ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Kurdish administration in northeast Syria (Rojava) on Tuesday censured the National Dialogue Conference in Damascus as “closer to exclusion and marginalization” than the aspirations of the Syrian people.
The Democratic Autonomous Administration in North and East Syria (DAANES) stated that the conference meetings did not include “the true representatives of the people” and did not take into consideration the diversity of these components.
Hundreds of Syrians gathered in Damascus on Tuesday to participate in the conference pledged by Syria’s interim President, Ahmed al-Sharaa, in late January as a prelude to holding free and fair elections, establishing an inclusive government and drafting the country’s constitution.
In its final declaration at the end of Tuesday’s conference, the conference’s preparatory committee announced that the attendees had agreed to accelerate “the declaration of a temporary constitution for the transitional period” and “the establishment of a temporary legislature.”
The final declaration also urged preserving Syria’s unity, rejecting “any type of fragmentation and division” of its territories and “confining weapons to the state” and “considering outlaw, any armed formations outside state institutions.” It further called for “establishing a capable national army.”
The attendees of the National Dialogue Conference also urged lifting the international sanctions imposed on Syria which they said have turned into a direct “burden on the Syria people,” adding “to their suffering and hindering Syria’s reconstruction.” Of note, observers have urged the international community to link any easing of sanctions to concrete benchmarks, including Damascus’s commitment to an inclusive political process.
The EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and European Commission Vice President, Kaja Kallas, told Rudaw on Monday that “any [new] government formed [in Syria] must be inclusive, encompassing the [country’s] various [ethnic and religious] groups.” She warned that if things “do not head in the right direction, we are ready to reimpose the waivered sanctions.”
Despite the recommendations at the end of the National Dialogue Conference, the DAANES slammed the event as being “far from dialogue and national reconciliation,” and its meetings as “nothing but a manifestation of the policies that the Syrian people struggled to abolish.”
Of note, the Kurdish National Council (ENKS/KNC) in mid-February censured the “exclusion” of Kurds from the National Dialogue Conference preparatory committee as “raising legitimate concerns about how the Syrian constituencies are being treated” and whether they are truly regarded as “real partners” in shaping Syria’s future.
Some ENKS members were invited to the conference as individuals but declined to attend, stating that they would only participate if invited as representatives of the umbrella group.
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