Kurdish Fighters Withdraw From Key Syrian Dam After Agreement With Damascus

The SDF captured the Tishrin Dam, one in every of a number of alongside the Euphrates river, from the Islamic State group in late 2015. Nonetheless, in current months, they’ve come underneath rising assault from Turkish-backed forces.

On Thursday, a supply inside the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, often called Rojava, stated its forces had reached an settlement with President Ahmad al-Sharaa’s authorities on the working of the dam, which is a significant supplier of irrigation and hydroelectric energy in Syria.

Nonetheless, a separate Kurdish supply instructed AFP on Saturday that, underneath the phrases of the deal, the dam would stay underneath Kurdish civilian administration.

State information company Sana reported “the entry of Syrian Arab Military forces and safety forces into the Tishrin Dam… to impose safety within the area, underneath the settlement reached with the SDF”.

It added that Turkish-backed forces “that search to disrupt this settlement” had been additionally required to withdraw from the world.

Since Sharaa and Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) overthrew Bashar al-Assad in December, there have been repeated negotiations between the brand new administration and the Kurdish-led authorities, who management a lot of northeastern Syria.

Turkey, a key ally of the brand new authorities in Damascus, is eager to see the dismantling of the SDF, which it says is linked to the outlawed Kurdish Employees Social gathering (PKK).

Final month, the SDF signed a cope with the Syrian authorities aimed toward integrating its civilian and navy establishments into the brand new state.

The eight-point settlement, signed by SDF commander Mazloum Abdi and Sharaa, ensures all Syrians the precise to take part in state establishments primarily based on benefit, no matter spiritual or ethnic background.

In line with the settlement, all SDF-controlled entities – together with border crossings, airports and oil and gasoline fields – shall be built-in into state establishments. After Assad was toppled, the SDF took management of Qamishli Worldwide Airport however had not been capable of function it.

The deal additionally stipulates the return and safety of displaced Syrians, helps efforts to fight terrorism and safety threats to Syria, and rejects division and hate speech.