The Kurdish-held border town of Kobani [9] in northern Syria is under siege again, as it was by ISIS [10] in 2014—but this time by forces of the Syrian central government, which has cut off water and power to the town in the dead of winter, with snow on the ground. Since the start of the year, the Kurdish forces in northeastern Syria have lost almost all of the territory they controlled to a new offensive by the central government. Kobani with Hasakah and Qamishli [11] are the last besieged strongholds of the reduced Rojava autonomous zone [12]. And both the US and Russia, which have backed the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Froces (SDF [12]) against ISIS, now appear to be cutting them loose—effetcively green-lighting the government offensive against them. The US special envoy for Syria, Tom Barrack [12], has already warned that US support for the SDF is coming to an end. And in the midst of the offensive, Russia has withdrawn its forces from Qamishli, its principal military outpost in Rojava.
This development came to light this week as Syrian interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa was on his second trip to Moscow to meet with Vladimir Purin. As during his last one in October [14], the chief issue on the table was Russia maintaining its two major military bases in Syria, on the Mediterranean coast at Khmeimim and Tartous.
Speaking at a press conference before their meeting on Jan. 28, al-Sharaa thanked Putin for the "historic" role Russia has played in the "stability of the region"... a strange euphemism for the years of savage bombardment [15] of Syria to keep al-Sharaa's own rebel froces from taking power! Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, for his part, said before the meeting that "the presence of our soldiers in Syria" would be discussed. (PRI [16], Al Jazeera [17], NYT [18])
Abdulkarim Omar [19], a senior Syrian Kurdish official, told The Telegraph [20] in Qamilshi as the Russians withdrew that Moscow had sacrificed its outpost in Rojava in order to a secure a continued presence on the government-controlled coast. "Russia wants to retain its base on the Mediterranean," he said.
In some tnetative good news, Damascus and the SDF agreed Jan. 30 to a "permanent ceasefire" that would see Kurdish-led forces and institutions gradually integrated into the structures of the interim government. The speed and completeness of this integration has been the critical factor at issue between the two sides, and has led to ceasefires repeatedly breaking down over the past weeks. In welcoming his latest deal, SDF commander-in-chief Mazloum Abdi [11] said: "There was a threat of genocide against our people." (Rudaw [21], Rudaw [22])
