The withdrawal of thousands of US troops from Afghanistan has raised concerns among Iraqi and Syrian Kurds. They believe that the withdrawal of US forces, especially from northeastern Syria, will jeopardize the position of the Kurdish self-ruling administration, which has always been threatened by Turkey.

Mazloum Kobani, the Kurdish commander of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), is a Syrian Kurdish official who has close ties to US officials, especially the field commanders of the 900 US forces in Syria. He told the Washington Post that he hoped the United States would not withdraw its forces from Syria any time soon.

In this interview, Kobani described the withdrawal of US forces from the Kurdish-controlled areas of Syria in 2019 at the behest of former US President Donald Trump as a tragic event and its consequences "will continue forever."

The Washington Post quoted US officials as saying that Joe Biden's administration recently sent Assistant Secretary of State for Middle East Affairs Joey Hood and Chief of Staff Kenneth McKenzie to areas under the control of the Kurds to assure Kobani and other Kurdish self-government officials that the US would not pullout from the regions.

The US officials have said that the Biden administration has emphasized that cooperation between the United States and the Syrian Democratic Forces will continue and that US forces will not leave Syria any time soon.

Kobani announced in a meeting with the US officials that ties between the Syrian Kurds and Washington would boost under Biden and that he expects relative stability in northeastern Syria to continue if the Americans keep their word.

"We now feel that we have more military and political support from the United States than from previous administrations," Kobani told the Washington Post, adding that "officials from the US government have come here to tell us that there will be no change about Syria."

According to the Washington Post, US officials have found Mazloum Kobani a strong and credible commander, so the country and its coalition are expected to continue to support the Syrian Democratic Forces against the remaining ISIS cells.

Mazloum Kobani stressed the need for continued support for the prison guards and ongoing training by coalition members, noting that some 11,000 former ISIS fighters are guarded in Syrian Kurdish-controlled prisons who occasionally revolt.

"I know that the United States wants its forces to be here to fight terrorists, but they need to be here until the Syrian crisis is resolved, if this happens, a good future awaits all," said the Kurdish commander of the Syrian Democratic Forces.

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