Syria’s President Ahmed al-Sharaa is set to meet Mazloum Abdi, the head of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), to consolidate a ceasefire after days of battles that saw the army and government-allied tribal forces sweep across the north of the country from Aleppo to Raqqa.

There have been renewed deadly clashes reported on Monday.

The key meeting, postponed from Sunday due to bad weather, follows a dramatic escalation that saw Syrian government forces retake large swathes of territory in the northeast, forcing the SDF to accept a truce and a wide-ranging agreement that brings Kurdish civilian and military authorities under central state control. Tensions remain high, with Kurdish-led forces reporting ongoing skirmishes with government forces on Monday.

On Sunday, Abdi, also known as Mazloum Kobani, announced his acceptance of the ceasefire declared and signed on camera by al-Sharaa, stating in a televised address that the conflict had been imposed on the SDF and planned by several parties. He said he would outline the terms of the agreement after returning from Damascus.

Reporting from Damascus, Al Jazeera’s Ayman Oghanna said the ceasefire agreement triggered an outpouring of public joy in the capital.

“Last night, after the deal was struck, there were huge celebrations in the street – there were fireworks, there were cars honking, there were people dancing in the streets,” Oghanna said.

He added that many expressed “a sense of relief and cautious joy, but some were sceptical” after weeks of deadly fighting.

That scepticism reflects fears that the ceasefire may not hold, Oghanna noted, in a country that was racked by a ruinous civil war for nearly 14 years.

The SDF warned that the skirmishes with government forces were a “highly dangerous development” that could “have serious security repercussions that threaten stability and pave the way for a return to chaos and terrorism”.

Credit: aljazeera.com