According to Kurdpress, Mazloum Abdi (Kobani), the commander-in-chief of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), started his European trip from Italy on Wednesday; According to knowledgeable sources, the trip will also include the Netherlands and France, and the main focus of that trip will be the discussion about the process of integrating the Kurdish military and civilian institutions with the Damascus government, the fight against Daesh, and attracting political and economic support from northeastern Syria.

According to Al-Monitor, in Paris, Abdi is likely to meet with French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrow and also hopes to meet with French President Emmanuel Macron. However, knowledgeable sources say that the US government does not agree with holding such a meeting before Macron's possible trip to Damascus next month.

According to these sources, Washington is worried that the meeting between Macron and Abdi will be seen by Syrian President Ahmed al-Shora as putting the SDF commander on an equal footing with the Syrian president; An action that can affect the fragile relations between Damascus and the Kurds.

Sources close to the SDF have confirmed that Abdi's meeting with the French foreign minister will likely take place in Paris on Thursday or Friday. Baro and Abdi had previously met in Erbil last February, and Abdi also had a conversation with Macron on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference in the same month.

In the past years, France has been one of the most important political supporters of the Syrian Kurds. While participating in the international anti-ISIS coalition, Paris has also deployed forces in northeastern Syria, and Emmanuel Macron has repeatedly supported cooperation with Kurdish forces. However, the French president has also tried to expand his relations with the new Syrian government after the inauguration of Ahmed al-Shora and is expected to visit Damascus in the coming months.

According to this report, in his meetings with European officials, Abdi will discuss the progress of negotiations on the integration of Kurdish security and administrative structures in the Syrian government, the future of anti-ISIS cooperation, and the economic needs of the regions under the control of the autonomous administration.

This trip takes place in a situation where the SDF has lost most of the areas under its control after the large-scale clashes in January, and also, with the official end of the US ground forces' presence in northeastern Syria in April, it has lost one of its most important security supports.

Mazloum Abdi's European trip takes place only one day after his meeting in Erbil with Tom Barak, the US President's special envoy for Syria and Iraq. In this meeting, Nechirvan Barzani, head of Kurdistan Region of Iraq, was also present. According to this publication, Barzani and Barak have played an important role in advancing the ceasefire agreement as well as reviewing the framework of the integration of the Syrian Democratic Forces and other Kurdish institutions with the Damascus government, and France has been one of the mediators of this process.