Syria’s Al Sharaa brings the SDF’s Mazloum Abdi inside the tent, ending a year of stalled talks

Syrian President Ahmed Al Sharaa appointed the former commander of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) as a presidential adviser days after the militant group was declared dissolved. The move put an end to the lingering question of whether the SDF would integrate into the new regime, following a series of stalled talks and occasional skirmishes between the regime’s forces and the SDF.

IN CONTEXT- For over a decade, Mazloum Abdi led the SDF, which held control and governance of parts of northern and eastern Syria after playing a critical role in defeating the Islamic State alongside a US-led coalition. The formal dissolution announced last week follows the de facto integration of the Kurdish People's Protection Units (which formed ​the core ​of the ⁠SDF) within state forces, with its commander, Sipan Hamo, appointed in ​March as deputy defence minister for the country's eastern ​territories.

What’s next on integration? Al Sharaa now faces the challenge of resolving the issue of Druze armed groups in southern Syria — an area that saw major violent events last year that left some 1.7k Syrians killed, according to a UN investigation which implicated Syrian government forces, tribal fighters and Druze armed groups. The Druze have been wary of the new government’s Jihadist background, and Israel has been using the minority’s concerns to drive a further wedge with the new Syrian government. In a UN Security Council meeting in June, the special envoy for Syria indicated that “there has been no progress on the implementation of the September 2025 roadmap of confidence-building and reintegration in Suwayda.”

Another integration, but this one is in banking

Visa and Mastercard have formally activated international card payments in Syria for the first time in 15 years. Mastercard indicated that QNB Syria processed the first PoS transaction at an eligible local merchant using an internationally issued Mastercard card following the technical reconnection of Syria’s payments ecosystem to Mastercard’s global network. Visa issued a similar statement announcing its first live transaction in collaboration with Paymera, Fransabank Lebanon, and other partners.

Why this matters: Visa and Mastercard connectivity to the Syrian market showcases that Syria is on the right track when it comes to connectivity to the global banking system — a signal that many investors who are adopting a wait-and-see approach before committing to Syria are watching. The formal activation is also important for the recovery of key consumer-facing sectors in Syria, such as tourism, where travelers typically need to be able to pay with international cards.

Lebanon lays the plumbing for depositor repayment

Lebanon’s central bank wants to know exactly who is owed what, and by whom: Banque du Liban has ordered commercial banks to build a centralized registry mapping every depositor, and every account across the system, Lebanese daily L’Orient Le Jour reports. Under the decision, each depositor gets a single unified ID recognized across institutions, letting the central bank consolidate accounts held by the same person at different banks and in different currencies. BDL says the registry will establish “the actual number of depositors and the volume of their total deposits,” and calculate “the actual cost of the gradual repayment process” envisioned under the draft Financial Stabilization and Deposit Recovery law — the financial gap law the cabinet approved in December 2025 but still stuck in parliament.

The registry would decide the arithmetic of the USD 80 bn loss-sharing exercise between the state, BDL, and the banks. Current proposals cap recoveries at USD 100k per depositor, with the remainder converted into long-term securities, with the cap to be applied per person, not per account or per bank. That means anyone holding deposits across multiple institutions gets one USD 100k refund, which shrinks the total bill BDL and the banks have to fund.