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By Tom O'Connor
Deputy Editor, National Security and Foreign Policy
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The cochair of the U.S.-backed faction in Syria's ongoing civil war has told Newsweek of its concerns over the actions and ideology of the victorious rebel factions who successfully overthrew the country's government in a lighting offensive.
The rapid insurgent campaign, led by the Islamist Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham and consisting of numerous other opposition groups including the Turkey-backed Syrian National Army, swept through key cities and ultimately took the capital Damascus on Saturday as longtime President Bashar al-Assad reportedly fled to Russia, which, along with Iran, had backed him in a conflict that first erupted in 2011.
With efforts underway to form a new government, however, battles continue between various militias and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a Kurdish-led group formed in 2015 to support a U.S.-led coalition's fight against the Islamic State militant group (ISIS).
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The SDF has clashed with Turkey-backed rebels throughout the war, and its political wing, the Syrian Democratic Council, is worried that Assad's downfall may not ultimately produce promised hopes for substantive change in Syria.
"First, we were very optimistic about the fall of Assad because he is a great opponent and he and his party have been in the heart of the Syrians for more than 50 years at least since his father's rule," Riad Darar, adviser to the presidency of the Syrian Democratic Council, told Newsweek.
"Therefore, this matter has caused many crises for the people and also because of the lack of freedom, which has greatly affected thinking on even the subjective nature of the people," he added, "and because of this the opposition force has so far only theoretical perceptions of change."
While Darar acknowledged that Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham had offered "positive signals" regarding its stated outlook of working with all elements of Syrian society, including the mostly Arab country's sizable Kurdish minority, he also felt "we cannot expect, as usual, Islamic movements to be democratic or just in the national sense in terms of the participation of all popular groups and components."
"Perhaps Islamic rule will come, which will affect the societal structure again, and the regime will become totalitarian again and affect the hopes and aspirations of the people or their optimism," he continued.
And despite repeated attempts to engage with the newly established Syrian Transitional Government, led by Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham surrogate Prime Minister Mohammed al-Bashir, Darar said the only response thus far has come in the form of battles with the former opposition.
"We still cannot say that hope exists because we see changes in the form of the interim government that is intended to be imposed on the Syrians before there is a meeting, national conference, or agreement on the form of the next government," Darar said.
"This is also in addition to the mentality that can govern within one vision and traditional stereotypical thinking that relies on the Islamic vision alone and not the national vision," he added.
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Prior to the dramatic shifts that began two weeks ago, the front lines of Syria's civil war had been effectively frozen since early 2020. The SDF has been in control of virtually a third of the country, known as the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, where U.S. troops are also present.
While the rebel offensive launched November 27 largely focused on areas of government control in cities such as Aleppo, Hama and Homs before entering Damascus virtually unopposed, Turkey-backed formations have also targeted SDF positions in northern and eastern Syria.
Darar said that the SDF-aligned Manbij Military Council have been actively thwarting an attempt by the Syrian National Army-affiliated Sultan Suleiman Shah Division, also known as Al-Amshat, to storm the northern city of Manbij. He accused Al-Amshat, as well as the Hamza Division, of being "mercenaries" who "are working under Turkish guidance, which wants to control the entire border line by penetrating Manbij all the way to Kobani, and perhaps beyond that."
Also on Tuesday, however, the Syrian Interim Government Defense Ministry announced that the Syrian National Army had successfully driven the SDF out of Manbij. The ministry had previously warned of a "dark fate" for both SDF fighters and former Syrian military soldiers that did not lay down their arms as the Syrian National Army entered the city.
In the east, the SDF's Deir Ezzor Military Council has fought with another former opposition group known as Ahrar al-Sharqiya, which Darar said has capitalized on local dissent against Kurdish rule to expand its control. He said that the SDF was currently negotiating its exit from Deir Ezzor, once a flashpoint of anti-ISIS operations and largely under government control before the collapse of the Syrian military over the past two weeks.
