ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — The US embassy in Syria welcomed late Wednesday the initial political agreement between Kurdish ruling and opposition parties in northeast Syria after months of mediation by US diplomats in the country. “On June 16, 2020, in Hasaka, Syria, delegations from the Kurdish National Council (KNC) and the Kurdish National Unity Parties (PYNK) concluded an initial phase of Intra-Kurdish Unity negotiations,” reads a statement from the US embassy in Syria, which has been physically closed since the beginning of Syria crisis in 2011. It added that the next stages will cover governance, administration and protection sectors as well. KNC or ENKS is an umbrella group of several opposition parties with close ties to the Kurdistan Region’s ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) while the PYNK is a newly-established group of 25 parties led by the ruling Democratic Union Party (PYD). “The United States welcomes this preliminary understanding as an important step towards greater understanding and practical cooperation, which will benefit the Syrian Kurdish people as well as Syrians of all components,” adds the embassy statement. The ENKS and PYD have been at odds for several years, with the former accusing the latter of being unwilling to share power in northeast Syria, an area known to Kurds as Rojava. The two sides began talks in Duhok in 2014, initiated by the leader of the KDP and then-President of the Kurdistan Region Masoud Barzani. Talks ended in a deal that was never implemented. The first stage of this new round of talks was initiated by Mazloum Abdi, general commander of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), in October 2019, after Turkey launched a military operation against Kurdish forces in Rojava earlier that month. The two Kurdish sides "reached a set of preliminary understandings using the 2014 Duhok Agreement as a basis for ongoing unity talks that will cover governance, administrative cooperation, and protection,” said the statement. “The two sides agreed on a binding joint political vision and affirmed their commitment to continuing their ongoing negotiations with the aim of signing a comprehensive agreement in the near future.” Speaking at a ceremony on Wednesday to announce the landmark deal, William Roebuck, the American deputy special envoy to Syria said: “on behalf of the US Government I want to commend both sides for the hard work they’ve done to reach the progress reached so far.” In a rare move, the embassy also issued a Kurdish version of the statement, usually only publishing in English and Arabic.
