President Ahmed al-Sharaa presents the agreement signed with the leader of the Syrian Kurds Photo: Rami al SAYED / AFP / Profimedia
The Syrian government and the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) agreed on Sunday to an immediate and comprehensive truce on all fronts, after days of fighting, as the army advanced into Kurdish-controlled territories in the northeast, Reuters reports, taken from News.ro.
The ceasefire will be accompanied by the withdrawal of all SDF-affiliated forces east of the Euphrates, according to a document published on Sunday by the Syrian presidency.
The central government takes control of two provinces
The agreement provides for the integration of all SDF forces into the Ministries of Defense and Interior, after the necessary security checks have been carried out, the release states. The government will also immediately and completely take over the Kurdish-controlled provinces of Deir al-Zor and Raqqa, militarily and administratively.
All border crossings as well as gas and oil fields in the area will also be handed over to the Syrian government. The SDF will commit to evacuating all non-Syrian leaders and forces affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) from the country.
The document, distributed by the Syrian presidency, contains the signatures of the Syrian president Ahmed al-Sharaa and the head of the SDF, Mazloum Abdi.
“All outstanding files of the SDF will be resolved,” Sharaa said, according to state media. He said he was due to meet with Abdi on Monday.
Syria: The President recognizes by decree the national rights of the Kurds, their language becomes official / Meanwhile, intense clashes are taking place between the army and the Kurdish forces in the north of the country
The Syrian army announced on Saturday morning that it had taken control of Deir Hafer, east of Aleppo, which Kurdish forces had agreed to evacuate a day earlier following recent fighting in the northern Syrian region.
The army announced it had taken “full military control” of the city of Deir Hafer in a statement broadcast on state television, while an Agence France Presse correspondent saw troops deployed in the city, Agerpres reports.
The Syrian army had previously announced, on Saturday, that it had begun to enter an area in northern Syria, east of Aleppo.
National rights for Syrian Kurds
At a time when he is engaged in a conflict with the Kurdish forces that control the north of the country, Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa announced on Friday evening the recognition by decree of the national rights of the Kurds, whose language will now be official.
The head of state said the Kurdish population is an “integral part” of Syria that has suffered decades of marginalization and oppression under previous regimes.
Also on Saturday, the Syrian Kurds declared that the presidential decree published on Friday, which makes Kurdish an official language and guarantees this minority national rights, is a first step, but insufficient.
President Ahmed al-Sharaa's decree is “a first step, but it does not meet the aspirations and hopes of the Kurdish people,” the Kurdish administration in northern and northeastern Syria said in a statement.
Rights must be protected “by permanent constitutions that express the will of the people and all its components” and not by “temporary decrees”, the statement added.
