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WASHINGTON DC - US Senator Mark Warner said Wednesday he was "very concerned" about Kurds in Syria, expressing reluctance regarding how the new Damascus government would approach them, amid growing uncertainty, as hopes fade for the two sides to reach an agreement for integration.
"I think the fact that Assad is gone is good for the region, good for the world, but we also know there is a large Kurdish population in Syria, and I am concerned with the new Syrian government," Warner told Rudaw's Diyar Kurda.
The Kurdish-led SDF is a partner force of the US-led global coalition against the Islamic State (ISIS). They did the bulk of the fighting on the ground to territorially defeat ISIS in its Syrian stronghold, suffering more than 10,000 casualties in the conflict.
The SDF is the de facto army of Rojava - the Kurdish-controlled northeast region of Syria. During the civil war, Kurds established an autonomous administration. Since the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime, they have been in talks with the interim government in Damascus to integrate into national institutions, including the armed forces.
Kurds, however, are concerned about centralization of power and the prominence of Islamic law in the transitional constitution adopted by the interim government. Kurds have called for federalism and repeatedly denied that they seek to divide Syria.
In March, SDF commander Mazloum Abdi signed a deal with interim Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa to integrate Rojava’s civil and military institutions into those of the state. However, the two sides remain at odds over the interpretation of the term integration. While the SDF seeks to join the Syrian forces as a unified bloc, Damascus prefers to individually absorb and assimilate Kurdish fighters into the Syrian army.
"Are they really going to continue to reach out to both the Kurdish community, to the Christian community? Are they, will they break down on sectarian lines? I'm glad to see there. Seems to be moving forward, but I am very concerned about the Kurdish population," Warner, who is the senior US senator from Virginia, told Rudaw.
Tensions are recently significantly high, as the Syrian government and the SDF have engaged in trading accusations against one another, with each side blaming the other for recent attacks on their respective positions.
The SDF on Thursday announced they had repelled "infiltration attempts and artillery attacks" from groups "affiliated with the Damascus government" in eastern Aleppo's Deir Hafer area.
The sporadic flare-up between the SDF and Damascus is another factor straining the March integration deal.
The relation took a turn for the wrose when the new government of Syria recently decided to postpone elections in Kurdish-majority provinces, citing security concerns, a move that has drawn sharp criticism from Kurdish groups, describing the planned vote as “exclusionary and undemocratic."
The Kurdish-led administration says steps taken in Syria since the fall of the Ba’ath regime in early December as contradictory to “the objectives of the Syrian revolution, which called for justice, democracy, equality, and freedom for all components of Syria." It thus urged the international community and the United Nations to reject the electoral process.
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