Untitled Agreement [between Suqur al-Sham Brigades and Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS)]
Country/entity
SyriaRegion
Middle East and North AfricaAgreement name
Untitled Agreement [between Suqur al-Sham Brigades and Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS)]Date
6 Jan 2014Agreement status
Multiparty signed/agreedInterim arrangement
YesAgreement/conflict level
Intrastate/local conflict ()Stage
Ceasefire/relatedConflict nature
Inter-groupPeace process
Syrian Local AgreementsParties
Suqur al-Sham Brigades [Hawks of Syria Brigade]
Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant [ISIS; ISIL]Third parties
-Description
Short ceasefire agreement and the agreement that no party to the agreement may support any other faction in the Levant that 'fights in the path of God'. Agreement also calls for the establishment of a Sharia court to help implementation.
Agreement document
Agreement document (original language)
Local agreement properties
Process type
Isolated exampleRationale
Local issues only, no external support mechanism, no culture of signing No formally-established mechanism supported the negotiation between the two Salafi armed groups. Moreover, this agreement cannot be linked to the national peace process. Indeed, both groups have a Salafist ideology; they oppose the rule of Bashar al-Assad in Syria and reject the idea of a national negotiation to solve the conflict. This agreement is one of its kind because ISIS accepts to dealing with a group that was once part of the Western-aligned FSA, which is a significant step.Is there a documented link to a national peace process?
NoLink to national process: articulated rationale
No link to the national peace process in Syria is mentioned in the agreement, neither it can be inferred from further research. First, the agreement does not involve local governance actors; and the signing parties themselves are not official state representative. Second, all parties to the agreement reject the national peace process, as it would maintain Bashar al-Assad and the Syrian government in power.Name of Locale
NANature Of Locale
RegionGPS Lat/Long (DD)
34.851288, 37.861475Participant type
Local armed group
International or transnational actorMediator, facilitator or similar
No mention of mediator or similar
Local issues
- Ritual/prayer and process (including use of scripture)Page 1, In the name of God, most Gracious, most Compassionate
Page 1, God says: “The believers are but brothers, so make settlement between your brothers [49:10].”
Following this reasoning, a peace agreement was made, and this is its beginning:
Page 1, No party, after signing this agreement, has the right to support any other faction in the Levant that fights in the path of God. - Grievance ListAlthough the agreement does not refer to specific causes of the conflict, it seems that the confrontation between Suqur al-Sham Brigades and Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant lies at the centre of the dispute.
- Cattle rustling/banditry
No specific mention.
- Social cover
No specific mention.
In the name of God, most Gracious, most Compassionate
Untitled Agreement [between Suqur al-Sham Brigades and Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS)]
God says:
“The believers are but brothers, so make settlement between your brothers [49:10].”
Following this reasoning, a peace agreement was made, and this is its beginning:
We, the Suqour al-Sham Brigades and its leader Abu ‘Isa al-Sheikh, and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi agreed to:
Stop the fighting between them immediately and each party will not attack the other in any way.
No party, after signing this agreement, has the right to support any other faction in the Levant that fights in the path of God.
Moreover, if any of the parties attack the other one, a joint court of Sharia will be established between them to settle any disputes.
06/01/2014
[2 signatories]