Another Kurdish Setback in Syria

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) appears to be at the brink of irrelevance after suffering a series of military and political defeats in northern Syria over the past two weeks. Frustrated with the failure of Kurdish leadership to implement a deal that would have seen the integration of the SDF into Syria’s military, the government launched a campaign to oust the SDF from Aleppo. Syrian government forces pressed their advantage over the past weeks as negotiations failed to reach their desired goal. The government offensive, assisted by Arab tribal defections from the SDF, gained the provincial capitals of Deir ez-Zor and Raqqa advancing to the outskirts of Hasakeh. On Wednesday, SDF leadership agreed to a deal that would effectively dissolve the once dominant force in eastern Syria. These events mark the latest of the many set-backs of the Kurdish people’s quest for autonomy.