ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Syrian interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa agreed to form an official committee tasked with ensuring the return of IDPs from Afrin and Sari Kani to their cities of origin, an official from the Kurdish-led internal security forces (Asayish) said on Sunday following a meeting with the president.

On Saturday, Sharaa held a meeting with a delegation of the Kurdish community on the occasion of Newroz and Eid al-Fitr that saw discussions regarding the implementation of a January 29 integration agreement with the Rojava (northeast Syria) administration.

One of the key provisions of the agreement is the return of IDPs, particularly those in Afrin and Sari Kani, to their residences following the exile of hundreds of thousands of individuals after the occupation of Turkish forces and their backed proxies in 2018.

The talks discussed “in depth” the situation of the displaced individuals, where Sharaa “agreed to form an official committee tasked with ensuring their return to their cities and villages,” Rojava Asayish commander Mahmoud Khalil Ali, also known as Siyamand Afrin, wrote on X.

Earlier in March, the first batch of 400 displaced families returned to Afrin, which the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Council (SDC) described as a “positive step,” but noted that the move does not rule out the need for a broader solution to ensure the return of all original inhabitants under a legal framework.

The SDC stressed that resolving the Afrin issue requires ending all Turkish and Ankara-backed military presence and “removing all traces of the occupation.”

Kurds in Afrin continue to face ethnic discrimination eight years after the occupation of the symbolic city, with Kurdish residents celebrating the Kurdish New Year of Newroz on Saturday subjected to physical assault, and Kurdish flags confiscated and burned.

Following the 2018 offensive, residents fled to Aleppo’s Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafiyeh neighborhoods, where they were once again subjected to hardship and displacement after attacks by factions affiliated with Damascus in early January, forcing them to relocate multiple times before reaching areas then held by the SDF.