US renews push to avert all-out conflict between Syria's Kurds and Damascus

The US has renewed a diplomatic push to resolve critical differences between Syria's new central authorities and the mostly Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces that threaten to spark an all-out conflict, sources said, as violence between the two sides escalates.

In the past 72 hours, Syrian authorities said security forces seized rocket launchers and other weapons allegedly being smuggled to SDF-held areas in the east. Damascus also said its forces foiled an SDF attempt to infiltrate one of the front lines between the two sides in Deir Ezzor governorate, a claim the SDF has denied. On Monday, Turkish jets bombed SDF positions on another front line along the Euphrates. Turkey is the main backer of the current government in Damascus.

The new US approach consists of less pressure on the Kurds, especially after the American officials opposed Kurdish demands for a decentralised system of government in Syria. Washington has also put forth proposals to bridge the gap over the government's insistence that the SDF disbands – the main sticking point between the two sides, the sources said.

"The State Department had basically shuttered its doors to the Kurds. Now they are open again," one of the sources in Washington said. The government's attempt to take control of the mostly Druze province of Sweida was said to have contributed to the US change in stance towards the Kurds and other minorities. Hundreds of civilians, mainly Druze, were killed in the Sweida campaign, which was largely suspended after Israel intervened militarily to defend the Druze. "They are listening to them more than before," the source said.

US firm on SDF concessions

However, US officials have been warning the Kurds not to expect the same kind of protection that Israel has extended to the Druze, although there has been more contact lately between the SDF and Israel, the source said.

"Washington is still adamant that the Kurds make substantive concessions," the source said. "Israel cannot defend two minorities at the same time and will always choose the Druze first." The source said the US expects the SDF ultimately to relinquish Arab areas under its control in the east and give up its monopoly on oil production in the area.

On Sunday, senior Kurdish politician Ilham Ahmad, a key negotiator on behalf of the SDF, met two members of the foreign relations committees in the US Senate and House, in Amman, a diplomat in the Jordanian capital told The National.

“The State Department was not far away from the discussions," said the diplomat, who was briefed on the meeting.

Scott Bolz, a senior American diplomat handling the Kurdish file, also met Ms Ahmad in Jordan, he said. There was no immediate comment from the US embassy in the kingdom.

Last week, the two US legislators, Senator Jeanne Shaheen and Representative Joe Wilson, met President Ahmad Al Shara to discuss the fate of the numerous minority communities in Syria under Hayat Tahrir Al Sham (HTS), a group formerly affiliated with Al Qaeda that led the rebel overthrow of the Assad regime in December.

The SDF controls large parts of eastern Syria that produce most of Syria's power output, oil and gas, as well as wheat and other commodities. Regaining these regions is key for Mr Al Shara to bolster his position, especially among his core Sunni constituency. A deal in March to integrate the SDF into the post-Assad state has stalled, mainly over Damascus's demand that the SDF disband.

However, the US has proposed that the SDF partially join the new Syrian army, which means that Mr Al Shara would advance his goal while SDF leader "Mazloum Abdi keeps a good chunk of the SDF and an open channel to Al Shara”, the diplomat said. The Kurds represented around 10 per cent of Syria's 22 million population before the civil war began in 2011.

Mistrust, however, remains at an all-time high, the sources said, with the SDF more insistent, after the Sweida bloodshed, that it will not dissolve.

"They cannot trust that government forces would not go to the east and repeat a Sweida scenario," said another diplomat. Ms Ahmad is considered to be among Kurdish hardliners who see their position as having been bolstered by the events in Sweida, they added.

Hardline position

The Kurdish issue has emerged as the thorniest in US-backed efforts to stabilise Syria after the civil war. Washington created the SDF in 2014 as its infantry ally in the war against ISIS in Syria. But Turkey is seen as having enormous sway on how the Syrian government is dealing with the issue. Turkey regards the SDF as a major security threat and opposes any devolution of central powers that could give Kurds and other minorities substantive powers in the post-Assad order.

"Even when Al Shara shows flexibility, he cannot act on the Syrian file without reverting to Turkey," said a western diplomat who had met Mr Al Shara.

The sources said that Ms Ahmad will travel to Damascus in the coming days for a new round of talks on the fate of the SDF. She answers directly to Mr Abdi.

Mr Al Shara’s forces have upped their military preparations against the SDF. In a meeting with Arab journalists last month, Mr Al Shara maintained a hardline position that there could be no alternative to a unitary state and brushed off the possibility of a decentralised system.

"Unless the government accepts decentralisation, the Kurds will be going through the motions of talks to please the Americans, but they will not cede any real control," the western diplomat said.

"The problem is that even if Al Shara accepts devolution, Turkey will not, and he cannot go against Ankara."