What Happened A delegation from the Syrian Democratic Council (SDC) — the political wing of the U.S.-allied Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which controls much of Syria's north — traveled to Damascus on July 27 to discuss electricity infrastructure. And the SDC's Arab co-chair Riad Darar hinted that talks could widen to include political and security matters as well. The delegation came at the invitation of the Syrian government and, according to the SDC, there were no preconditions for meeting. While the SDC did not say the talks were the deliberate start of negotiations over the future of northern Syria, Darar said that it was time to "solve our problems ourselves" — a hint at how his group views its future with the United States .