Syria's Sharaa rejects Kurdish demands for decentralisation
28/4/2025 6:02
Syria's Islamist leaders
said on Sunday that Kurdish demands for the country to adopt a
decentralised system of government in a post-Assad political
order posed a threat to national unity.
"We clearly reject any attempt to impose a partition or
create separatist cantons under the terms of federalism or
self-autonomy without a national consensus," Syrian leader Ahmed
al-Sharaa's office said in a statement.
"The unity of Syrian territory and its people is a red
line," the statement said.
Rival Syrian Kurdish parties, including the dominant faction
in the Kurdish-run northeast, agreed at a meeting in Syria's
Kurdish-controlled city of Qamishli on Saturday on a common
political vision for Syria's Kurdish minority.
A communique at the end of the conference, which was
attended by U.S. officials, demanded that a future Syrian
constitution should enshrine respect for Kurdish national rights
in Syria after the ouster of Bashar al-Assad.
"A joint Kurdish political vision has been formulated that
expresses a collective will and its project for a just solution
to the Kurdish issue in Syria as a decentralized democratic
state," the pan-Kurdish statement said.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), backed by
the U.S., last month signed a deal with Damascus on merging
Kurdish-led governing bodies and security forces with the
central government
The Syrian presidency's statement also said recent
statements by SDF leaders advocating a federal solution went
clearly against that deal.
During the 14-year civil war, Kurdish-led groups took
control of roughly a quarter of Syrian territory, where most of
the country's oil wealth is found along with fertile arable land
that produces a major proportion of the country's wheat.
Kurdish officials have objected to the way Syria's governing
Islamists are shaping the transition from Assad's rule, saying
they are failing to respect Syria's diversity despite promises
of inclusivity.
|