Iraqi Kurdish regional leader meets Syrian president in Damascus

Barzani meets Syria’s al-Sharaa in Damascus to discuss Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) integration and Kurdish rights in post-Assad Syria.

The president of Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region has met the Syrian president in Damascus.

Nechirvan Barzani had talks with Ahmed al-Sharaa on Monday in the first visit to Syria by an Iraqi Kurdish leader since the fall of Bashar al-Assad in December 2024.

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Barzani arrived with a high-level delegation and was received at the People’s Palace. They discussed bilateral relations, economic cooperation and regional developments, according to Syria’s state news agency SANA. The Syrian Presidency said the talks focused on ways to enhance coordination, particularly in the economic field and addressed issues of common interest contributing to regional stability.

“We discussed the importance of Syria’s role in enhancing peace, security and stability in the region,” Barzani said in a statement on X. He added that “by virtue of being neighbours, Syria, Iraq and the Kurdistan Region share many common interests, and there are great opportunities to expand economic cooperation to achieve mutual benefit for all our peoples”.

The visit comes as Damascus seeks to finalise the integration of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) — a Kurdish-led militia that controls key areas of northeastern Syria, centred in Al-Hasakah Governorate — into state institutions.

Following military shifts and agreements, the SDF’s territorial scope has narrowed from its peak control of roughly one-third of Syria to its core strongholds in Hasakah, after handing over administrative authority in Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor to state institutions.

The SDF and the Syrian government signed an agreement in January providing for the integration of SDF fighters into the defence and interior ministries and the formation of military units under Syrian army command.

Al Jazeera correspondent Obaida Hitto, reporting from Damascus, said the issue of Kurdish rights would probably top the agenda. He said that Damascus had been engaged in negotiations with the SDF in northeastern Syria, where a large portion of Syria’s Kurdish ethnic group lives, and that Erbil had “played a pivotal role in negotiations between Damascus and the SDF for the last several months trying to reach a resolution”.

Barzani’s itinerary also includes meetings with Kurdish officials in Syria, including SDF commanders and Kurdish members of the Syrian parliament, according to Kurdish media reports.

Hitto said the agenda extended beyond integration: “The process doesn’t only have to do with SDF fighters.” He pointed to “the ongoing detention of thousands of members of Daesh in the Al-Hol camp and the Al-Ruj camp in northeast Syria. What’s going to happen to them? Many of them are foreign citizens, some of them citizens of Iraq.”

The camps and associated detention facilities hold an estimated 9,000 alleged ISIS fighters alongside nearly 40,000 detained family members across dozens of nationalities, representing a complex international security burden whose management is set to transition to Damascus.

Border security was also high on the agenda, with both sides discussing efforts to prevent the smuggling of narcotics and weapons between Syria and Iraq and how to counter Iranian-backed militias operating near the Iraqi-Syrian border, including in areas adjacent to the Kurdish region in northern Iraq.

Barzani previously welcomed the January agreement as a “significant and right step” and expressed hope it would “pave the way for rebuilding a unified Syria, protecting the rights of Kurds and all components in the upcoming constitution”. Kurdish leaders have pressed for constitutional guarantees on language rights and administrative autonomy.

The signing of the agreement was followed by certain steps, such as the entry of Syrian security forces into the cities of Al-Hasakah and Al-Qamishli and the state taking over the administration of Al-Qamishli airport and oil fields in the northeast, in addition to appointing prominent Kurdish military leader, Sipan Hemo, as an assistant to the minister of defence for the eastern region.

The two leaders previously met in April 2025 and April this year on the sidelines of the Antalya Diplomacy Forum in Turkiye. The visit follows months of diplomatic engagement between Erbil and Damascus, including efforts to reopen a Syrian consulate in the Kurdish regional capital.

Barzani has previously hosted SDF commander Mazloum Abdi in Erbil, particularly during Syrian military operations in the northeast earlier this year.

The talks come amid ongoing clashes between Syrian forces and Kurdish fighters in the northeast, though both sides have signalled commitment to advancing the January integration agreement.