Why the US won’t be coming to its longtime ally’s aid in Syria
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces that for more than a decade constituted the Pentagon’s leading ally on the ground in the fight against the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) in Syria is calling for immediate aid from the United States and other world powers as government forces close in.
The situation presents a conundrum for Washington, which has shifted its strategy toward building ties with Damascus over the past year since former President Bashar al-Assad was toppled in a sudden offensive headed by Islamist militant chief-turned-interim leader, current President Ahmad al-Sharaa, who seeks to absorb the SDF into the central government in line with a U.S.-backed deal reached in March.
His administration views this process as necessary step toward achieving national unity, while the SDF worries about the future of its people who have lived in a virtually autonomous region through much of Syria‘s civil war, which erupted in 2011.
With the SDF having already lost significant swathes of territory amid outbreaks of violence in recent days and previous rounds of fighting, the White House has signaled its role would be limited to mediating a return to talks to push forward its partner’s integration, with U.S. special envoy to Syria and ambassador to Turkey Thomas Barrack stating Monday that “the original purpose of the SDF as the primary anti-ISIS force on the ground has largely expired.”
Speaking to Newsweek during a virtual meeting held shortly after a temporary truce was declared Tuesday, Ilham Ahmed, co-chair of the SDF’s political wing, the Syrian Democratic Council, acknowledged Barrack’s remarks but argued the group now must fight for its survival.
“Our mission in this part is over, but we still have the mission of protecting our people,” Ahmed said, “because still, the Syrian Army is consisting of radical and extremist factions that no one in Syria can trust up to now, neither Druze nor Alawites nor Christians nor even Sunnis can trust these factions or this army, and we still feel and have concerns, big concern, concerns, actually, that our people would be facing massacres as what happened in other Syrian cities.”
In carrying out this mission, she argued that “we have requested support from countries that we have defended and protected their security during the battles against ISIS, and we took the burden of guarding ISIS families and fighters for years for them.”
“Now, we are demanding their support,” Ahmed said. “And we need to have international firm guarantees regarding protecting Kurdish people in our regions, and this can be done by many other countries, or the U.N. or any international party that can guarantee the protection and the security for our people.”
Syria’s Shifting Tides
Washington’s tilt toward Damascus marks the latest in a series of policy shifts throughout Syria’s 15 years of conflict. The U.S. had initially backed insurgent factions fighting toppling Assad before switching the focus of assistance to the SDF’s fight against ISIS in 2015. Russia around this same time intervened in support of Assad as he fought a mostly separate campaign with Iranian aid against both ISIS and various rebel groups, including Sharaa’s powerful Al-Qaeda-linked Nusra Front, later renamed Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.
While the U.S. remained opposed to Assad’s rule in the wake of ISIS’ territorial defeat, the SDF also regularly clashed with Syrian rebel groups, many of which received direct assistance from neighboring NATO power Turkey. Ankara’s opposition to the SDF is rooted in the group’s ties to the separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is designated by both the U.S. and Turkey as a terrorist organization.
For years, the U.S. largely overlooked this connection in order to maintain a military foothold in Syria aimed at ensuring ISIS could not resurge. Since Sharaa’s rise to power just weeks before President Donald Trump took office, however, this calculus has shifted, with the White House now opting to accept Sharaa’s own militant past in order to establish a new partnership in the region.
This partnership has so far weathered previous reports of Syrian security forces targeting minority communities, including Kurds, Druze and Alawites, as Sharaa otherwise vowed to forge a new inclusive and unified outlook for the nation. The Pentagon had meanwhile largely maintained that its relationship with the SDF remained unchanged, though Barrack’s statement amid renewed bloodshed on Monday constituted the most concrete evidence yet that Washington had recalibrated.
“In Syria, the United States is focused on: 1) ensuring the security of prison facilities holding ISIS prisoners, currently guarded by the SDF; and 2) facilitating talks between the SDF and the Syrian Government to allow for the peaceful integration of the SDF and the political inclusion of Syria’s Kurdish population into a historic full Syrian citizenship,” Barrack wrote.
Syrian diplomat Bassam Barabandi also saw an agreement as the best opportunity to avoid further violence, something he said Damascus was committed to preventing through the latest deal.
“What distinguishes this understanding is that the Syrian government has moved from broad political declarations to specific, operational commitments,” Barabandi told Newsweek. “The agreement sets a clear timeline, defines security parameters, and establishes an explicit pathway for institutional integration—military, security, and civil.”
“Crucially, Damascus has committed to avoiding force: Syrian forces will not enter city centers or Kurdish villages, and local security arrangements will be respected,” Barabandi said. “At the same time, Kurdish political participation and legal protections—including language, culture, and citizenship rights—are formally embedded in the process.”
The ultimate goal, he explained, is to achieve “integration within a unified Syrian state, not parallel governance.”
“The government’s approach reflects a deliberate effort to replace armed administration with political inclusion and rule-based state institutions,” Barabandi said. “If implemented as outlined, this process marks a decisive shift away from instability toward durable governance.”
