Syrian MP says US to leave Syria soon, Kurds should return to government

A Syrian Member of Parliament on Tuesday said the final and only option left for the Syrian Kurds is the government, adding the United States would leave Syria soon.

DAMASCUS (Kurdistan 24) – A Syrian Member of Parliament on Tuesday said the final and only option left for the Syrian Kurds is the government, adding the United States would leave Syria soon.  

Speaking to Kurdistan 24, Omar Ose, a Syrian Kurdish MP and head of Damascus-based Syrian Kurds’ National Initiative (SKNI), said the Kurds should seize the opportunity of their first meeting with the government in Damascus.

“To the best of my knowledge, the Americans will leave the country at the end of the year and at the same time they don’t have problems with the Kurd-government dialogue,” he said.  

Syria’s national security chief Ali Mamlouk attended the first meeting, in addition to advisors commissioned by President Bashar al-Assad, to study the file of the Syrian Kurds, the country’s Eastern Euphrates, and northeast, Ose said.

He also called on the Kurdish groups, including Syria’s Kurdish National Council (ENKS), to join the talks with the government.

ENKS, a part of the Turkey-based Syrian Arab opposition, has been engaged in political disputes with the PYD-led administration of Syria’s Kurdish-held northern areas known as Rojava. 

“The Syrian Kurdish groups should unite in the upcoming meetings with the government so that they guarantee their rights,” he said.

Last week, a delegation of the Kurdish-led council in northern Syria, known as the Syrian Democratic Council (SDC), visited Damascus on the government’s invitation to hold talks on administrative matters.

The talks are expected to develop in the upcoming meetings to include political and military elements.

On Monday, the SDC handed over 44 bodies of Syrian soldiers killed by the Islamic State in 2014 in Raqqa to the government.

The handover of the bodies, characterized by the SDC as “part of a humanitarian initiative,” could be part of their recent negotiations with Damascus.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany