US-Backed SDF Races to Integrate...Into Assad's Embrace?
The New Arab alerts us to a 'race to save integration deal' between Syria and the Kurdish-led SDF. A deal that, if successful, would pull the SDF back into regular Syrian state control, arguably reversing years of US-backed efforts to carve out an autonomous zone. One might wonder if the US, which once heralded the SDF as frontline anti-ISIS heroes and still provides significant military support,
is now quietly nudging them towards reconciliation with the very Assad regime it spent a decade nominally trying to depose. How's that for strategic consistency? This 'race' to reintegrate isn't just about local politics; it's a stark reminder that US foreign policy often leaves its 'trusted partners' scrambling when geopolitical winds shift. The media frames it as a local dispute, but the
fingerprints of external powers, particularly the US, are all over the fragmentation and now, the forced 'unity' of Syria. Perhaps the deadline isn't about saving a deal, but saving face for those who funded the partition in the first place.