Region
Syria president appoints Kurdish leader Mazloum Abdi as his adviser
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa appointed Kurdish leader Mazloum Abdi as a presidential adviser, state media said days after Abdi announced the dissolution of his Kurdish forces under an integration deal with Damascus.
The education ministry also published a decision authorising Kurdish-language instruction in public and private schools.
"Mustafa Khalil Abdi is appointed as adviser to the presidency of the republic," announced the decree, signed by Sharaa and published by state news agency SANA.
Abdi, who has been known by several different names, was for years the leader of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the Washington-backed fighters at the forefront of the battle against the Islamic State jihadist group.
On Tuesday, he announced the SDF's dissolution as part of a January deal with al-Sharaa to integrate the Kurds' forces and civilian administration into the state.
Syria's new Islamist authorities who toppled longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in 2024 have been seeking to extend state control across the whole country.
The integration deal was a major victory for al-Sharaa but ended the Kurds' long-held hopes for official 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".
"Securing substantive roles for our valued partners" including Abdi within the government "pays due respect to their leadership, the sacrifices of our Kurdish partners, and the constructive contribution they have made to regional stability", Barrack added, without indicating what role Abdi would have.
Abdi said on 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 January integration deal following clashes in which the Kurds lost swathes of territory to government troops, and as their longtime backer Washington drew close to the new authorities in Damascus.
During the violence, al-Sharaa signed a decree enshrining the Kurds' national rights and recognising Kurdish as a national language — an unprecedented step since Syria's independence in 1946.
On Thursday evening the education ministry issued a decision authorising Kurdish-language classes in public and private schools in areas where "Kurdish citizens make up a significant percentage of the population", alongside Arabic and English.
The Democratic Union Party (PYD), Syria's most powerful Kurdish party, yesterday welcomed the "positive and important" developments on the SDF's integration and the Kurdish language but warned these were "not sufficient".
"Syria's new constitution must include clearly the recognition of the Kurdish people as a native people and partner in Syria, and recognition of the Kurdish language and the Kurdish people's political, cultural and national rights," it said in a statement.
It also urged the completion of the merger of the Kurdish Women's Protection Units (YPJ) into the state, after the female fighting force, which is part of the SDF, said it had discussed its integration into the interior ministry with government officials this week.
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."