ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa on Friday said that there is a slowdown in implementing the March 10 agreement between Damascus and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), while reiterating that Syria will not give up on “a single inch” of its territory.

In an interview with Syria’s state-run broadcaster Al Ikhbariya, the Syrian president pointed out that while the negotiations between Damascus and the SDF proceeded well initially, “there appears to be some kind of obstruction or slowdown in implementing the agreement.”

“The agreement with the SDF was set to expire at the end of the year, and we were aiming to have its provisions implemented by the end of next December,” said Sharaa.

The Kurdish-led Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES), with the SDF acting as its de facto army, has managed northeast Syria’s internal affairs since 2018. After months of deliberation and negotiations, Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa and SDF chief Mazloum Abdi signed an agreement on March 10 to officially integrate the Kurdish-led forces and all other institutions in northeast Syria into the Syrian state institutions.

However, despite the agreement, the integration of the SDF into Damascus' ranks has not taken place, with the SDF and Syrian state forces having engaged in minor skirmishes in recent months that have likely hampered the feasibility of the March 10 resolution's implementation at this juncture.

Syria’s Kurdish factions have eyed a decentralized mode of governance, whereby they can retain a degree of the autonomy they have achieved in recent years, a proposal firmly rejected by the Damascus government.

A conference earlier in August brought together the different components, including Kurds, Arabs, Syriacs, Assyrians, Turkmens, Armenians, and Circassians, in the city of Hasakah and saw the representatives call for a decentralized state. A Syrian government official slammed the results of the conference a day later, saying the event violated previous agreements.

In late April, meanwhile, Kurdish factions gathered for a Kurdish Unity Conference that saw the endorsement of a 26-article declaration calling for a decentralized Syria and the unification of Kurdish regions within a federal framework.

Sharaa, however, claimed that Arabs comprise more than 70 percent of the population of northeastern Syria and that the SDF does not represent the views of all Syrian Kurds.

“Ultimately, Syria will not give up a single inch of its territory. This is an oath we made before the people: We must protect all Syrian territory and unite Syria,” Sharaa told Al Ikhbariya, adding that if northeast Syria secedes, it will negatively impact Turkey and Iraq, going as far as to say that Northern Ireland and Catalonia in Spain might also think about seceding as well.

“Even Kurdistan of Iraq, despite all the support it has and international ties, when it thought of division, that failed,” the Syrian president further noted, alluding to an independence referendum held by the Kurdistan Region in Iraq in 2017 that saw an overwhelming 93 percent of the population voting in favor of secession.

Tensions between Damascus and the Kurdish-led forces have escalated in recent times, with the two sides having engaged in several altercations in recent weeks, with both parties accusing the other of being the instigator.