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The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) are reportedly working to establish a joint operations room in order to coordinate efforts against ISIS in Deir Ezzor and Raqqa provinces.
The Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar claim claimed that the operations room has already started its work and that the results of this joint work would appear within two weeks’ tops. Al-Akhbar added that the creation of the joint operations room will be officially announced by the two parties soon.
According to the report, the so-called “Turkish threat” in northern Syria was the main reason behind the decision to boost the coordination between the two parties.
Turkey allegedly plans to launch a military operation against Kurdish militias in the Afrin area. These Kurdish militias are a core of the SDF and now it looks that they seek protection from the “Assad regime”.
Another reason is the tense situation in the US garrison at At Tanf, near the border with Iraq. The SDF has refused to transfer Al-Nukhbah Forces to the At Tanf base, and the Free Syrian Army (FSA) has refused to transfer its forces to the SDF-held areas and work with it.
Pro-government sources claimed that the joint operations room that include the SAA and the Manbij Military Council [Arab SDF faction] is currently being prepared in Al-Aryima area near Manbij. It’s still unknown if this is the operations room reported by Al-Akhbar.
If the joint operations room between the SDF and the SAA is officially established, it would be an important step in boostiing cooperation between the two sides.
Since the end of the battle of Aleppo, the SDF has decreased a level of the cooperation with the Syrian government and the SAA. Furthermore, a month ago, several SDF officials began to approach Saudi Arabia’s stance on the conflict. They attacked Iran and denied any coordination with the SAA. These statements were reflected on the ground, where SDF killed 4 Syrian soldiers just week ago.