ISIS on the Loose
The durability of the deal remains in question, however, with reports already emerging of new hostilities, including a drone strike and suicide bombing alleged by the SDF to have been carried out against their headquarters in the northeastern city of Al-Qamishli. The SDF has previously accused Turkey of conducting drone strikes in support of Syrian government forces, though Turkish security sources cited by Reuters have denied earlier claims.
Syria’s other neighbors have also watched the situation closely, especially amid reports of large numbers of ISIS fighters and family members escaping prisons once controlled by SDF-aligned security forces.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein received U.S. Embassy to Iraq chargé d’affaires Joshua Harris in Baghdad on Tuesday to discuss, among other things, “the dangerous situation in Syria,” where Hussein “stressed the need for a ceasefire between government forces and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), and to take all necessary measures to control prisons and prevent ISIS terrorist elements from escaping.”
That same day, the head of the Iran-aligned Kataeb Sayyed al-Shuhada militia, Abu Alaa al-Walaee, warned his units “will not hesitate for a moment to stand together” with Kurdish forces in Syria “if terrorism dares undermine their security.”
Walaee’s group is one of many Iraqi armed factions that operated in both Iraq and Syria to battle ISIS and other insurgent groups following the jihadis’ initial cross-border rampage that began in 2013. Since Sharaa took power in December 2024, ending decades of Assad family rule, the boundary between the nations has been in a state of heightened alert, including in the north, where Iraqi Kurds also maintain a semi-autonomous administration and armed forces on their side of the border.
As fears of an ISIS resurgence loom large across the region, with one attack attributed to the group killing two U.S. soldiers and an interpreter last month near Palmyra, Syrian government officials have accused the SDF of intentionally releasing suspected ISIS detainees as prison camps were seized in the latest offensive.
Ahmed, for her part, rejected these claims, arguing that SDF-affiliated personnel were still guarding one such site holding suspected ISIS personnel in the contested province of Raqqa, which she said has also come under attack since the ceasefire. Elsewhere, she said SDF fighters had only abandoned Al-Hol refugee camp that includes displaced ISIS members and a prison holding ISIS detainees in Al-Shaddadi, both located in Al-Hasakah province, after being forced to flee incoming government forces.
“They were attacking by drones, by artillery and heavy weapon, so the forces there could not defend anymore, and they decided to withdraw, and now the camps and detention centers are the responsibility of the interim government,” Ahmed said, “and regarding the effect on the international security, of course, there is a big threat, because Al-Shaddadi prison was holding foreign fighters, and these are the most dangerous people or fighters of ISIS.
“The government said that they could bring back 80 prisoners to the prison, and we still do not know if the foreigners are included in that number,” she added. “So, the government is responsible for these cases now, and I think the global coalition should start investigating the situation.”
SDF spokesperson Farhad Shami earlier told Kurdish news outlet Rudaw that around ““1,500 ISIS militants—including both foreign and Syrian nationals—had been released” from Al-Shaddadi prison, while the Syrian Interior Ministry placed the figure at around 120.
No Guarantees
The U.S. is believed to maintain around 1,000 soldiers in Syria, including those deployed alongside Syrian Free Army fighters in the southeast Al-Tanf desert garrison and those alongside the SDF in the northeast.
While U.S. troops in past years have responded with force to attacks on SDF positions from the likes of ISIS, Iran-linked militias and even Russian private military operators, Ahmed said she had received little indication of any imminent intervention from her contacts with representatives of Washington.
Despite wanting to “see a firm position that is needed now from the U.S.,” Ahmed said she was merely told U.S. representatives were “contacting the government.”
“But it sounded like they did nothing, and it led to even releasing ISIS from prisons and camps, and they did not move to stop that, and Kurdish people now are at the risk of extermination,” Ahmed said. “So, we’ve requested and demanded guarantees, but as always, the U.S. does not give any valid guarantees. They tell us they are here and they will continue to work, but no firm guarantees.”
Such guarantees, she argued, were especially important as the SDF continued to rejected being “integrated into the army individually and not as units,” which “will lead to escalations” down the road.
Barabandi, meanwhile, argued that the best position for international powers, including the U.S., would be to continue backing the peace process.
“For international partners, the most constructive role is to support implementation rather than speculate about failure,” Barabandi said. “Direct engagement, verification on the ground, and backing a Syrian-led political process are far more effective than amplifying worst-case narratives.”
And while he asserted that “the risk of escalation is highest when there is ambiguity,” he reiterated that Damascus had proven its commitment through the latest agreement, especially the “non-entry into sensitive areas and to protecting minority rights through state institutions,” through which “Damascus is actively removing the pretext for external intervention.”
“This is the clearest signal yet that Damascus is prioritizing de-escalation, minority protection, and national integration over force—offering a real chance for long-term stability if allowed to proceed,” Barabandi said. “The Syrian government is choosing integration over confrontation.”
“This agreement removes the drivers of escalation and gives all communities—Kurds included—a political stake in a unified state,” he added. “The test now is implementation, not intent.”
