The Syrian government is open to negotiations with Kurds over their demand for autonomy within Syria’s borders, the Syrian minister of foreign affairs has said, striking a conciliatory tone as military tensions worsen between the sides in eastern Syria.
Syrian Minister of Foreign Affairs Walid al-Moualem said the government could discuss the Kurdish demand once the Islamic State group is defeated, the Syrian Arab News Agency reported, citing an interview with Russia Today.
“This topic is open to negotiation and discussion and when we are done eliminating DAESH, we can sit with our Kurdish sons and reach an understanding on a formula for the future,” al-Moualem said, using another name for the Islamic State group.
The Syrian Kurdish YPG militia controls a swathe of northern Syria where the main Kurdish party, the PYD and its allies have established autonomy since the start of the Syrian war in 2011.
Syrian Kurds say their aim is to preserve that autonomy as part of a decentralized Syria and they do not aim to follow the path of Kurds in Iraq, who held an independence referendum on Monday.
Al-Moualem reiterated his government’s rejection of that referendum, saying Damascus supported Iraqi unity, but he said that Syria’s Kurds “want a form of autonomy within the borders of the Syrian Arab Republic.”
Kurdish-led authorities in northern Syria held elections last week to choose local community leaders, the first stage of a three-phase process that is to culminate in January next year with the election of a parliament.
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