With clashes erupting across several key strategic axes, the situation puts the United States in a difficult position even as it celebrates the fall of Assad, with whom Washington cut ties at the beginning of the civil war.
The U.S. continues to extol support for the SDF while addressing the grievances of NATO ally Turkey, which considers the SDF to be an offshoot of the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). As is the case with ISIS, the U.S. considers both the PKK and the formerly Al-Qaeda-affiliated Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham to be terrorist organizations.
In October, the PKK claimed responsibility for a deadly attack against the headquarters of Turkish Aerospace Industries, drawing a new wave of Turkish strikes against the group's suspected positions in northern Syria and neighboring Iraq.
Speaking on the matter during a press call on Tuesday, White House National Security Council Communications Director John Kirby acknowledged that "the Turks have a legitimate counter terrorism threat that they do have a right to deal with."
"They do have a right to defend their citizens and their territory against terrorist attacks, and they have come under those kinds of terrorist attacks in the not-so-distant past," Kirby said. "So, we recognize they have that right, and they're an important NATO ally."
At the same time, he stated that the U.S. had interests "in going after ISIS, and that means partnering with the Syrian Democratic Forces, and that will continue, and where those two goals overlap or potentially conflict, we will have, and as we have, the appropriate conversations with the Turks about how both those outcomes can be achieved."
Kirby also noted how the U.S. has previously considered cross-border operations by the Turkish military to be "problematic because it does have that risk of pulling the SDF away from the counter-ISIS mission, which we don't want to see happen."
That same day, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) chief General Michael Kurilla visited U.S. and SDF positions in Syria to conduct an "assessment of force protection measures, the rapidly evolving situation, and ongoing efforts to prevent ISIS from exploiting the current situation."
Newsweek has reached out to the Pentagon, the Syrian Interim Government and the Turkish Embassy to the U.S. for comment.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed hope during a speech to his ruling party on Tuesday that "terrorist organizations" including both ISIS and the PKK "will be crushed as soon as possible."
"At a time when the Syrian people are so close to restoring their unity, integrity and brotherhood, we do not think that any power with reason and conscience will continue to work with terrorist organizations," Erdogan said. "Türkiye, with its political, diplomatic, economic and military capacity, will always stand by the Syrian people in their historic struggle."
"As we have always said, Syria belongs to Syrians with all its faith groups and ethnic segments," he added. "We sincerely hope and wish that the sufferings of the past will light the way to a peaceful, strong and prosperous Syria in the future."
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The SDF, meanwhile, claimed on Tuesday to have downed a Turkish TAI Aksungur combat drone near the northern border town of Al-Darbasiyah and to have repelled a large-scale militia attack south of the border city of Kobani.
Darar, for his part, said that the continued attacks, including reports of ongoing Turkish strikes near the northern town of Ain Issa, only offered a "bad impression" of what was to come under the new Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham transitional government, which he said was established "without consulting" other segments of Syrian society.
He said the Syrian Democratic Council would continue to strive for a "democratic solution, a decentralized, pluralistic way to build the Syrian state and for the Syrian constitution to be a constitution that accommodates all Syrians based on a contemporary, national vision that is neither religious, nor nationalist, nor sectarian."
And he counted on continued U.S. support in the face of the latest challenges that he viewed as being rooted in Turkish aims.
"We are suffering in the regions from this Turkish pressure, and our dependence on the American army is the dependence of a friend on a friend who preserves the sacrifices that we make," Darar said. "It was presented during the partnership and alliance against ISIS, but now there is an obsession with changing the region and its threat is greater than the threat of ISIS."
"Therefore," he added, "we definitely need the support of the American army, and consultation between the Syrian Democratic Council and this army present in the regions continues and we depend on it."
Update 12/20/2024 2:28 p.m. ET: This article has been updated to reflect Riad Darar's change in position from co-president to adviser to the presidency of the Syrian Democratic Council.
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