Senior Syrian and U.S. officials held closed-door talks this week to discuss the implementation of the March 10 agreement with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), marking the highest-level direct engagement between Damascus and Washington since the Syrian civil war began in 2011. The meeting, confirmed by both the Syrian Foreign Ministry and the U.S. State Department, took place in northeastern Syria a region long contested by the Assad government, Kurdish-led forces, and external powers.
The March 10 agreement, brokered with U.S. mediation, outlined a framework for de-escalation, joint security coordination in oil-rich Deir ez-Zor, and the eventual integration of SDF-administered areas into Syria’s state institutions without specifying a timeline or political endgame. According to a joint readout released Thursday, both sides “reaffirmed commitment to stability” and agreed to form a technical committee to address “practical steps” toward implementation.
In Qamishli’s dusty streets, where Syrian flags now fly alongside SDF banners near shared checkpoints, residents speak cautiously of change. “Last month, soldiers and SDF fighters stood together during a funeral procession,” said teacher Layla Hassan, 42. “I never thought I’d see that.” Yet memories of past betrayals linger. Many recall how earlier reconciliation deals collapsed amid mutual distrust and external interference especially from Turkey, which opposes any SDF role in Syria’s future and maintains military outposts just kilometers away.
Ahmed, who participated in preparatory talks, emphasized that the SDF seeks “administrative autonomy within a unified Syria,” not secession. U.S. officials, speaking on background per diplomatic protocol, stressed that Washington’s goal remains “a stable, inclusive Syria that denies space to ISIS” a threat that resurged in May with coordinated attacks in Hasakah, killing 17. The security vacuum left by years of fragmentation makes cooperation urgent, they said.
In a courtyard near the U.S.-run al-Omar oil field, university students from Arab and Kurdish backgrounds now share classrooms under a new joint education initiative one of the first tangible outcomes of the March deal. “We study engineering, not enmity,” said 20-year-old Youssef Khalaf. His friend, Zînê Meman, added, “If our leaders can sit at the same table, maybe we can build the same country.” Local councils have begun coordinating wheat distribution and hospital staffing, small acts stitching a social fabric long torn by war.
Yet the path remains perilous. Without international guarantees and a clear political horizon, even the most earnest local cooperation risks unraveling. As dusk settled over the Khabur River, an elderly farmer watched Syrian and SDF patrols pass his field in silence neither greeting nor threatening, just coexisting, for now. In Syria, that silence is the first sound of peace.
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