Syria appoints ex-SDF commander Mazloum Abdi as presidential adviser

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa has appointed Mazloum Abdi, the former commander of the now-dissolved Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, as a presidential adviser. The appointment was announced on Thursday through Decree No. 164, according to the Syrian state news agency. It comes three days after Abdi said the force had been dissolved and integrated into the Syrian military.

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Abdi is the most senior of several Kurdish figures to be given posts in the state apparatus. Another commander was named assistant defence minister for the eastern region earlier this year. The advisory role is lower in rank than a proposal made in January, when al-Sharaa suggested Abdi could become deputy defence minister and governor of Hasakah province.

The move follows months of efforts to bring the SDF under central government control. Al-Sharaa and Abdi first agreed in March 2025 to fold the force into the central government, but the arrangement made little progress before its year-end deadline. Fighting later broke out in the northeast in January, when state forces took Raqqa and Deir Az Zor from the SDF before a ceasefire ended the clashes.

That ceasefire placed Raqqa, Deir Az Zor and Hasakah under central government control and committed the SDF to join the defence and interior ministries under a 14-point plan. The SDF had been the largest armed force still outside the Syrian army, so its dissolution marks a significant step in Damascus's effort to reassert authority over most of the country. The development also matters because it affects the balance between the central government and Kurdish-led institutions in the northeast.

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Reunifying the country has been one of al-Sharaa's central promises since Bashar al-Assad was overthrown in December 2024. The broader political track has also included limited recognition of Kurdish rights. In January, al-Sharaa issued a decree recognising Kurdish as a national language and restoring citizenship to Syrian Kurds, which was described as the first formal recognition of Kurdish rights since Syria's independence in 1946.

The YPJ, the SDF's women's units, has not yet been absorbed, after asking to join the defence ministry and being told the army has no units for women. What remains unclear is how quickly the announced integration will be implemented in practice and whether all SDF-linked structures will be absorbed on the same terms. It is also not yet clear how the remaining Kurdish armed units will be handled or what further appointments may follow.

The next stage will be whether the central government can turn the latest decree into lasting administrative and security control in the northeast.

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