EXCLUSIVE: US-backed northern Syrian council denies opening offices in Regime areas

TABQA (Kurdistan 24) – The US-backed council in northern Syria on Thursday denied allegations they are opening offices in the Syrian regime-held areas of Damascus and Latakia.

“Regarding the opening of offices in areas under the control of the Syrian regime, we have not made any such decision, not within our Congress nor anywhere else,” Elham Ahmed, the co-chair of the Syrian Democratic Council (SDC) which administers Kurdish-controlled areas and is considered the political wing of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), told Kurdistan24.

Ahmed further commented the SDC wishes to see the Syrian conflict end with a decentralized system that would secure rights for minorities, including the Kurds. 

“The project of the Syrian Democratic Council (SDC) is a decentralized Syria, and we are working to spread [that concept] among all Syrian people, here and outside the country,” she said.

“Our statements have been clear about our project, but we have not discussed opening offices in regime-held areas at all,” she further commented.

Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad last month said Damascus was “opening doors for negotiations” with the SDF, but if talks were to fail, he would resort to force to recapture areas where some 2,000 US forces are stationed.

Though Kurdish leaders say they are ready to engage in negotiations with Damascus, Ahmed signaled there have been no moves toward talks. She said Assad’s comments had not moved beyond “rhetoric.”

The SDF is spearheaded by the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) and has expanded beyond its previously-held Kurdish-majority parts in the north. Its territory now includes the city of Raqqa, the Islamic State’s (IS) former base of operations in the country, and the eastern province of Deir al-Zour on the Iraqi border.

The SDF and its leading component, the YPG, have mostly avoided conflict with Assad during the seven-year war, setting them apart from rebels in western Syria who fought to topple him.

(Kurdistan24 correspondent Akram Saleh conducted the interview in Tabqa)

Editing by Nadia Riva