The Save the Kurds Act was introduced on Thursday, a day before an integration deal was reached, seeking to restore sanctions on Syrian government officials and financial institutions in response to the Sharaa regime’s attacks on Kurdish communities.
The act also seeks to redesignate Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. Headed by Ahmed al-Sharaa, a former wanted terrorist who is also known by the name Abu Mohammad al-Julani, the new HTS regime has launched attacks on the previously autonomous Kurdish community, citing a desire for centralized control. The formerly US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, responsible for battling the Islamic State in Syria, refused to disband for weeks, leading to weeks of armed conflict. On Friday, the regime and SDF agreed to integrate as part of a new ceasefire deal hailed by US Special Envoy Tom Barrack as a “historic” deal.
While its supporters have celebrated the move as ending a brutal conflict, violations in past ceasefires, the regime’s history of attacking minorities and dissent within the Kurdish group, has led experts to take a more cautious stance on the deal. The recent fighting against the SDF was only the latest instance of sectarian violence against minority groups in the country. Earlier instances saw Druze massacred in southern Syria, where supplies remain restricted and hostages unreturned, and Alawites killed in the Latakia province.
The snapback mechanisms suggested by the act would allow sanctions to be quickly reimposed when and if the regime continues its assaults.
After weeks of complaints by Kurdish and human rights groups on the atrocities being committed against civilians and combatants, US Senators Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut) introduced the Save the Kurds Act.
The region’s stability
The congressmen noted that there was evidence of Turkish involvement in the attacks on the Kurdish force. Turkey views a number of Kurdish groups, including the SDF, as terrorist organizations and has been known to carry out cross-border strikes on Kurdish groups.
The continued attacks against the Kurds threaten the region’s stability, the safety of US troops and the newfound support the Trump administration has given to the regime, the act puts. The instability, which also saw members of the Islamic State released from SDF-guarded prisons, also risks allowing the terror group to resurge.
“I believe that there is strong bipartisan support for the idea of protecting the Kurds in Syria and beyond because they have been such a reliable ally to the United States. The SDF – with a large Kurdish element – took the brunt of the fight to defeat ISIS in President Trump’s first term. I realize Syria is complicated culturally, ethnically and politically. However, attacking the Kurds greatly diminishes the United States’ standing and will hinder Syria’s ability to grow as a country. To those countries or groups who believe it is open season on the Kurds in Syria without consequence, you will be sadly mistaken,” said Graham.
“I believe we need to protect the Kurds in Syria and take action to ensure they are protected from any retribution or revenge by the Syrian government,” said Blumenthal.
Dr. Yerevan Saeed, Director of Global Kurdish Initiative for Peace at America University in Washington, told The Jerusalem Post that the act was a “very good insurance policy for the Kurds” as there was little trust or acceptance of the Sharaa regime.
“if it is not going to be passed, I think that is going to send a very wrong signal to Damascus that it can do whatever it wants,” he said, adding that the act would likely motivate the Sharaa regime to abide by the terms of the agreement.
Even with the integration of Kurds into the Syrian Arab Army, Saeed noted there were double standards at play which could threaten any future sense of stability. “Syria wants everyone to be vetted… the irony is the Kurds who have been fighting extremists and Islamists for the last 10 years are now been vetted by the same Islamists. The Syrian army is really not an army, but it's just installation of various extremist group that are aligned with Damascus,” he shared.
Saeed added he believed that the SDF had agreed to the ceasefire to wait out the instability until there is a new constitution. Through agreeing to integrate, the Kurdish forces can remain armed while taking a pause from fighting after more than a decade of civil war.
Still, he warned that the coming weeks would likely be “shaky” as the Kurdish people will struggle to accept Damascus’s governance and give up its freedoms to the same Islamists they fought against.
“I'm not very hopeful in terms of a permanent ceasefire,” he admitted, though added the new policy would give the Kurds a more concrete reason to trust the Sharaa regime to act in accordance with the agreement and international law.
“The bill has very good bipartisan in Congress, probably one of the silver line of what is happening to the Kurds. The Kurds have really good friends in the Congress,” he added, hopeful the bill would pass. “They recognize and appreciate what the Kurds have done in Syria and also in Iraq, because the Kurds paid was their lives… [and] have lost about 25,000 fighters in the fight against ISIS.”
Similar thoughts were shared by US-based Kurdish analyst and journalist Mutlu Civiroglu, who shared that the Kurds would continue to fight in the highly unstable region until they reach “self-determination.”
Civiroglu said that it was clear the Kurdish people had “overwhelming support from Congress,” despite comments from Trump officials claiming that the need for an alliance with the ethnic minority was no longer necessary.
Additionally, the introduced act “reinforces the fact that the US is not abandoning its allies,” encouraging minorities to trust that Washington will work to ensure human rights and dignities are respected, and authorities held accountable for threatening regional stability, he added.
The Sharaa regime held accountable
While the West may accept the new Damascus government out of a feeling of “fatigue with Syria,” Civiroglu said the bill is a rare example of the Sharaa regime being held accountable for "human rights violations, war crimes, throwing people's bodies from buildings, mutilating their bodies, executing them in front of a camera.”
“In this in this moment when the US policy shows that Kurds are being sidelined, the [US special] envoy, Tom Barrack, said there no longer a need for SDF,” the act makes clear “Congress is not thinking similarly,” he said, speaking on the bipartisan support for the Kurds and their sacrifice in the battle to weaken the Islamic State.
“The emphasis of the bill is that the Kurdish people are the allies of the American people, and it is just against American values to abandon their allies,” he continued. “That's the message that Congress is trying to send, and that's a bipartisan effort both parties are supporting, which is very meaningful in a divided, polarized society like the US.”
While Sharaa has repackaged himself from Islamist to Western ally, Civiroglu said the act reinforced that “it is not easy” and requires actions that demonstrate tolerant values, not just a suit.
Particularly critical of Barrack, Civiroglu claimed there was a wide consensus that his decision to sever ties with the Kurds was a sign he was representing the interests of Turkey more than the United States.