QAMISHLI, Syria: Kurdish-led authorities held local elections on Friday in areas they control in northern Syria, pushing ahead with autonomy plans opposed by both the regime of President Bashar Assad and by Turkey.
Kurdish forces and their political allies now hold the largest part of Syria outside the grip of Assad’s regime. They have captured vast territory from Daesh with the support of US arms, jets and ground advisers, although Washington opposes their autonomy drive.
Kurdish leaders say their goal is to establish self-rule within Syria, not secession. But their influence has infuriated Ankara, which considers the Kurdish YPG militia to be an offshoot of the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) that has run a decades-long insurgency in Turkey.
Assad has vowed to recover every inch of the country, as his territorial grip expanded rapidly over the past two years with help from Russia and Iran. Damascus has more forcefully asserted its claim to territory held by Kurdish-led forces in recent months.
The head of Syria’s delegation to UN-backed peace talks in Geneva, Bashar Al-Jaafari, rejected the election, repudiating “any unilateral act that happens without coordination” with Damascus.
Since Syria’s conflict began more than six years ago, the dominant Kurdish parties have been left out of international diplomacy in line with Turkish wishes. They were excluded again from UN-led peace talks which reconvened in Geneva this week.
Hadiya Yousef, a senior Kurdish politician, said the Kurdish-led administration would not be bound by decisions taken in its absence.
“We are not present in these meetings, and therefore we are developing the solution on the ground,” Yousef told Reuters. Peace talks would not “arrive at solutions” so long as they do not involve those running 30 percent of the country, she added.
Voters are picking from close to 6,000 candidates for town and city councils on Friday, the second part of a three-stage process that will culminate in electing a Parliament early next year. They chose representatives for smaller-scale district councils in September.
“Everyone should take part (in the election) because this is the fate of the entire region,” said Sheikhmous Qamishlo, a 65-year-old Syrian Kurd at a polling station in Qamishli.
“This is a new experience, we wish it success,” he said, and described casting his vote as a “national duty.”
The election was being monitored by a small group of politicians from other countries in the Middle East, Yousef said, including a member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party which runs the autonomous Kurdish region in neighboring Iraq.
Yousef said the Iraqi Kurdish official’s presence was “a kind of recognition” of the Syrian Kurdish political project. The Iraqi Kurdish authorities, whose own plans for independence were met with a swift backlash from states in the region in the past two months, have previously been hostile to the Syrian Kurdish parties.
Syrian Kurds hold local elections, press on with autonomy plans
Syrian Kurds hold local elections, press on with autonomy plans
Iran says can fight intense war for months
- Iran’s security chief accuses Trump administration of seeking to replicate a scenario similar to Venezuela
- Analysts warn there is still no clear path to ending a conflict that could last a month or longer
TEHRAN: Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said Sunday that the country’s forces could fight an intense war for six months against the United States and Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to press on with the war against Iran “with all our force,” with a plan to eradicate the country’s leadership after joint US-Israeli raids killed supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei last week, sparking the regional conflict.
Despite the threat, the Revolutionary Guards said Sunday that the Islamic republic’s forces could wage an “intense war” for six months at the current speed of fighting.
Guards spokesman Ali Mohammad Naini said Iran had so far used “first and second generation” missiles, but will use “advanced and less-used long-range missiles” in the coming days.
‘Trapped’
The widening reach of the war and Iran’s ability to inflict damage and harm were underscored by US President Donald Trump attending the return of six American service members killed in a drone strike on a US base in Kuwait last Sunday.
Iran’s security chief Ali Larijani accused the Trump administration of seeking to replicate a scenario similar to Venezuela where it ousted leader Nicolas Maduro.
“Their perception was that it would be like Venezuela — they would strike, take control and it would be over — but now they are trapped,” he said in a pre-recorded interview broadcast on state TV on Saturday.
Iran’s hardline judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei also warned Middle East neighbors which are “openly and covertly at the disposal of the enemy” that “the heavy attacks on these targets will continue.”
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Sunday that Tehran “will be forced to respond” if a neighboring country were to be used as a launchpad for any attack or invasion attempt.
Tehran had vowed to go after US assets in the region, and Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait on Sunday all reported new attacks.
No clear way out
Analysts warn there is still no clear path to ending a conflict that US and Israeli officials say could last a month or longer.
Trump has suggested Iran’s economy could be rebuilt if a leader “acceptable” to Washington replaces the late supreme leader, which Tehran has rejected.
China and Russia have largely stayed on the sidelines despite close ties with Tehran.
China’s top diplomat Wang Yi said on Sunday that the war in the Middle East should “never have happened.”
“This is a war that should never have happened,” he told a press conference in Beijing, adding that “a strong fist does not mean strong reason. The world cannot return to the law of the jungle.”
