Syria-SDF ceasefire hangs in balance after renewed clashes, faltering talks 

Tensions between the Syrian government and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have been escalating, days after they announced a ceasefire, which is being severely tested by renewed fighting, involving the withdrawal of the latter’s forces from areas west of the Euphrates River.

Talks in Damascus between Syria’s President Ahmed al-Sharaa and SDF leader Mazloum Abdi, also known as Mazloum Kobani, have faltered, with the latter returning to the northeast.

Contention and a blame game have surrounded the issues of ISIL (ISIS) prisoners who escaped from al-Shaddadi prison during the fighting between the army and the SDF. Syria’s Ministry of Interior said on Tuesday that 130 of 200 ISIL escapees had been recaptured.

The ministry accused the SDF of releasing ISIL fighters from the prison in the northeastern city of al-Shaddadi as a form of “political and security blackmail”. The army said it deliberately bypassed al‑Shaddadi prison in line with an agreement that the SDF would later hand control of the facility to authorities in Damascus.

The SDF has blamed the Syrian army for the prison break, saying it “lost control” of the jail after an attack by tribal fighters affiliated with the army.

SDF commander Fawza Youssef on Tuesday blamed the al-Sharaa government for failing to uphold the deal.

“There is no political will on the part of the government to implement a ceasefire,” he told Al Jazeera. “If the violations and attacks continue, the SDF cannot be disarmed.”

The agreement reached on Sunday between al-Sharaa and Abdi stipulates the withdrawal of the SDF from Raqqa and Deir Az Zor, parts of which are east of the Euphrates, within a month.

A spokesperson for Syria’s Interior Ministry claimed the SDF was “trying to deflect blame” as it faced internal divisions.

“We prefer peaceful solutions, but all options are open,” the spokesperson told Al Jazeera.

The deal included the SDF’s withdrawal from the area around the al-Aqtan prison. As it appeared on the verge of collapse, Al Jazeera correspondents on Tuesday reported that the Syrian army had begun artillery shelling around the prison and the SDF’s 17th Division headquarters in Raqqa.

Local sources in Hasakah province in the northeast of the country said the army reached the Panorama intersection, located at the southern entrance to the city.

The Interior Ministry confirmed its readiness to take over the management and security of ISIL prisons in Hasakah in accordance with international standards.

Information Minister Hamza Mustafa said the army secured the city of al-Shaddadi in the Hasakah countryside after taking control of the prison located there.

Taking control of ISIL prisons

The SDF, the United States-backed force that fought ISIL in Syria, controls more than a dozen prisons in the northeast, where some 9,000 ISIL members have been held for years without trial.

While al-Sharaa’s government has pledged to reunify Syria after nearly 14 years of ruinous civil war, the SDF has repeatedly underlined al-Sharaa’s previous affiliation with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), formerly a part of al-Qaeda.

In a statement on Monday, the SDF referred to the government as “ISIS sympathizers, whose actions are directed and orchestrated by the Turkish state”, and pledged to respond in a similar manner to the battle to capture Kobane in 2014.

“Today we reaffirm that the will of the people is stronger than all forms of aggression and occupation,” the statement said.

The Syrian government responded to the statement, rejecting “any attempt to use the issue of terrorism as a tool for political or security blackmail”.

“The insistence on linking the actions of law enforcement and the restoration of state legitimacy with the danger of activating terrorist cells constitutes a blatant attempt to distort the facts and fuel the conflict in order to maintain an authority that was imposed by force of arms,” it said in a statement.

“The Syrian government warns the SDF leadership against taking any reckless steps that would facilitate the escape of ISIS detainees or open prisons for them as a retaliatory measure or as a political pressure tactic.”

Al Jazeera’s Zein Basravi, reporting from Aleppo, said the army accused the SDF of releasing the detainees, while the SDF said their escape was due to their forces being overwhelmed by attacks.

A video that emerged overnight also alleged to show the execution of female Kurdish fighters. The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Council (SDC), the political wing of the SDF, released a statement saying that such conduct was a “reproduction of terrorism and poses a direct threat to regional and international security.”

Basravi said both sides were revering back to familiar language and using violence to settle the scores in places of Syria that had been hoping for a return to peace after the ceasefire was reached.

Al-Sharaa’s offer to Abdi

Five hours of talks between al-Sharaa and Abdi on Monday aimed at salvaging the ceasefire deal ended without agreement, sources told Al Jazeera.

The president offered to appoint Abdi to the post of deputy defence minister and nominate him to be governor of Hasakah in exchange for the deployment of Syrian internal security forces to the city.

The offer also included the removal of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) members from the territory. Turkiye sees the SDF as the Syrian branch of the PKK, an organisation that it has been at war with since 1984 and that it considers a “terrorist” group.

Abdi asked for five days for consultations, a request al-Sharaa rejected. The president gave the SDF leader until the end of Tuesday to accept the offer, warning that failure to do so would trigger military action and the collapse of the ceasefire deal.

Al-Sharaa on Monday held a phone call with US President Donald Trump, in which the two stressed the importance of preserving Syria’s territorial unity and independence and underlined the need to guarantee the rights and protection of the Kurdish people.

Al Jazeera’s Ayman Oghanna, reporting from Damascus, said the US was in a “unique position to end this crisis” as it holds close ties to both the SDF and Damascus.

Washington trained and equipped the SDF and maintains around 900 troops in SDF-controlled areas. Trump also removed al-Sharaa from the global “terrorist” sanctions list and welcomed him to the White House in November for unprecedented talks with a Syrian leader in the US capital.

Oghanna said SDF members were worried about Washington’s growing ties with Damascus and feared that fighting may force the US to pick a side.