Syria’s de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa has held talks with delegates of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an official told AFP on Tuesday, adding that they had been “positive”.
Monday’s talks were Sharaa’s first with Kurdish commanders since his Islamist-led rebels overthrew longtime strongman Bashar al-Assad in early December and come as the SDF is locked in fighting with Turkish-backed factions in northern Syria.
“A meeting took place on Monday between senior officials of the Syrian Democratic Forces and Jolani in Damascus,” the official said, using Sharaa’s nom de guerre.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official said it was a “preliminary meeting to lay the foundations for future dialogue,” adding that both sides had agreed “to continue these meetings to reach future understandings”.
He described the meeting as “positive” and said there would be “intensifying dialogue and meetings in the future”.
The US-backed SDF spearheaded the military campaign that ousted Islamic State group jihadists from their last territory in Syria in 2019.
But Turkey, which has long had ties with Sharaa’s HTS, accuses the main component of the SDF, the People’s Protection Units (YPG), of being affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has waged a four-decade insurgency against the Turkish state.
In the past month, deadly clashes have erupted in northern Syria between Turkish-backed factions and the SDF.
Earlier Tuesday, Turkish-backed fighters killed three pro-Kurdish security personnel in Syria’s second city Aleppo, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
On Sunday, Sharaa told Al Arabiya TV that the Kurdish-led forces should be integrated into the new national army.
“Weapons must be in the hands of the state alone. Whoever is armed and qualified to join the defense ministry, we will welcome them,” he said.
According to Turkish press, Sharaa also rejected a federal structure, which is one of the main demands of the Kurdish minority in Syria.
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