While SDF commander Mazloum Abdi has been publicly optimistic about recent meetings with Damascus regarding the SDF’s integration into the Syrian army, even suggesting a “preliminary agreement” has been reached, cracks are already emerging over procedural details that were supposedly agreed upon verbally between Damascus and the SDF in the presence of senior US officials.

Context: SDF commander Mazloum Abdi told both AP and AFP that the two sides had “agreed in principle” and reached a “preliminary agreement” with the Syrian government on a plan for SDF forces to join the army. According to Abdi, the arrangement involves the SDF being integrated into the military through three units.

Analysis: While the real test for any breakthrough will hinge on substantive issues — such as command structure and operational control over SDF units — what has been publicly described so far concerns only procedural understandings on the number and type of units to be allocated to the SDF. Even these preliminary points, however, now appear unclear and contested.

Senior PYD officials, including Foza Yûsif, told the Kurdish Welat Agency that the SDF and Damascus had reached a preliminary understanding to organize the SDF as “three military corps.” Similarly, Salih Muslim, another senior PYD figure, said their understanding with Damascus was to form “three corps.”

However, pro-Syrian government sources who have also reported that a verbal understanding was indeed reached during the October 13 meeting in Damascus tell a different story. According to pro-government accounts, the agreement is for three divisions, not corps. For instance, Istanbul-based Syria TV, which maintains close ties to the Syrian government, was first to report this preliminary understanding following the meeting, stating that both sides agreed to integrate the SDF into “three divisions” within the army.

Further reinforcing this position, Bassem al-Sulaiman, a pro-government political analyst, states, “What the state has proposed is the formation of three divisions only.” He added, “In fact, our army is organized into divisions, and there are no corps in its structure as of now.”

This discrepancy suggests that even a basic understanding about the number and type of units for SDF integration into the Syrian army has not yet been reached. The difference between divisions and corps is significant: the current post-Assad army uses divisions as its highest formation, with each division comprising approximately 10,000 soldiers, while a corps would control two or more divisions and would be considerably larger and more autonomous.

The confusion over these fundamentals aligns with what senior SDF commander and top negotiator Sipan Hamo told SDF media today that they have reached no preliminary agreement, only “verbal promises and general hopes.”