ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A planned visit to Damascus by Mazloum Abdi, commander-in-chief of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), scheduled for Monday, has been postponed due to "technical reasons" until further notice, the SDF said in a statement.
The visit, which was to include a “negotiating delegation” for talks with the Syrian government, was delayed due to “technical reasons,” according to the statement.
“A new date will be determined at a later time through mutual agreement among the concerned parties,” it added.
The SDF emphasized that the postponement is related to logistical and technical arrangements and “does not reflect any change in the course of communication or the objectives under discussion.”
The high-profile delegation was expected to discuss the integration of the SDF and the Kurdish-led administration in northeast Syria (Rojava) into state institutions, within the framework of a landmark agreement reached in March.
On Thursday, Abdi said the SDF had “reached a mutual understanding” with Syria’s transitional government regarding the future of the SDF and the Kurdish administration. He stressed that any new Syrian state should adopt a decentralized system of governance.
Despite these remarks, Syria’s foreign ministry said on Friday that the dialogue had not yielded “tangible results,” adding that “it appears this discourse is being used for media purposes and to absorb political pressures, amid actual stagnation.”
Yasser Sulaiman, a member of the Rojava committee involved in the integration talks with Damascus, supported Abdi’s optimistic assessment of the process.
Negotiations to implement the March agreement remain ongoing, but key differences persist. Kurdish negotiators favor integrating the SDF as a unified force, while the Syrian government prefers absorbing SDF fighters individually into regular army units.