Syria
Bassam Ishak, a Washington-based presidential council member of the Syrian Democratic Council (SDC) speaks to Rudaw on June 3, 2025. Photo: Rudaw/Screengrab
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – A senior official from the northeast Syria (Rojava) administration on Tuesday voiced strong concerns over the United States’ decision to allow the integration of thousands of foreign fighters into the Syrian army, calling it a “complete contradiction” of Washington’s previous stance, which urged the new leadership in Syria to expel them.
Bassam Ishak, a Washington-based presidential council member of the Syrian Democratic Council (SDC) - the political wing of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) - told Rudaw on Tuesday that the remarks by US Special Envoy to Syria, Thomas Barrack, about a plan to integrate thousands of foreign fighters into Syrian army ranks came as a surprise.
“It is completely different from the United States’ previous position [on the matter], which called for the withdrawal of all foreign forces from Syria,” Ishak said, underlining, “We had approved of the previous [American] position.”
Barrack, who up until last month served as Washington’s ambassador to Turkey, told Reuters on Monday that an understanding had been reached with Damascus regarding the integration of foreign fighters who have demonstrated loyalty to Syria’s new administration.
The outlet quoted three Syrian defense officials as confirming that the plan involves integrating approximately 3,500 foreign fighters - mainly Uyghurs from China and neighboring countries - into a newly formed military unit that will also include Syrian nationals.
Answering Rudaw’s question about the matter on Tuesday, US State Department Spokesperson Tammy Bruce noted that Barrack “stressed that transparency is of utmost importance as the Syrian Government develops a plan [to integrate these fighters] in the days ahead.”
Bruce added that the US remains “clear about the challenges facing the Syrian government as they take concrete steps toward [US] President [Donald Trump’s] request in building a secure and stable Syria.”
“Our asks of the Syrian Government have not changed in that regard,” she underlined.
The foreign fighters in question reportedly joined the Syrian conflict in 2011, fighting against former Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad alongside various armed groups, including Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which led a coalition of opposition forces that ousted Assad in December.
HTS’s former leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, was appointed interim President of Syria in January.
The senior SDC figure pointed out that the US administration had justified its decision by arguing it was better to integrate these individuals into the new Syrian army than “risk them joining [the Islamic State] ISIS or other armed groups.”
However, Ishak noted that from the SDC’s perspective, these fighters “should not be part of the Syrian army” as “they are not Syrian” and their “ideology is incompatible with the idea of a unified national army.”
“Their ideology is religious and extremist."
He further criticized the decision to allow these individuals to join the Syrian armed forces as a unit, pointing out the inconsistency with the earlier rejection of a proposal to integrate the US-backed SDF into Syrian state forces in a similar manner.
“It seems the treatment is not equal for everyone, and this is certainly strange to us,” he said, stressing the SDF’s position, “We demand to be integrated into the Syrian army as a single unit, not fragmented. This is certainly justified, as everyone should be treated equally.”
On another note, a delegation from northeast Syria (Rojava) traveled to Damascus on Saturday and met the following day with a committee appointed by Syria’s new leadership, to finalize the implementation of a March 10 agreement signed between SDF commander Mazloum Abdi and Syria’s interim President Sharaa.
The agreement outlines the integration of "all civil and military institutions in northeast Syria [Rojava] under the administration of the Syrian state."
Ishak remarked that the discussions between the Rojava delegation and the Damascus-appointed committee focused on “technical and detailed topics” related to the implementation of the agreement.
He clarified that these are not new negotiations, but rather “follow-up meetings aimed at executing what was already agreed upon.”
“The only timeline that was revealed is that the integration process should be completed by the end of this year,” Ishak said, adding that no further specifics or deadlines for individual institutions were disclosed.
Diyar Kurda contributed to this report.
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