DAMASCUS — Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa has appointed Kurdish leader Mazloum Abdi as a presidential adviser, state media said on Friday, days after Abdi announced the dissolution of his Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) under an integration deal with Damascus.
“Mustafa Khalil Abdi is appointed as adviser to the presidency of the republic,” said the decree, signed by Sharaa.
Abdi, who has been known by several different names, was for years the leader of the Washington-backed group at the forefront of the battle against ISIS.
On Tuesday, he announced the SDF’s dissolution, part of a deal he made with Sharaa in January to integrate the Kurds’ forces and civilian administration into the state.
Abdi is the most senior of several Kurdish figures appointed to state posts. Another commander was made assistant defense minister for the eastern region earlier this year.
Syria’s new authorities who toppled longtime ruler Bashar Assad in December 2024 have been seeking to extend state control across the whole country.
The integration deal was a major victory for Sharaa but an end to long-held Kurdish hopes for autonomy.
US special envoy to Syria Tom Barrack said on Tuesday that “this is what real integration looks like… former counterparts with differing points of view crafting a diplomatic solution to strengthen the sovereign nation of Syria.”
Abdi said Tuesday that the SDF’s dissolution followed “the completion of the process of integrating our forces into the brigades of the Syrian army.”
Abdi signed up to the integration deal following clashes this January that saw the Kurds lose swathes of territory to government troops and as the Kurds’ longtime backer Washington drew close to the new authorities in Damascus.
Al-Sharaa and Abdi first agreed to fold the SDF into the central government in March 2025. That deal made little progress before its year-end deadline, spurring state forces to battle into the northeast in January, taking the cities of Raqqa and Deir Az Zor from the SDF.
A ceasefire that ended the fighting placed Raqqa, Deir Az Zor and Hasakah under central government control and committed the SDF to join the defense and interior ministries under a 14-point plan..
The SDF was formed in 2015 at the instigation of the United States.
It was the de facto army of the semi-autonomous administration which the Kurds set up in north and northeast Syria after seizing territory battling ISIS during Syria’s civil war.
Abdi signed up to the integration deal following clashes this January that saw the Kurds lose swathes of territory to government troops, and as the Kurds’ longtime backer Washington drew close to the new authorities in Damascus.
During the violence, Sharaa signed a decree enshrining the Kurds’ national rights and recognizing Kurdish as a national language — an unprecedented step since Syria’s independence in 1946.
Last week, Abdi announced that the integration of the Kurdish administration with the Syrian state was complete, adding: “Our struggle will continue, to cement our people’s rights in the constitution.”
One Kurdish-led force has yet to be absorbed. The YPJ, the SDF’s women’s units, asked to join the defense ministry but were told the army’s structure has no units for women.
Source: Saudi Gazette