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What the SDF-Damascus Deal Really Says About Kurdish Autonomy
As more details of the SDF-Damascus agreement become available, the contours of the deal can be summarised in five points: 1. Integration and the Hasakah division. The text states that…
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Arivan
Trump’s Veto Throws Iraq’s Prime Minister Race Into Turmoil
After Iraq’s Shia-led Coordination Framework bloc, following lengthy deliberations, announced controversial former prime minister Nouri al-Maliki as its candidate, US President Donald Trump publicly opposed the move, further deepening the…
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Arivan
How Turkey Turned the Smelka Crossing Into One of the Middle East’s Most Surveilled Borders
As intermittent clashes in Syria’s Hasakah province move closer to Al-Jawadiyah (known in Kurdish as Çil Axa), a key route connecting the Smelka border crossing between Iraq’s Kurdistan Region and…
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Arivan
As ISIS Detainees Move Out, Pressure Mounts on the SDF in Hasakah
Despite the ceasefire extension for an additional 15 days, both the Damascus-led Syrian Army and Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), continue sending reinforcements to the Hasakah area, suggesting the prospect of…
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Arivan
Damascus’s Hasakah advance threatens the KDP’s border leverage
The KDP, the dominant party in the Kurdistan Region, has made a dramatic shift in its approach to the SDF since the collapse of the Assad-era order in Syria. Masoud…
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Arivan
Syrian Kurdish Leaders Say They Were Promised One Thing. The Deal Says Another.
As the Syrian army advances toward Hasakah city and presses deeper toward Syria’s core Kurdish areas, the SDF is increasingly on the diplomatic defensive. Its leadership is being pushed toward…
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Arivan
Syrian Army Presses Toward Tabqa as SDF Seeks U.S. Lifeline in Erbil
The Syrian army is continuing its westward pressure on SDF-held Tabqa, the last Kurdish-controlled pocket west of the Euphrates, after the SDF withdrew from the Deir Hafir–Maskanah salient in eastern…
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Arivan
Damascus Won Aleppo. The Next Battle Could Decide the SDF’s Fate.
The Syrian government’s victory in Aleppo should not be underestimated. The Sheikh Maqsoud–Ashrafieh pocket, previously controlled by SDF-backed security forces, was a major urban settlement where an estimated 300,000 to…
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Arivan
Three Theories, One Timeline: What Happened in Aleppo
The collapse of the ceasefire in Aleppo’s Kurdish-held neighbourhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh has generated a rush of competing explanations, from diplomatic timing to alleged fractures on the Kurdish…
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Arivan
Al-Sudani Says He’s Dropping Out of Iraq’s PM Race. Is It a Trap for Al-Maliki?
Iraq’s incumbent Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani has reportedly announced his withdrawal from seeking a second term at the last meeting of the ruling Shia coalition, ceding the field to…
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