ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Baghdad on Tuesday welcomed the internationally brokered ceasefire agreement between the Syrian government and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), Iraq’s foreign ministry said, amid the deployment of dozens of Damascus-affiliated security personnel to Kurdish cities in northeast Syria (Rojava). The remarks come as Iraq prepares to transfer more Islamic State (ISIS) detainees from Syria into its custody.
In a statement the ministry said, “Iraq welcomes the reaching of a comprehensive ceasefire agreement between the Syrian government and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), and the understandings it includes that stipulate the integration of the institutions of the Autonomous Administration into the institutions of the Syrian state, in a way that contributes to strengthening stability and supporting the political solution process in Syria.”
The agreement “represents a positive step that reflects the importance of prioritizing the language of dialogue and understanding among all Syrian parties, in a manner that ensures the protection of the rights of all Syrian components and guarantees their fair participation in state institutions, on the basis of citizenship and peaceful coexistence,” the ministry added.
The Iraqi foreign ministry further reaffirmed “Iraq’s role in supporting the security and stability of the region and its constant keenness to support political solutions that spare peoples the calamities of conflict.”
The Damascus-SDF agreement, announced on Friday, includes a comprehensive ceasefire and a phased plan for the integration of military and administrative forces. It calls for the formation of a military division composed of three SDF brigades, along with a special brigade for forces in the Kurdish city of Kobane in northern Syria, to operate under a division affiliated with Aleppo province.
The accord also provides for the integration of the institutions of the Kurdish-led Autonomous Administration, which governs Rojava, into Syrian state institutions. It guarantees the preservation of civilian employees’ status, safeguards the civil and educational rights of the Kurdish people, and facilitates the return of displaced residents to their homes.
As part of the first phase of implementation, a convoy of 15 vehicles carrying around 100 state-affiliated internal security personnel arrived in the Kurdish city of Hasaka on Monday. Another convoy also reached the outskirts of Kobane in northern Syria.
Syrian security forces also deployed to the Kurdish city of Qamishli on Tuesday, with Damascus security officials saying a day earlier that the deployment would be similar in size to that in Hasaka.
Of note, a Rudaw reporter on-the-ground relayed on Monday that as the deployment of Syrian security personnel was underway in the Kurdish cities, several US armored vehicles escorted five coaches from Qamishli toward the Iraqi border. The buses, Rudaw understands, carried dozens of ISIS detainees previously held in facilities secured by the SDF.
The US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced on January 21 that “U.S. forces successfully transported 150 ISIS fighters held at a detention facility in Hasaka, Syria, to a secure location in Iraq,” adding that “ultimately, up to 7,000 ISIS detainees” from multiple detention facilities in Rojava “could be transferred to Iraqi-controlled facilities.”
As of late January, two well-placed Iraqi security sources speaking anonymously due to the sensitivity of the matter told Rudaw that four convoys carrying 475 ISIS detainees have been transferred from prisons previously held by the SDF in Rojava, noting that the suspects were primarily held in facilities in Hasaka.