ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A former US official on Tuesday urged the international community to place more emphasis on implementing the 2015 United Nations ceasefire resolution in Syria, calling it the solution to many of the problems facing the war-torn country. Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which has been internationally recognized as a terrorist organization, in mid-October took control of the Kurdish city of Afrin in Syria following clashes with pro-Turkey forces over the assassination of an activist. The US has called on the HTS to “immediately” withdraw from the city. James Jeffrey, the former US special representative for Syria engagement and special envoy to the Global Coalition against the Islamic State (ISIS), believed that implementing the UN resolution would help with many of Syria’s problems, regardless whether that is Afrin or other parts of the country. “The solution to many many problems of Syria is for the international community to put more emphasis on the UN resolution from 2015 that called for a reorganization of the country, a new constitution and reconciliation between the opposition in the [Bashar] Assad regime,” Jeffrey told Rudaw’s Diyar Kurda. The UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution in December 2015, endorsing a “Road Map for Peace Process in Syria” which calls for a ceasefire and settlement to the civil war in Syria between the Syrian government and opposition movement that was never met. Kurdish forces, People’s Protection Units (YPG), controlled Afrin after Syrian regime forces withdrew from it in the beginning of an uprising in the country in 2011. The YPG established Afrin Canton which included the city and some surrounding areas. However, Turkey and its Syrian mercenaries invaded the city in 2018, causing the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Kurds as well as committing crimes against those who stayed.
