Emma Bouvin: After a huge setback comes a victory for al-Sharaa

Sometimes it is difficult to keep up with the turns. The recent news from Syria has been about violence, resurrected Assad supporters with lots of weapons and information on abuse against the Alawite minority. Thousands of Alawiter have moved over Lebanon's northern border, several hundred civilians – or even more – have been killed.

Then, just after Syria's transitional government announced that a « military operation » has restored the order, a message comes that no one had expected today.

Syria has signed an agreement With the Kurd-led SDF forces leader Mazlome Abdi. Pictures of him and President Ahmed al-Sharaa who smilingly shake hands in Damascus were wired out of the Syrian Presidential Palace.

Since 2015, SDF has controlled the semiautonomous region of Rojava, located in northeastern Syria. Here are several important natural resources, border crossings to Iraq and Turkey and airports. According to the agreement, all this must be governed by the Syrian government, while the SDF forces must be inserted into the National Syrian Army. Before the end of the year, the agreement must have been implemented.

Exactly how it will go, there are no answers to in the official press release, nor why Mazlome Abdi decided to agree to it. In the past, he has said that he would like to see a united Syria, but that SDF does not intend to put down his weapons or become part of the Syrian army.

Several calls have been held Between the parties, lately completely behind the scenes. The last time there were reports on the negotiations, there were several stumbling stones in the way.

But one thing that has happened in between is that Kurdgerillan PKK in Turkey has made peace with the Turkish state. A further event happened this weekend, when hundreds of Kurdish families returned to Afrin, a Kurdish city in Syria, which for several years has been occupied by Arab militia groups.

Al-Sharaa thus receives a large addition to its defense force and a much larger nation state. The Kurds are given guarantees about their right to citizenship and the rights that belong to, as well as a promise that the Syrian government should counteract split and hate crimes against minorities.

Syrians in general may be able to move freely between the north and the south and do not have to worry about an armed conflict between the Syrian government army and the SDF forces-at the moment anyway.

There remains a long way Before anyone can actually breathe out. Everything is far from investigated about the attacks on Syria's alawites and many minorities are, for good reasons, terrified.

But after a weekend of bad news, this is a victory for Ahmed Al-Shara and his vision of a new Syrian state, with the support of the outside world.