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Syria’s Islamist-led interim government appears to be bracing for war with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (DF), which controls vast parts of the country’s northern and eastern regions with support from the United States.
The deployment of two of the Syrian military’s largest divisions along the front with the SDF in the eastern Aleppo countryside was reported on August 10.
Videos posted to social networks showed several convoys with hundreds, if not thousands, of troops from the 60th and 72th Divisions heading to the front. The forces appeared to be full-armed, with anti-tank guided missiles, heavy anti-aircraft machine guns and multiple rocket launchers.
Later, the Syrian Ministry of Defense denied any deployment, claiming that the divisions were just conducting a “military exercise” in a different part of Aleppo.
“Some social media platforms have circulated video footage of a Syrian Arab Army training exercise south of Aleppo, and it has been circulated as new military movements. In light of this, we clarify that what was reported by Al-Arabiya TV and a number of media outlets in this regard is inaccurate and does not reflect reality,” the ministry’s media office said.
The move came just a day after the Syrian government announced that it will not take part in meetings with the SDF in France, which were planned to discuss an agreement signed in March to integrate the group into state institutions including the military.
A government source told the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency that Damascus would not be involved in negotiations with any side that aims to “revive the era of the former regime”.
The decision was a response to a forum hosted by the Kurdish-led group on August 8 in which it called for the review of the constitutional declaration issued earlier this year by Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa.
Participants also criticized the government over its deadly sectarian-motivated crackdown on the coast in March, and on al-Suwayda later in July.
“The current constitutional declaration does not meet the aspirations of the Syrian people … It should be reviewed to ensure a wider participatory process and a fair representation in the transitional period,” a final communique issued after the forum read.
The government source accused the Kurdish-led group of hosting “separatist figures engaged in hostile acts”, holding the SDF fully responsible for its implications, including the reimposition of sanctions and the “summoning of foreign intervention”.
Also on August 9, the SDF accused what it described as government-backed factions of attacking areas in northern and eastern Syria more than 22 times.
The group said in a statement it had exercised restraint during such “aggressions”, and that the continuation of such attacks “threaten mutual trust and undermine understandings”.
It’s worth noting that a report published by AL-Monitor on the same day revealed that Turkey played a role in Damascus’ decision not to attend the meetings in France. Ankara, the main ally of the Islamist-led government in Syria, views the SDF as an extension of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party and deems it a threat to its national security.
With the Syrian government not showing willingness to engage in talks with the SDF, a military confrontation between the two seems inevitable.
Ankara is guaranteed to support the Syrian military. However, the U.S. could abandon the SDF in order to build closer relations with Damascus. Still, the group, which has more than 100,000 fighters, will certainly put on a fight.
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