Violent clashes between the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) continue in northeast Syria amid multi-sided negotiations for the future control of the strategic region and the nature of the new Syrian state.

Eight SNA fighters were killed and eight SDF fighters wounded in clashes near the Tishreen Dam, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported on 20 January, bringing the death toll from fighting between the two groups to 440 people since December.

The SDF is backed by US troops occupying northeast Syria, home to the country’s major oil fields and grain-producing regions.

The SNA and SDF have been fighting at the dam and nearby city of Manbij since Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), led by Ahmad al-Sharaa (Abu Mohammad al-Julani), took control of the Syrian state on 8 December, toppling the government of former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.

HTS militants representing the new government in Damascus appear ready to join the conflict on the side of the SNA. Syria TV reported on Monday that a military convoy of HTS militants has arrived on the frontlines near the Tishreen Dam area.

Amid the fighting, three sets of negotiations are taking place: between the US, SDF, and HTS, between Turkiye and HTS, and between the SDF and HTS, according to Reuters, citing sources from all parties.

In an effort to bring northeast Syria under state control, HTS officials are demanding that the SDF, viewed as an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), lay down their weapons and join a new Syrian army as individuals.

SDF commander Mazloum Abdi has stated his group is willing to integrate into the Defense Ministry, but as “a military bloc” and without dissolving.

But Syria’s new Defense Minister, Murhaf Abu Qasra, said on 19 January that HTS rejected the SDF proposal.

The HTS government is also demanding that Druze armed groups in Suweida in southern Syria give up their arms and join the new army. However, the Druze have refused the request, citing the need to protect their community until a permanent government is formed.

The Druze in Suwayda and elsewhere in Syria were the victims of several massacres by HTS (formerly known as the Nusra Front) and its fellow Al-Qaeda spin-off, ISIS, during the US-backed covert war on Syria that began in 2011.