias and non Sunnis , killing thousands of Alawites, Druze and smaller minorities, kidnapping women and introducing their own brands of Islamic law.
Even so the West seems to have no problem tolerating a HTS dictatorship taking total control and the US is canceling all Sanctions, planning to cash in on milking the shattered State, planned to be rebuilt on a neo-liberal cash-cow model with Sunni Arab finance.“
Deep divisions remain: Damascus insists ‘integration’ for the Kurdish led SDF, which means demobilisation and joining the Syrian Arab Army as promised, while the SDF would be insane to abandon its structure as a collective military bloc, in the face of ongoing massacres and repression of other minorities, daily mounting attacks, threats and hysteria from the jihadi factions, now paid within that same army.
The 100K strong SDF/ Syrian_Democratic_Forces, comprised of dozens of ethnic, religious and women’s militias, is supported by the US led ‘coalition’, but only in the ongoing suppression of ISIS in Syria, and SDF members are paid via taxes raised by the DAANES autonomous administration.
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The Hasakah conference in Rojava, attended by over 400 representatives—including Arabs, Kurds, Druze, Alawites, Syriac-Assyrians, Turkmen, Armenians, Azidis …—called for sweeping democratic reforms. Delegates demanded a decentralized federal system and a constitution that guarantees pluralism .
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) https://npasyria.com/en/128129/– Brussels hosted on Sunday a meeting of the new Syrian Communities Coordination Committee, aimed at establishing mechanisms for coordination among Syria’s diverse communities and launching a broad Syrian dialogue based on federalism, partnership, and pluralism,
Still, Damascus rejected these proposals as ‘contrary to national cohesion’, viewing them as incompatible with the spirit of the March 10 accord .
Security tensions continue to mount. Reports of fresh clashes—from Aleppo to Deir ez-Zor and Suweida—threaten fragile truces amid social repression across the country. The SDF has also accused government-linked factions of endangering civilians through repeated infiltrations .
Meanwhile, Turkey is playing a prominent regional role, retaining its many military bases, mercenaries, supply routes and arms.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan’s rushed to Damascus the day after the Hasakah Conference and reaffirmed Ankara’s ‘leverage’ over Syria’s transitional authorities and its opposition to any autonomous Kurdish entity .
The following day the Goverment announced its withdrawal and cancellation of the key Paris Conference with the SDF
‘A new setback with the cancellation of the Paris Conference between the SDF and the ‘Interim’ Regime. After the huge success of the Hasakah conference Turkish ministers were sent to Damascus the next day and ‘persuaded’ the Regime to cancel the meetings’.
Still, despite persistent setbacks, there remains cautious diplomatic activity and sporadic progress. Both sides publicly reaffirm the goals of the March 10 deal, and there are hints of potential compromise on issues such as cultural rights and decentralization—though no breakthrough has been realized so far .
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In short, Syria’s path to post-Assad unity is fraught: deep mistrust, conflicting visions of governance, and ongoing local clashes have derailed progress—even as many sides profess adherence to a framework of reconciliation.
The SDF reiterated readiness for dialogue and cooperation aimed at securing peace and stability in Syria while affirming its preparedness to take necessary measures to defend the rights and safety of the local populations.
The Free 