US strikes will force Assad to negotiating table, Kurdish opposition says

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — The US missile strikes on a government-controlled airfield in Syria will have a deterrent impact on the regime of President Bashar al-Assad and will force him to the negotiating table, says Ibrahim Biro, head of the Kurdish National Council (ENKS),  a coalition group not aligned with the ruling Democratic Union Party (PYD) in Syria’s Kurdistan, also known as Rojava.

Speaking to Rudaw TV Saturday, Biro showed support for Thursday’s US attacks on Al-Shayrat airbase in the Homs province from where Syrian aircrafts are believed to have carried out last week’s deadly chemical bombings on rebel-held areas. 

At least 87 people were killed and many others wounded last Tuesday in the town of Khan Sheikhoun in Idlib province who international monitoring groups, including US intelligence, believe were exposed to lethal chemical agents following the Syrian airstrikes. 

The US barrage of 59 Tomahawk missiles on the now defunct Al-Shayrat airfield was a response to the use of chemical airstrikes carried out by Syrian jet fighters, US President Donald Trump has said. 

“This was a message to the Syrian regime and its collaborators to realise that mass murder of civilians is no longer an option. It was also a message for the regime and its supporters who avoided any political settlements in Geneva,” ENKS leader Biro said referring to the ongoing Geneva talks on the future of Syria. 

The KNC, which at times has threatened to boycott the peace talks, has attended the Geneva and Astana talks, although the political and administrative powers are largely in the hands of another Kurdish group, the pro-Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) which has created Rojava administration, a self-autonomous region in northern Syria.  

“The US attack was a military action but it served a political purpose, both in the US and abroad. We think this was a message for regional powers, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Turkey, and also the Syrian opposition and Qatar to come together and find a political solution to the conflict,” said PYD representative Hoshang Darwesh. 

Darwesh said although the US attacks are likely to bring “positive” outcomes, “the solution to the Syrian conflict is a political deal not a military action.”

Largely supported by the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), the ENKS is a member of the main opposition alliance in Syria, the Syrian National Council, and is composed of about a dozen Kurdish parties in the country.

“Kurds do support political solutions to the Syrian war. There should be a political settlement and the Kurds could find our place in a future Syria which will likely head for partition,” ENKS leader Biro said.