DAMASCUS, SYRIA — For over a year, much of northeastern Syria has found itself under de facto occupation by the United States and its military proxy, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The occupied territory, accounting for nearly a third of Syria’s total landmass and including large portions of the al-Hasakah, al-Raqqa and Deir Ez-Zor regions, has largely been overseen by the SDF, an umbrella group of militias dominated by the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), which allied with the U.S. early in the conflict.

While the SDF has seemingly had complete control of the occupied territory — which boasts most of Syria’s oil, gas, freshwater and agricultural resources — it seems that increased local resistance to the SDF’s control of the region, as well as the U.S.’ failure to protect its allies elsewhere in Syria, has now pushed the YPG to reconsider its alliance with the United States and instead consider allying with the Syrian government, led by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

The clearest indication yet that the YPG’s relationship with the Syrian government is set to change dramatically came on Monday, when Al Masdar News reported that the YPG and the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) had reached a preliminary agreement in the al-Hasakah region that is set to lead to increased SAA influence in areas under YPG control. Per the agreement, the YPG has announced that it will remove all posters of Abdullah Ocalan — one of the founding members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is associated with the YPG — from areas under its control and will also allow the SAA to reopen recruitment offices throughout the region. The agreement came as a result of recent negotiations between Kurdish and Syrian government officials in both Damascus and Qamishli.

However, this agreement is hardly the end of future YPG and SAA cooperation in the area, as negotiations continue. As Al Masdar noted, new talks between the two groups are currently underway with the aim of establishing joint YPG/SAA checkpoints throughout the al-Hasakah region.

The agreements are part of a wider effort by the Syrian government to convince Kurdish factions in Syria’s northeast to abandon their alliance with the United States. Those negotiations are aimed at convincing the Kurds to join forces with the SAA throughout Syria and to give control of key border crossings into Iraq and Turkey to the SAA.

In exchange, the Syrian government has offered to include the Kurdish language in the Syrian educational system, consider military service in the YPG as analogous to service in the SAA, and create a permanent post for a Kurdish official in the Syrian state oil ministry……more here