QAMISHLI: Syria’s foreign minister and a senior official in the country’s Kurdish administration have met in Damascus, sources from both sides told AFP on Tuesday, days after the government boycotted talks in France.
Damascus had said it would not participate in the Paris talks after the Kurds hosted a meeting last week involving Syria’s Druze and Alawite minority communities, which have been subjected to sectarian violence in recent months.
The event called for a decentralized state — a move repeatedly rejected by Syria’s new authorities — and was effectively the first meeting to bring together representatives of several communities opposed to the approach and vision of governance of Syria’s new authorities.
Elham Ahmad, a senior official in the Kurdish administration in Syria’s northeast, met Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Al-Shaibani “on Monday evening upon the request of the Damascus government,” a Kurdish official told AFP, requesting anonymity.
A Syrian government source, also requesting anonymity, confirmed to AFP that the Damascus meeting took place, without providing further details.
The Kurds and Damascus have been holding talks on the implementation of a March 10 deal between Mazloum Abdi, head of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), and President Ahmed Al-Sharaa on integrating the Kurds’ semi-autonomous civil and military institutions into the state.
Implementation has been held up by differences between the two parties.
Monday’s talks sought to affirm “the continuation of the negotiating process via intra-Syrian committees under international supervision,” the Kurdish official said, adding that the sides agreed “there was no place for a military option.”
“Discussions focused on finding an appropriate formula for decentralization, without specifying a timeframe,” the Kurdish official added.
Late last month, Syria, France and the United States said they agreed to convene talks in Paris “as soon as possible” on implementing the March 10 agreement.
Abdi said in a televised interview in July that the Paris meeting was set to discuss the mechanism for integrating his forces, which he said numbered around 100,000 personnel, into the country’s defense ministry.
Several rounds of talks have been held but the process has largely stalled, with Kurdish officials criticizing a constitutional declaration announced by the new authorities, saying it failed to reflect Syria’s diversity.
Syria, Kurdish officials meet after Paris talks canned
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Syria, Kurdish officials meet after Paris talks canned
- Damascus had said it would not participate in the Paris talks after the Kurds hosted a meeting last week involving Syria’s Druze and Alawite minority communities
- The Kurds and Damascus have been holding talks on the implementation of a March 10 deal to integrate the Kurds’ semi-autonomous civil and military institutions
Syria’s growth accelerates as sanctions ease, refugees return
- Economy grows much faster than World Bank’s 1% estimate, fueling plans for currency’s relaunch
NEW YORK: Syria’s economy is growing much faster than the World Bank’s 1 percent estimate for 2025 as refugees flow back after the end of a 14-year civil war, fueling plans for the relaunch of the country’s currency and efforts to build a new Middle East financial hub, central bank Governor AbdulKader Husrieh has said.
Speaking via video link at a conference in New York, Husrieh also said he welcomed a deal with Visa to establish digital payment systems and added that the country is working with the International Monetary Fund to develop methods to accurately measure economic data to reflect the resurgence.
The Syrian central bank chief, who is helping guide the war-torn country’s reintegration into the global economy after the fall of Bashar Assad’s regime about a year ago, described the repeal of many US sanctions against Syria as “a miracle.”
The US Treasury on Nov. 10 announced a 180-day extension of the suspension of the so-called Caesar sanctions against Syria; lifting them entirely requires approval by the US Congress.
Husrieh said that based on discussions with US lawmakers, he expects the sanctions to be repealed by the end of 2025, ending “the last episode of the sanctions.”
“Once this happens, this will give comfort to our potential correspondent banks about dealing with Syria,” he said.
Husrieh also said that Syria was working to revamp regulations aimed at combating money laundering and the financing of terrorism, which he said would provide further assurances to international lenders.
Syria’s central bank has recently organized workshops with banks from the US, Turkiye, Jordan and Australia to discuss due diligence in reviewing transactions, he added.
Husrieh said that Syria is preparing to launch a new currency in eight note denominations and confirmed plans to remove two zeroes from them in a bid to restore confidence in the battered pound.
“The new currency will be a signal and symbol for this financial liberation,” Husrieh said. “We are glad that we are working with Visa and Mastercard,” Husrieh said.
