In a conference held by the Atlantic Council on Wednesday, Syria’s President Ahmad al-Sharaa underlined that the Syrian government has a strong relationship with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).

“We have very good relations with the KRG. We have good economic relations, security relations, and we have good relations with President Masoud Barzani and Nechirvan [Barzani],” he said. 

“I believe that we are still in the beginning of this relationship, and we can build on that for the future. I believe we communicated with each other during the [conflict with] the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), and the KRG had their input in order to help Syria with the integration of the SDF into the Syrian state.”

Furthermore, President al-Sharaa also commented on Syria’s Presidential Decree No. 13 of 2026, issued in January, which recognizes the Kurdish people as “an indigenous and fundamental component of the Syrian people.”

“Kurds are part of the Syrian society, and they are living in the state. After the agreement that we reached with them, now the state is in control of almost the entirety of Syrian territories, especially the areas that were under the control of the SDF,” President al-Sharaa said after the integration agreement was reached with the SDF on January 29.

“I believe that before this integration, we issued a decree because this is a duty, and it is a right for the Kurds who are living in Syria to recognize their cultural and linguistic rights.”

He underlined that in Kurdish inhabited areas, Kurds are going to learn the Kurdish language. “This decree was received very well, because after 100 years Kurds have had their rights recognized.”