PARIS — The Syrian army and Kurdish armed forces began withdrawing from their positions on the outskirts of Syria’s northeastern Hasakah city on Tuesday as part of the latest ceasefire and integration agreement between Damascus and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). Earlier in the day, the leadership of Syria’s Internal Security Forces met with their counterparts from the Kurdish Asayish in Hasakah city to discuss joint deployment within the city, local media reported. The withdrawals came around a week after Damascus’s Internal Security Forces entered Hasakah and Qamishli , SDF strongholds in Syria’s northeastern Hasakah province, as part of the integration agreement announced on January 30. Government security forces, numbering no more than 150 in each city, are stationed in what is known as the “security square” in both Qamishli and Hasakah, while the SDF and Asayish remain in control of the cities’ residential neighborhoods. The split control echoes the status quo in the two cities prior to the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime in December 2024, when regime forces maintained a presence in the security squares. The SDF and Asayish have reportedly continued to conduct what residents have described as arbitrary arrests in Arab-majority neighborhoods of the two cities, including after celebrations in response to the entrance of government forces last week. The latest integration agreement between Damascus and the SDF consists of 14 provisions, including a comprehensive ceasefire, the withdrawal of military forces from points of contact and the entrance of Internal Security Forces into Qamishli and Hasakah to “strengthen stability and security.” The deal also provides for integrating institutions of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES)—the civilian, administrative counterpart of the SDF—into the state while retaining public sector employees in their positions. The agreement also launches a phased integration of military and security forces through the formation of a military division made up of three SDF brigades. A fourth brigade of “Kobani forces” is to be formed and included within a separate military division in Aleppo province. In contrast to previous agreements—in March 2025 and January 18, 2026—both sides are taking practical steps to implement the provisions of the January 30 deal, as evidenced by Tuesday’s reported withdrawals. Still, significant obstacles remain to its full implementation. One potential obstacle stems from the text of a previous January 18 agreement —upon which the most recent January 30 integration framework is based—which includes the SDF’s commitment to the “removal of all non-Syrian Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leaders and members to outside the borders.” In recent days, signs of diverging understandings of the current agreement have emerged, with Damascus characterizing it as a comprehensive integration process while voices from within the SDF describe it in terms that, in some cases, am
Originally reported by Syria Direct. Published on ABN12.