US envoy Tom Barrack says the Syrian government is taking over the SDF’s previous role as an ‘anti-Isis (ISIL)’ force; Kurds can now integrate into Syrian society.
Published on January 20, 2026
The role of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) as the “primary anti-ISIS force on the ground” is “largely obsolete” because the Syrian government is ready to take on security responsibilities, US special envoy for Syria Tom Barack has said.
“Historically, the U.S. military presence in northeastern Syria was primarily justified as an anti-ISIS partnership,” Barrack wrote on X.
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With Damascus joining the global coalition to defeat ISIS in late 2025, the situation in Syria has changed “fundamentally”, he added.
Syria is now “willing and in a position to assume security responsibilities,” including taking control of ISIL (ISIS) detention facilities and camps, he said.
The envoy added that as the Syrian government takes its stance as an “anti-ISIS” force, President Ahmed al-Shar’a has now created a “unique window” for Kurds to unify after announcing that Kurds will be granted citizenship rights and protection for the Kurdish language.
Barak said the future of Syria’s Kurdish community was now “on the path to full integration” after a four-day ceasefire announced by the government.
Reporting from Damascus, Al Jazeera’s Ayman Oghanna says the US has “enjoyed a very long relationship with the SDF”.
“For more than a decade, they have equipped the SDF, they have trained the SDF, they have fought alongside the SDF and they still have 900 soldiers in SDF territory,” he said.
“In the run-up to this conflict, we were talking to Syrian Kurds who were afraid that the US could abandon ties to the SDF because of the tighter ties between Damascus and Washington, and that is happening.”
Barrack’s statement came after the Syrian Army and SDF accepted a ceasefire agreement in what would be the biggest victory for the al-Sharia government since the fall of former president Bashar al-Assad in 2024.
On Monday, clashes were reported between the Syrian army and the SDF in the town of al-Shaddadi, which is alleged to have links with ISIL. run away from prison.
However, the army announced on Tuesday that it had agreed to a four-day ceasefire. Both sides have expressed their commitment to the agreement.