ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Washington is arming and supporting militia groups fighting for Kurdish autonomy in northern Syria for its own geopolitical aims, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.
“Obviously, the United States has some strategy, which, I think, is geared to keep its military presence in Syria forever,” Russia’s top diplomat told Euronews on Friday, ahead of his appearance at the Munich Security Conference.
“They [the US] seem to be seeking to alienate a vast part of Syrian territory from the rest of the country in violation of Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” he said. “They are forming quasi-local authorities in a bid to establish a Kurd-based autonomy there.”
Lavrov said such a strategy could destabilize other countries in the region, like Turkey and Iran, which have large Kurdish populations.
“It is very dangerous to play the Kurdish card [while] keeping in mind only [their] own geopolitical designs in one part of this region, which the United States is currently demonstrating,” Lavrov said.
“It may entail big problems in a number of other countries with Kurdish populations, which are facing the Kurdish problem.”
“It is necessary to think how to ensure equal right for Kurds in the present-day national borders rather than try to disturb this region, as our Western colleagues have been doing throughout the entire last century,” Lavrov added.
Ankara considers America’s Kurdish allies, the People’s Protection Units (YPG), to be a branch of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a named terrorist organization. The Kurdish force denies the charge.
Turkey’s military incursion, known as Operation Olive Branch, into the Kurdish canton of Afrin in northwestern Syria, which began on January 20, was the predictable result of the US arming Kurdish militias in northern Syria, Lavrov argued.
“Turkey has repeatedly said it would do its utmost to prevent the Kurds from taking control of the border between Syria and Turkey,” he said.
“Despite that, the Americans have been arming, I would say, heavily arming, Kurdish units totally ignoring Turkey’s position. From the very beginning of their activities in Syria, the Americans have been staking on Kurds and turning a deaf ear to Turkey’s protests.”
Speaking at a security panel in Munich on Saturday, US President Donald Trump’s national security advisor H.R. McMaster laid the same accusation at the door of Tehran, accusing the Iranian government of sponsoring armed groups and terrorists to further its own interests.
“I think it’s useful for us to take a step back and to see what Iran is doing in the region,” said McMaster.
“What Iran is actually doing is applying the Hezbollah model to the greater Middle East, in which they want weak governments in power. They want the Arab world to be perpetually weak, and have weak governments in power that are dependent on Iran for support, while they grow terrorist organizations, militias, and other illegal armed groups that are outside of that government's control that can be turned against that government, if that government acts against Iranian interests,” he said.
“We see that this is the case in Syria where they are building a large proxy army with a large cadre of the IRGC. We see this in Iraq where they have grown these Paramilitary Forces (PMFs) and want to keep them there as a Hizbollah type force and we've seen it in Yemen. What's particularly concerning is that this network of proxies is becoming more and more capable as Iran cedes more and more capable, more and more destructive weapons into these networks.”
McMaster told the panel it is time for the international community to act against Iran and its proxies. He called on Tehran’s major sponsors, particularly Russia and China, but also Japan, South Korea, and Germany, to suspend their relations with Iran.
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