Barzani visits Damascus to push SDF integration and Kurdish rights

Nechirvan Barzani, president of Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdish region, led a high-level delegation to Damascus and met Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa at the People’s Palace in what the article describes as the first visit by a Kurdish leader to Syria since the fall of ousted President Bashar al-Assad. The talks focused on strengthening bilateral relations and regional cooperation, with a central emphasis on the future status of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and their integration into Syrian state institutions. Officials discussed mechanisms to entrench Kurdish constitutional rights — including language rights and administrative autonomy — and the implementation of Decree No. 13, with Syria expressing interest in the Kurdistan Region’s experience in Kurdish-language education and teacher training.

The visit follows months of stepped-up diplomacy between Erbil and Damascus, and builds on earlier meetings between Barzani and al-Sharaa at the Antalya Diplomacy Forum in April 2025 and April 2026. Barzani’s itinerary also includes meetings with SDF commanders and Kurdish MPs in Syria; the engagement is driven by security imperatives for Erbil — a long shared border, large numbers of Syrian refugees in the Kurdistan Region, and the risk of an ISIL resurgence — as well as efforts to reopen diplomatic ties such as a Syrian consulate in Erbil. The talks come amid ongoing clashes in northeastern Syria and aim to balance integration of the SDF with guarantees for Kurdish political and cultural rights, with broader implications for Erbil’s relations with Baghdad and Ankara, as reported by Al Jazeera

This story has also been reported by: Al-Monitor, SANA