Damascus in talks with SDF, SNA over ‘disputed’ areas: Minister
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The new Syrian government is holding talks with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and the Syrian National Army (SNA) over the status of “disputed” areas in the north where fierce fighting between both sides continues, a minister said on Sunday.
“We seek, through dialogue between the SDF and the [Syrian] National Army factions, to reach an agreement on the form of the new administration, especially in the disputed areas,” Agriculture Minister Mohammed al-Ahmed told Rudaw in Damascus.
Kurdish forces in northern Syria are under intensified attacks by Turkey and Turkish-backed SNA militants, who have taken the strategic towns of Tal Rifaat and Manbij since late November, at the same time the Islamist-led Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) was amid a blistering offensive that toppled Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
The clashes are especially intense near the crucial Tishreen Dam and Qere Qozaq bridge on the Euphrates River that leads to the symbolic Kurdish city of Kobane on the Turkish border.
Ahmed said that the recent escalation between the forces is “the result of the long war that Syria has faced and the injustices practiced by the Syrian regime, whether against the Arabs or Kurds.”
A new agreement with both sides will have to guarantee a single administration for all Syrian lands, Ahmed stressed, reiterating the new Damascus government’s opposition to federalism.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, reported on Sunday that more than 100 people were killed in SDF-SNA clashes in the past two days.
“We seek, through dialogue between the SDF and the [Syrian] National Army factions, to reach an agreement on the form of the new administration, especially in the disputed areas,” Agriculture Minister Mohammed al-Ahmed told Rudaw in Damascus.
Kurdish forces in northern Syria are under intensified attacks by Turkey and Turkish-backed SNA militants, who have taken the strategic towns of Tal Rifaat and Manbij since late November, at the same time the Islamist-led Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) was amid a blistering offensive that toppled Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
The clashes are especially intense near the crucial Tishreen Dam and Qere Qozaq bridge on the Euphrates River that leads to the symbolic Kurdish city of Kobane on the Turkish border.
Ahmed said that the recent escalation between the forces is “the result of the long war that Syria has faced and the injustices practiced by the Syrian regime, whether against the Arabs or Kurds.”
A new agreement with both sides will have to guarantee a single administration for all Syrian lands, Ahmed stressed, reiterating the new Damascus government’s opposition to federalism.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, reported on Sunday that more than 100 people were killed in SDF-SNA clashes in the past two days.