Kurdish SDF leader Mazloum Kobane meets Damascus officials amid uncertain integration

Mazloum Kobane, the commander-in-chief of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, entered Damascus on Monday for meetings with Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani and other senior officials, accompanied by Ilham Ahmed, the SDF’s top foreign-affairs official. The visit follows the SDF’s recent declaration that its integration with the Syrian state is complete, a claim that stops short of announcing the force’s dissolution, a demand from both Damascus and Ankara.

While about 5,000 SDF fighters have been placed into four newly created brigades and another 1,000 returned to Afrin, roughly 10,000 fighters, including members of the Women’s Protection Units, remain without a defined role or salary. Kobane has reportedly entertained the idea of launching a new pro-secular party in the northeast, inspired by Turkey’s DEM Party, but has not yet made a formal pledge. The talks occur against a backdrop of lingering Arab-Kurdish tensions, especially in Hasakah, where recent violence has disrupted Kurdish returns. Control of oil fields, once a major revenue source for the Kurdish administration, is also shifting, with foreign companies now operating former SDF sites.