{"id":23758,"date":"2026-02-14T06:47:04","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T04:47:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jhb-webdevelopers\/channelafrica\/news\/risk-of-missteps-hangs-over-us-backed-ceasefire-deal-in-northeast-syria\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T16:34:31","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T14:34:31","slug":"risk-of-missteps-hangs-over-us-backed-ceasefire-deal-in-northeast-syria","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/risk-of-missteps-hangs-over-us-backed-ceasefire-deal-in-northeast-syria\/","title":{"rendered":"Risk of missteps hangs over US-backed ceasefire deal in northeast Syria"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The progress of the deal tests the ability of Syria&#8217;s new leaders to stabilise a nation fractured by 14 years of war, following several bouts of violence pitting it against minority groups who are suspicious of the Islamist-led government.<\/p>\n<p>The struggle for Syria&#8217;s northeast has brought the biggest shift in control since former leader Bashar al-Assad was ousted in December 2024. After months of deadlock, Damascus seized swathes of territory from the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) before agreeing to the plan that foresees its remaining enclave being integrated into the state.\u00a0Preliminary steps have gone smoothly since the January 29 agreement: small contingents of government forces have deployed into two Kurdish-run cities, fighters have withdrawn from frontlines, and Damascus on Friday announced the appointment of a regional governor nominated by the Kurds.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":23759,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[26],"class_list":["post-23758","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"A United States (US)-backed ceasefire agreement in northeastern Syria leaves thorny questions unresolved, as Kurds seek to retain some authority despite a much weakened hand following the rapid advance of central government forces","published_date":"2026-02-14 00:00:00","news_description":"A United States (US)-backed ceasefire agreement in northeastern Syria leaves thorny questions unresolved, as Kurds seek to retain some authority despite a much weakened hand following the rapid advance of central government forces","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/23758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/23758\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26632,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/23758\/revisions\/26632"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=23758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}