ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on Sunday said that armed groups affiliated with the Syrian government attacked their forces in Deir ez-Zor’s countryside, claiming that the group was aiding smugglers along the Euphrates River.

“This morning at approximately 9:00 a.m., armed groups affiliated with the Damascus government launched a direct attack on our forces positioned along the Euphrates River near al-Asharah Bridge in the town of Darnaj, Deir ez-Zor’s eastern countryside,” read a statement published by the SDF Media Center.

The statement asserted that the attack “occurred as Damascus-affiliated armed groups facilitated the river crossing of smuggling groups.”

The SDF accused the Damascus government of backing the attack, as well as enabling smuggling operations in the area.

“We emphasize the full responsibility of the Damascus government for this aggression and for providing cover to smuggling operations that undermine regional stability,” the statement added.

Following months of negotiations, Syria's Interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa and SDF chief Mazloum Abdi signed an agreement on March 10 to integrate the Kurdish-led forces and institutions in northeast Syria into the Syrian state.

The agreement has not come to fruition yet, with clashes frequently occurring between armed groups affiliated with the two sides in recent weeks. Both parties have accused the other of being the instigator.

Layla Qaraman, co-chair of the SDF’s political wing the Syrian Democratic Council (SDC), delivered a speech on Sunday stating that the rise of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) to the position of authority in Syria “revealed the fragility of this authority and its failure to meet political, security, military, and constitutional obligations.”

She went on to accuse the Syrian authorities of issuing “a deficient constitutional declaration dominated by presidential powers,” and forming “a transitional government distant from the people's concerns, which deepened Syrian disappointments.”

Sharaa signed Syria’s draft Constitutional Declaration on March 13, three months after toppling the Assad regime. The document was drafted based on the Syrian National Dialogue Conference held in late February, which was slammed by Kurdish authorities for their “token representation.”

Shortly after the declaration, the SDC announced its “complete rejection” of the document, describing it as “tyranny in a new form.”

Qaraman urged Damascus to learn from the experience of the Kurdish-led Autonomous Administration in North and East Syria (AANES) “which proved the ability of participatory democracy and decentralization to secure stability.”

In August, representatives of the Kurdish, Arab, Syriac, Assyrian, Turkmen, Armenian, and Circassian communities gathered for a “unity conference” organized by AANES in the city of Hasaka, during which they called for a decentralized state. The Syrian government slammed the conference a day later, saying the event violated previous agreements, and announced that Damascus will accordingly not participate in any future negotiations with the Kurdish authorities.

In late April, Kurdish factions held 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.

Reporting by Hevi Karam