ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - A US congressional delegation on Saturday met separately with top Kurdish leaders, including Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani and Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) chief Mazloum Abdi, to discuss regional peace efforts.

The group that met Nechirvan Barzani included US Senator Lindsay Graham, who lobbied heavily on behalf of the Kurdish cause during recent turmoil in Rojava (northeast Syria).

“I am pleased to meet my friend, Senator Lindsay Graham and his congressional delegation," Barzani said in a post on X on Saturday, adding, "I’m grateful for the role of the US Congress in supporting peace and stability in our region."

"The situation in Syria and the Kurds in that country was another topic of the meeting, in which President Nechirvan Barzani and the US congressional delegation stressed the protection of the rights of the Kurds and communities," read a Kurdistan Region Presidency statement on the matter.

The US senator emerged as a key backer of Kurdish rights when Syrian state forces launched a military campaign against the Kurdish-led administration in Rojava (northeast Syria) in January, introducing the Save the Kurds Act to the US legislature that threatened severe sanctions on Damascus and the redesignation of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) as a terrorist organization.

"To those countries or groups who believe it is open season on the Kurds in Syria without consequence, you will be sadly mistaken," Graham wrote on X at the time.

Following the reaching of an agreement between the SDF and the Damascus government that sets in motion a phased integration process of the Kurdish-led forces into Syrian state institutions, a tenuous journey of merging the two administrations has begun.

SDF chief Abdi and the foreign relations co-chair of the Rojava administration Elham Ahmed attended meetings at the Munich Security Conference alongside Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani, with the delegation meeting US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday.

“We just had talks with the US Secretary of State also present. Generally, it was positive, we discussed the ongoing integration process and the Kurdish issue and the future of Syria,” Abdi told reporters in Munich.

Syrian state media on Saturday shared a video of Abdi, Ahmed, and Shaibani meeting with a congressional delegation led by Senator Jeanne Shaheen.

"During the meeting, they discussed the latest developments in Syria and the region, emphasizing the importance of preserving Syria's unity, sovereignty, and territorial integrity, as well as the political process to achieve security and stability," the state-owned SANA reported.