ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A Syrian government border official told Rudaw that Damascus has no relations with the Kurdish-led administration in northeast Syria (Rojava), claiming that neither Iraq nor Turkey plans to open border crossings with areas under the control of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
“No official border crossings will be opened with the Syrian Democratic Forces’ areas until those areas return to Syrian state administration,” said Mazen Alloush, Director of Public Relations at the General Authority for Land and Sea Border Crossings, in a Friday interview.
“Neither Turkey nor Iraq are planning to open crossings with the Syrian Democratic Forces,” he added, indirectly referring to the Nusaybin crossing, which links the city of Qamishli in northeast Syria (Rojava) with the Turkish city of Nusaybin.
The Syrian official added that the interim government in Damascus has no relations with the Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (DAANES), which administers Rojava.
Alloush further noted that the checkpoints between SDF-held areas and government-controlled territory are not under his entity’s authority, but are instead manned by the Kurdish-led security forces in coordination with local provinces.
The SDF serves as Rojava’s de facto military force and is the main on-the-ground ally of the US-led Coalition to Defeat the Islamic State (ISIS).
Alloush’s remarks come as the SDF on Sunday reported that “Damascus-affiliated factions” had directly targeted one of its outposts in eastern Deir ez-Zor province, “seriously wounding” one of its fighters.
A day earlier, the Kurdish-led forces said they had responded to similar attacks by Damascus-aligned armed groups in the same area.
The two sides have repeatedly exchanged accusations of targeting one another’s positions.
In late September, DAANES raised the Syrian flag alongside its own at the Semalka border crossing with the Kurdistan Region for the first time. Alloush at the time called the move “unilateral” and not coordinated with Damascus, claiming it was intended “to cause confusion.”
The two sides remain in talks over implementing an agreement to integrate the SDF into the Syrian army, but key disagreements persist, with the SDF seeking to join as a unified bloc and Damascus insisting fighters be absorbed individually.