In the context of sending more troops to stare down the barrel at Kurds’ positions, maybe or maybe not.
Context:
The leader of Kurdish-led forces in Syria announced Friday that they will withdraw from a contested area in northern Syria, potentially heading off a major clash with government forces.
The announcement by Mazloum Abdi, the leader of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, came as the Syrian military announced it had begun striking SDF positions, while the SDF reported “intense artillery shelling” in the town of Deir Hafer east of the city of Aleppo.
Hours earlier, a U.S. military designation had visited Deir Hafer and met with SDF officials in an apparent attempt to tamp down tensions.
The U.S. has good relations with both sides and has urged calm. A spokesperson for the U.S. military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Abdi said in a statement posted on X that “based on calls from friendly countries and mediators and in a demonstration of good faith,” the SDF would redeploy its forces to areas east of the Euphrates River Saturday morning.
Shortly before Abdi’s announcement, interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa had announced issuance of a decree strengthening Kurdish rights.
My interpretation: Kurds are trading territorial control for rights, under threat of violence. If Syrian laws prove to be more than “ink on paper”, maybe it will be good. But many people are leaving their homes and withdrawing together with SDF troops, because they don’t dare to live in territory ceded to the Syrian central government. For them, that is pretty damn bad.
As for the river - it does provide a logical (natural) border, with SDF on the eastern bank and government troops on the western bank. I guess Western countries urged SDF to fall back to a defensible position, and government troops shelled them to emphasize that their current position was not very defensible. The new Syrian government resembles the old one in this sense - it has such a friendly way of giving reminders.
In the context of sending more troops to stare down the barrel at Kurds’ positions, maybe or maybe not.
Context:
Source: Kurdish-led forces to withdraw from contested area in Syria
My interpretation: Kurds are trading territorial control for rights, under threat of violence. If Syrian laws prove to be more than “ink on paper”, maybe it will be good. But many people are leaving their homes and withdrawing together with SDF troops, because they don’t dare to live in territory ceded to the Syrian central government. For them, that is pretty damn bad.
As for the river - it does provide a logical (natural) border, with SDF on the eastern bank and government troops on the western bank. I guess Western countries urged SDF to fall back to a defensible position, and government troops shelled them to emphasize that their current position was not very defensible. The new Syrian government resembles the old one in this sense - it has such a friendly way of giving reminders.