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
Syrians, EU officials hold meeting in Damascus
- Al-Shibani added that Saturday’s meetings represent “a solid partnership with the civil society and our partners in the EU”
DAMASCUS: Representatives of Syria’s civil society held open discussions in Damascus in the presence of officials from the EU and the government.
They touched on sensitive topics, including sectarian tensions and ethnic divisions.
The EU-organized meetings known as “The Day of Dialogue” are the first to be held in Damascus after taking place in past years Brussels.
Saturday’s meetings came nearly a year after the fall of the 54-year Assad family rule in Syria in early December.
The meetings that used to take place within the framework of the Brussels Conferences were mostly boycotted by then-President Bashar Assad’s government.
The EU said Saturday’s meetings were organized in cooperation with Syrian civil society and the Syrian authorities.
“The meeting that used to be held to talk about Syria is now being held in Syria,” Syria’s Foreign Minister Asaad Al-Shibani said in a speech at the opening session held at a conference center in the southern outskirts of Damascus.
Al-Shibani added that Saturday’s meetings represent “a solid partnership with the civil society and our partners in the EU.”
Michael Ohnmacht, chargé d’affaires of the EU delegation to Syria, said 500 people from Syria’s different religious and ethnic groups took part in the meetings and “this is something very positive.”
“This is what we hope for Syria’s future, to see this inclusive state which will be a state in the form of all its citizens,” Ohnmacht said.
Social Affairs Minister Hind Kabawat said: “Today’s dialogue is the beginning of change, and rebuilding Syria only happens through partnership based on respect between the state and civil society.”
During one of the sessions on transitional justice and the fate of the missing, Syrians demanded answers on issues still pending, such as more than 130,000 people who went missing under Assad’s rule, while an ethnic Kurd spoke about state discrimination they have faced for decades.
Mazen Darwish, a Syrian lawyer and one of the country’s most prominent activists who was repeatedly jailed in Syria before he went into exile years ago, said no one regrets the fall of the Assad family rule.
“Today we have an opportunity in Syria and we have to take advantage of it,” Darwish said.
