{"id":28075,"date":"2019-01-04T22:22:47","date_gmt":"2019-01-04T22:22:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=28075"},"modified":"2019-01-04T22:22:47","modified_gmt":"2019-01-04T22:22:47","slug":"syrian-kurdish-leaders-seek-russian-mediated-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=28075","title":{"rendered":"Syrian Kurdish leaders seek Russian-mediated deal"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nQAMISHLI, SYRIA: Syrian Kurdish leaders aim to secure a Russian-mediated political deal with the Bashar Assad regime regardless of US plans to withdraw from their region, a senior Kurdish official told Reuters.<\/p>\n

\nThe Kurdish-led administration that runs much of northern Syria presented a road map for an agreement with Assad during recent meetings in Russia and are awaiting Moscow\u2019s response, Badran Jia Kurd\u00a0 said.<\/p>\n

\nIf such a deal could be agreed, it would piece back together the two biggest chunks of a country splintered by eight years of war and leave one corner of the northwest in the hands of anti-Assad opposition backed by Turkey.<\/p>\n

\nThe talks with Russia and new overtures toward Damascus underline a recalibration of Kurdish strategy since President Donald Trump announced his decision to withdraw US forces whose presence has stabilized the Kurdish-led region.<\/p>\n

\n\"\"Their immediate priority is to find a way to shield the region from Turkey, which views the Kurdish YPG militia as a national security threat.<\/p>\n

\nTurkey has already sent its army into Syria twice to roll back the YPG. But it has held off attacking the large Kurdish-controlled area of the northeast where US forces operate. Trump, who has not set out a withdrawal timetable, said on Wednesday the US would leave slowly \u201cover a period of time.\u201d He also said the US wanted to protect Kurds, who have been vital to the US campaign against Daesh.<\/p>\n

\nJia Kurd welcomed the idea of a slow withdrawal but said the United States had not discussed the pullout with its Syrian allies who were caught off guard by Trump\u2019s announcement.<\/p>\n

\nTo fill the expected vacuum, they want Russia to help secure a Syrian army deployment at the northern border. This is part of a wider effort to strike a deal with Damascus they hope will also safeguard their regional autonomy. Jia Kurd said Russia had agreed to mediate.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThe final decision is (to reach an) agreement with Damascus; we will work in this direction regardless of the cost, even if the Americans object,\u201d Jia Kurd said in the northern Syrian city of Qamishli.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cOur view is that (Russia) is trying to open new horizons with Damascus; this is what we sensed from them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nDamascus and the YPG have mostly avoided confrontation during the war. At times, they have even fought common foes.<\/p>\n

\nThey convened political talks last year in Damascus, but these broke down without progress. Jia Kurd said the need for Damascus to enter serious dialogue was now more pressing.<\/p>\n

\nThe main aims of the road map are to protect the border from Turkey, to find a way to integrate the governing structures of northern Syria into the constitution, and to ensure a fair distribution of resources in northern and eastern Syria.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThe ball is in the court of Russia and Damascus,\u201d Jia Kurd said. \u201cOn this basis we can negotiate and start a dialogue.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nOne of the biggest challenges will be reconciling the regional autonomy demands with Assad\u2019s goal of exercising authority over the whole country again.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nThe Syrian foreign minister recently said a federal Syria was unacceptable.<\/p>\n

\nJia Kurd said \u201cconservative\u201d elements in Damascus wanted to ignore political changes and to \u201cimpose their control and influence\u201d through the kind of agreements forced on areas where anti-Assad rebels had been defeated.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThis is rejected by us,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\nThe Kurds\u2019 bargaining chips include control of dams on the Euphrates River, oil fields and other resources. Jia Kurd said these would be one main element of the dialogue.<\/p>\n

\nAnalysts however say their bargaining position has been weakened by Trump\u2019s announcement, which heightened Kurdish fears of a Turkish offensive.<\/p>\n

\nTurkey views the YPG militia as an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers\u2019 Party (PKK), which has waved a 34-year insurgency in Turkey.<\/p>\n

\nAnalysts believe Assad and the YPG could eventually work together against Turkey-backed rebels in northwestern Syria.<\/p>\n

\nJia Kurd said ending the Turkish occupation and defeating the remaining insurgents there required an agreement between Damascus and the Kurdish-led administration:<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThis will give a big push towards ending the occupation and terrorism in Syria.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

QAMISHLI, SYRIA: Syrian Kurdish leaders aim to secure a Russian-mediated political deal with the Bashar Assad regime regardless of US plans to withdraw from their region, a senior Kurdish official told Reuters. The Kurdish-led administration that runs much of northern Syria presented a road map for an agreement with Assad during recent meetings in Russia…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":28076,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28075"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28075\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/28076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}