QAMISHLI: Syria’s Kurdish authorities said Thursday they were delaying controversial municipal elections which prompted threats from arch-foe Turkiye and concerns from their main ally the United States.
The elections, originally scheduled for June 11 and now postponed “until at least August,” would be the first to extend to all seven regions under the semi-autonomous region’s control, home to both Arabs and Kurds, since Syria’s fragmentation during its civil war.
The elections commission said they delayed the vote “in response to requests from political parties and alliances” who complained the campaign period was too short.
Local officials and candidates insist the elections are crucial for local representation and will help improve public services in the region.
But their detractors have accused them of separatism and monopolizing power or voiced concerns that the conditions for fair and free elections are nonexistent in Syria’s Kurdish-held northeast.
Around 18 parties, including the ruling Democratic Union Party (PYD), as well as independents are expected to run in the vote, PYD co-chair Saleh Muslim told AFP.
He said the elections had been delayed for “internal” reasons, but added “perhaps the elections commission also took the political circumstances into account.”
Syria’s Kurds, who have suffered decades of marginalization and oppression by Syria’s ruling Baath party, have come to rule about a quarter of Syria, including Arab majority areas, after government forces withdrew.
The armed wing of the PYD is the powerful People’s Protection Units (YPG) that dominates the Syrian Democratic Forces — the region’s de facto army.
The Kurdish-led forces spearheaded the fight to dislodge the Daesh group from its last Syrian territorial bastion in 2019 with American support.
But Turkiye views the PYD and YPG as offshoots of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which it has outlawed as a “terrorist” group.
Ankara, which controls two border strips in Syria’s north, views the upcoming polls as evidence of separatism.
Since 2016, Turkiye has carried out successive ground operations to expel Kurdish forces from border areas of northern Syria, with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatening to launch a new operation to prevent the election from taking place.
He described the vote as an “aggressive action against the territorial integrity” of Ankara and Damascus “under the pretext of an election.”
On Thursday, Turkish state television TRT welcomed the decision to delay the vote, adding “Turkiye’s position has borne fruit.”
The Kurdish polls have also drawn the ire of their main backer Washington, which counts Turkiye as a key NATO ally.
“Any elections that occur in Syria should be free, fair, transparent, and inclusive,” said US State Department spokesman Vedant Patel in a statement last week.
“We don’t think that the conditions for such elections are in place in NE Syria,” he said, adding the US had urged local authorities “not to proceed with elections.”
Syria’s Kurds delay controversial local elections
https://arab.news/wfprk
Syria’s Kurds delay controversial local elections
- The elections commission said they delayed the vote “in response to requests from political parties and alliances” who complained the campaign period was too short
Western medics say Israel is denying access to Gaza over their views
- In December, 37 NGOs were told to cease all operations in Palestinian enclave
- UK Foreign Office: ‘Israel must immediately lift restrictions in line with international humanitarian law’
LONDON: Medics in the UK and US say Israel has denied them entry into Gaza, The Guardian reported on Tuesday.
Israel is required under international law to allow entry to the Palestinian enclave for humanitarian aid, but medics have told The Guardian that they believe they have been barred for speaking out about the situation there.
James Smith, an emergency doctor from the UK, said: “I can only assume that it was elements of my public profile, because I’m otherwise a white, middle-class, British man with no Palestinian heritage, no criminal convictions.”
He added: “Not just had I spoken to media outlets but I had spoken in a particular way.”
Smith, who was working with the group Medical Aid for Palestinians, said among Israel’s guidelines for allowing NGOs and other staff to enter Gaza are clauses on calling for or participating in boycotts of the country. “It’s the expression of my politics that must have rattled them,” he added.
Consultant surgeon Khaled Dawas, who traveled to Gaza in 2024, told The Guardian that political views of individuals must be the reason for Israel barring access to Gaza.
“I can’t think of anything else,” he said after he was denied access in August and November last year. “I’m not military. I don’t carry anything. I’m no different to the colleagues who have gone in. The only difference is that they haven’t spoken up as much.”
Chicago-based emergency physician Thaer Ahmad said he was denied access to Gaza on four occasions. He believes that his Palestinian-American identity may have been part of the reason.
“This idea of weaponizing access and weaponizing aid, it’s engrained in all of the decisions that we see are being made in Gaza,” he said.
In August, the World Health Organization said the refusal rates for international medics trying to enter Gaza had risen by 50 percent in the previous six months.
In December, 37 NGOs were informed by Israel that they would need to cease all operations in Gaza despite the humanitarian situation in the enclave.
Among those barred is MAP, which said it had struggled to gain any access to Gaza since September, with no reason given by Israeli authorities.
MAP’s CEO Steve Cutts told The Guardian: “Israel’s deregistration of international NGOs and restrictions on medical personnel are part of a wider pattern of measures that are cruelly blocking humanitarian assistance and obstructing independent medical witnesses.”
Victoria Rose, a plastic surgeon from London who was denied entry in 2025, said: “They don’t want anyone going that knows the system, is useful, that is effective, that’s where it seems to be. I don’t necessarily think they’ve got a handle of what I’ve done or said.”
A petition recently filed in Israel’s Supreme Court on behalf of seven denied access requests into Gaza cited the case of British orthopaedic surgeon Graeme Groom, who said he was denied access to the enclave on three occasions since Oct. 7, 2023, without explanation.
“We think it may be because we are bearing witness to what is happening in Gaza,” he said. “Denying us entry is an extension of the policy which has excluded international journalists, and kills Palestinian journalists.”
A spokesperson for the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said: “Israel must immediately lift restrictions and allow food, medical supplies and fuel to reach those in desperate need, in line with international humanitarian law.”
