Fighting has returned to northeast Syria. Government forces are again pushing to take control of areas still held by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). A temporary truce is now in place, but after more than a year of talks, Damascus and the SDF have failed to reach a real agreement on how these areas should be governed or protected.

The SDF is a Kurdish-led force that became a key U.S. partner in the fight against ISIS. That partnership once gave Kurdish leaders influence and a sense that greater self-rule inside Syria might be possible. Today, the political ground has shifted. And not in the Kurds’ favor.