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Syria's new authorities struck a deal to integrate the Kurdish-led administration into state institutions, as they push to extend their authority across the country while offering recognition for the long-oppressed Kurds.
The deal comes at a critical moment for the government, after a wave of violence on the Syrian coast -- the worst since former president Bashar al-Assad was toppled in December -- saw over 1,000 civilians, the majority Alawites, killed according to a war monitor.
This is what we know about the new agreement and who may stand to benefit from it.
What does the deal say?
The deal was signed on Monday in Damascus by interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa and Mazloum Abdi, the head of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the de facto army of the Kurdish-led administration in north and northeast Syria.
Its key provisions include the "integration of all civil and military organisations in northeast Syria under the administration of the Syrian state".
That includes "border crossings, the airport and oil and gas fields," the deal says, in return for recognising Kurds as an "essential component of the Syrian state", guaranteeing the "right to citizenship and all... constitutional rights".
Syria's Kurds have long suffered marginalisation and repression under Assad rule, having been deprived of the right to speak their language and celebrate their holidays and, in many cases, of Syrian nationality.
The minority largely stayed out of the devastating 13-year civil war, taking advantage of Assad's weakness to form a de facto autonomous administration.
Though the text of the deal is sparing in detail, it appears to provide for the Kurds' key condition of maintaining their military formations.
The deal sets out a roadmap to implement its provisions by the end of this year and will seek to ensure "the rights of all Syrians to representation and participation in political life and all state institutions".
Abdi described the deal as a "historical opportunity", and celebrations broke out in the streets across various Syrian cities.
Under the deal, the Kurds vow to "support the Syrian state in countering the remnants of Assad's regime".
How does it serve the authorities?
The violence on the coast marks the most grave blow to Syria's transition following vows to protect the country's minorities.
Mutlu Civiroglu, a Washington-based analyst and expert on the Kurds, said Sharaa "recognises the necessity of engaging with the Kurds to strengthen his position".
He said the deal "allows him to present himself as a leader committed to ensuring all identities are represented in Syria's future".
The deal also allows the new authorities to consolidate power over a large geographical area that, according to Syria specialist Fabrice Balanche, includes 90 percent of Syria's oil fields and its bread basket.
The new Syrian army also gains a highly-organised and trained Kurdish contingent with whom they can coordinate over security challenges.
A source in the SDF said joint operations would be launched in the coming days in the Syrian desert to fight the Islamic State group.
The deal did not immediately clarify the fate of prisons under the Kurdish administration, in which thousands of IS fighters are held.
But Abdi said last month that Damascus wants to take control of those prisons.
What do the Kurds gain?
Since the new authorities seized power in Syria, the Kurdish administration has shown willingness to cooperate with them and to merge the SDF into the new army.
But during a national dialogue held last month in Damascus, the new authorities excluded the Kurds from the political process, under the pretext that they had not heeded Sharaa's call to lay down their weapons and dissolve.
Balanche told AFP that the "SDF will not merge with HTS of course", referring to the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham that spearheaded the offensive that ousted Assad under Sharaa's leadership.
Balanche nonetheless said that the SDF would "try to coordinate against" IS and "prevent any fighting" between the two groups.
The SDF was a key partner to the United States in the fight to eliminate IS in the country.
The deal, which was signed with US blessing according to a Kurdish source, recognises the role and identity of the Kurds, Syria's largest minority and the most organised militarily.
Civiroglu said the minority "can no longer be sidelined in shaping Syria's future".
The administration's growing sphere of influence during the war has placed them in confrontation with neighbouring Turkey and since 2016 they have suffered bloody attacks by Ankara-backed groups, resulting in waves of mass displacement.
The deal comes after Abdullah Ocalan, the jailed leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), last month called on his group to disband and end more than four decades of armed struggle against Turkey, a key ally to Syria's new authorities.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
