The HTS Syrian regime has announced a ceasefire has been agreed with the YPG-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) that will involve the withdrawal of YPG forces from substantial areas in the Rojava area.
Sunday’s deal will also see SDF forces integrate into the Syrian counter-revolutionary military.
There are ten key points in the agreement between the US-Zionist backed Syrian regime and the US-backed SDF.
10. Efforts to reach understandings facilitating the return of displaced persons to Afrin and Sheikh Maqsoud
The agreement comes after days of fighting between the Syrian government and the SDF in northeastern Syria. The army and the SDF had been clashing over strategic posts and oilfields along the Euphrates River for under 24 hours before they were severely routed in the conflict.
Territorial changes after approximately 24 hours of fighting.
Speaking in Damascus, Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa said that the agreement will see Syrian state institutions move into three eastern and northern governorates – al-Hasakah, Deir Az Zor, and Raqqa – previously controlled by the SDF.
The agreement stipulates that the SDF administration in charge of ISIS detainees and camps, and the forces guarding the facilities, will be integrated into the country’s state structure, now giving the government full legal and security responsibility over their former comrades.
The vast al-Hol prison camp received considerable scrutiny since familes, children and other have been detained indefinitely in squalid conditions, with approval from the imperialist states.
Al-Sharaa made the announcement after he met United States Special Envoy to Syria Tom Barrack in Damascus. SDF chief Mazloum Abdi was supposed to be at the meeting, but al-Sharaa said that weather conditions meant that his trip would be postponed until Monday. The meeting indicates US approval of the operation and the fact that the YPG is now losing its value to imperialism.
The ceasefire can be largely be seen as a victory for Damascus and its ally Turkiye as the PKK is now sidelined in Turkiye, Iraq and now Syria as well. The organization disbanded and laid down its arms in Iraq and Turkiye without receiving any concessions, and now in Syria their forces were routed with little resistance, and no signficant international support.
Cities like Raqqa and Hasakah and Deir Az Zor were taken by YPG, PKK and allied communist forces with significant struggle, and maybe comrades had fallen martyr. Lorenzo Orsetti, Orhan Yoldaş, Ivana Hoffman, and Ulaş Bayraktaroğlu all fell fighting for these areas, and are now in the hands of a regime that is ideologically and practically similar to ISIS, and allied with imperialism.
New Syrian War Map
The success of the Syrian regime’s rapid advance was also driven largely by Arab tribes in SDF-controlled areas, whose loyalty to the SDF was clearly fragile, hinting that the promises of the revolution had not been kept, and Kurdish nationalism remained prevalent when it should have been curbed.
Syrian state media confirms that the agreement will see the military handover of the SDF-controlled governorates and the takeover of civilian institutions.
The Syrian government will also take over “all border crossings and oil and gas fields,” including the Omar oil field, Syria’s largest, and the Conoco gas field in the country’s east.
Both fields were under the control of the SDF/YPG and host US military bases and forces.
The Syrian Petroleum Company (SPC) confirmed that the Syrian Army had taken control of the fields, located on the east bank of the Euphrates. The SPC also said that the army took over the al-Tanak field, the al-Jafra field, the al-Izba field, and the Tayyana, Jido, Malih, and Azraq fields. The SDF controlled most of Syria’s oil and gas reserves, estimated at 2.5 billion barrels of oil and 240 billion cubic meters of gas, and generated hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue annually.
Meanwhile, the SDF-led Autonomous Administration called on the population to remain on full alert and to stand alongside their military forces, warning that the latest developments mark what it described as a “pivotal phase”.
In a statement, the administration said the aim of the attacks was “to strike the brotherhood built with the blood of our young men and women and to sow discord,” adding that the population now faces a stark choice: “either we resist and live with dignity, or we are subjected to all forms of oppression and humiliation.”
The statement urged young men and women to arm themselves and prepare to confront any potential attack in the Jazira region and Kobani and called on the public to respond to the general mobilization call and stand alongside the YPG and YPJ.
General Commander of the YPG Sipan Hamo, released an unfortunate statement proclaiming, “We do not seek separation, and our future lies within Syria. We have not received support from Iran or Russia, and we call on the US to provide guarantees to protect the Kurds amid the ongoing changes.” He further pleaded, “Israel is a powerful state in the region, and we hope that the stance it has taken to protect the Druze will also be extended to include the Kurds. ”
The General Commander of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) Mazloum Abdi made a statement about the situation in Northern and Eastern Syria and the latest developments.
Abdi said: “We have been at war since January 6. This war was imposed on us. We have many martyrs and wounded. We honor our martyrs. Before going to Damascus tomorrow, I wanted to make some statements to our people.”
Abdi added: “First of all, this war was imposed on us. To prevent this war from escalating into a civil war, which it was prepared to become, and to prevent a large-scale internal conflict, we decided to withdraw from Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor. We will protect our gains to the end. We will do everything we can; we have the strength for this.”
TKP-ML/TIKKO, the revolutionary Maoists who were based in Rojava and fought in most of the significant battles released a statement:
“The Rojava Revolution is facing a new military offensive by international and regional reactionaries. In the face of the war, occupation, and massacres perpetrated by imperialist and regional reactionary forces in the Middle East, the Autonomous Administration, a vital resistance stronghold that adopts a progressive, populist, and women’s liberation-oriented approach, is being targeted for liquidation and attempts to make it “acceptable” to imperialist and regional reactionary powers.
To this end, while the attacks of the HTS gangs, declared as the Syrian Interim Administration, are being facilitated, pressure is also being exerted on the Autonomous Administration through various diplomatic efforts. It is clear that imperialist powers and regional reactionary forces, primarily Turkey, are behind this attack on the Autonomous Administration…
Neighborhoods in Aleppo, home to hundreds of thousands of people, have been blockaded, and the attack was launched with the instigation of Turkey and the approval of the US and Israel…
The fact that these attacks are being carried out by HTS gangs clearly indicates that the aggression is backed by the approval of Western imperialists, primarily the US, and is directly coordinated and directed by regional reactionary forces, particularly the Turkish fascist regime…
The primary goal of the Turkish state, which directly coordinates these attacks, is the complete elimination of the Rojava Revolution and the Autonomous Administration. If this cannot be achieved, the aim is to prevent the people of the region, especially the Kurds, from achieving even the slightest gain.
Defending the Rojava Revolution and its achievements against the regional objectives of imperialists and the reactionary, anti-people attacks of Turkish fascism, Zionist Israel, and the Arab sheikhdoms is of historical importance. Taking to the streets and squares to defend the Rojava Revolution is an international duty.”
However, Deputy Head of the Ansarallah Media Authority in revolutionary Yemen described the reality of the situation best. He stated, “For reflection: Because the Kurds tied their entire fate to the United States, trusted it, and believed themselves safe from any danger, it has now sold them to al-Julani and abandoned them as easy prey, without even claws to defend themselves. This is a lesson for anyone who ties their destiny to the Americans and assumes they are protected.”
He concluded, “The same applies to what is happening with Europe over Danish Greenland: there is insistence on seizing a territory supposedly under US and NATO protection. Yet there is no real protection for anyone who mortgages themselves to the Americans, even if they are European and blond.”
This should, hopefully, be a lesson in the pitfalls of collusion with fascist American imperialism.