Why did the ceasefire fail and what about ISIS detainees?

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00:00Nasser is with us here on set. Wassim, just bring us up to date. First of all, what's the latest you're hearing on this?

00:05Well, actually, as you said, the deal collapsed, but actually what was signed in Damascus by the Syrian president, Ahmad al-Sharah,

00:13and Masloum Abdi, the head of the Syrian Democratic Forces, was more of a mechanism to implement what was already

00:19dealed on the 10th of March, 2025. And actually what made it collapse is that whenever it is signed

00:27in Damascus, there is sometimes reluctant elements inside of the Syrian Democratic Forces, meaning

00:32core PKK forces or YPG forces, who don't want for this agreement to work out. We're going to see a map

00:38to see how the things evolute on the ground on the last 48 hours. What we see in yellow was the

00:45territory held by the Syrian Democratic Forces. And what we see in light green is what actually

00:50was taken back by the Syrian government. And what explains this with a little bit with very

00:56much little fighting, actually, what explains this is the Arab factor. Because in the ranks

01:02of the Syrian Democratic Forces, 80 percent of the fighters are Arabs from those regions.

01:08So those people, when they saw that Assad fell a year ago, and there's a new government in

01:12Damascus. Well, actually, their interest is with Damascus, and not with the Kurdish, Kurdish

01:18rebellion. So they switch sides. We saw it in Aleppo, we saw it in Darhafir, we saw it in

01:22Taqqa, Raqqa, and all this area of the resort. So we are talking about an area which is 99% Arab,

01:30which explains the fast collapse, and a little bit, a little, the little fighting that occurred.

01:36As we speak, we are not yet, we do not witness yet fighting in Kurdish majority or Kurdish,

01:44real Kurdish presence areas, which we still see here in yellow. And to talk about the agreement,

01:49actually, we saw that the oil fields were taken back by Damascus, borders were taken back by

01:55Damascus, and even water dams were taken back by Damascus. Those were, like, really conflicting

01:59issues between Damascus and the Syrian Democratic Forces. So the last thing, which still, the last

02:05card in the hands of the Syrian Democratic Forces are what we see in the map, in Al-Hol,

02:10in Aroj, in prison facilities, where ISIS prisoners and their families are still being detained by the

02:16Syrian Democratic Forces. Yeah, I mean, that map really putting it into perspective how much fighting

02:19there's been over the last few days. There's also, amid that fighting, hasn't there been reports of a

02:24jailbreak where some ISIS soldiers were able to escape? What's the latest you've heard about that?

02:29Well, actually, yes, there was those reports regarding Shaddadi, regarding the prison of Shaddadi.

02:36As we speak, Syrian government took back the prison. There was mutual accusations of liberating

02:42Syrian ISIS detainees. But actually, we have to remember that the conflict between Ahmad al-Shara

02:48and the Islamic State goes back to 2013. So I don't think that his men will liberate the ISIS fighters,

02:55which are actually threatening his own rule. What we see here on the screen is actually the

03:01Kaptaan prison north of Raqqa. Those images are from this morning, actually, where there is still

03:06a standoff between Syrian government and Kurdish forces who still hold this prison. And on the contrary,

03:13what we see now here on the screen is actually the authorities of Damascus taking back the central

03:21prison of Raqqa without a fight, while talking with other Kurdish counterparts. And some of those

03:27counterparts, the guy that we see here, is actually not even Syrian, you see. So this happened peacefully,

03:34while in north of Raqqa, it happened after a fight. And at Shaddadi, there was actually a fight.

03:39But the U.S. is very careful about this. And we're going to see U.S. patrols in Hasakah. Last

03:44night, we have footage of this patrolling in Hasakah, actually, to make sure that no prisoners

03:50will escape, but also to secure the biggest prison facility in Hasakah, the camp of Guiran. Maybe we

03:56can see the footage of this. So actually, the card of ISIS is very important of ISIS prisoners,

04:02both for the Syrian Democratic Forces, because it's its last card, and for Damascus,

04:07because Damascus actually is walking the walk of the coalition, since it entered the coalition

04:12against ISIS. And it was signed between President Chara and President Trump in Washington weeks ago.

04:18Waseem, thanks very much. Waseem Nasser, France 94. Waseem Nasser here on France.

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