(Qamichli) The Kurdish autonomous administration which controls vast territories in Syria has renewed its desire to dialogue with the power of Bashar al-Assad, at a time when Damascus is bringing about a rapprochement with several Arab countries.
“ We confirm our readiness to meet the Syrian government and to dialogue with it and with all the Syrian parties in order to […] find a solution to the Syrian crisis ”, affirmed the Kurdish administration in a press release received on Wednesday. AFP.
Kurdish forces have established an autonomous administration in large areas of northern and northeastern Syria which they seized in the wake of the war in Syria, sparked in 2011 by the suppression of a popular uprising.
Damascus rejects this administration, taxing the Syrian Kurds as “separatists”, and considers the deployment of American forces in the areas they control as an “occupation” of Syrian territory.
The United States, at the head of an anti-jihadist coalition, is the Kurdish administration’s partner in the fight against the Islamic State (IS) group which it territorially defeated in its last Syrian stronghold in 2019.
In an interview in March, Mr. Assad said that “any party or individual working on behalf of a foreign power is a traitor”.
Since 2018, the Kurdish administration has engaged in several rounds of talks with Damascus which have not been successful.
In her press release, she affirmed her support for “ the unity of Syrian territories ”, while stressing the importance of a “ decentralized ” system.
Notably, it also called for an “equitable” distribution of wealth and economic resources between Syrian regions, including oil and gas deposits, most of which are located in the territories it controls.
The Syrian Kurds are afraid of losing the gains they have made since 2011 and also fear a rapprochement between Damascus and Ankara, which considers Kurdish forces to be “ terrorists ”.
This press release comes after the first visit of the head of Saudi diplomacy to Damascus since 2011 to establish normalization between his country and Syria, a great ally of Iran, with which Saudi Arabia got closer in early April.
On this occasion, Syria and Saudi Arabia discussed “the efforts to reach a political solution to the Syrian crisis”.
