Syria, Kurdish officials meet after Paris talks canned

Arab News

2 days ago

QAMISHLI: Syria's foreign minister and a senior official in the country's Kurdish administration have met in Damascus, sources from both sides told AFP on Tuesday, days after the government boycotted talks in France.
Damascus had said it would not participate in the Paris talks after the Kurds hosted a meeting last week involving Syria's Druze and Alawite minority communities, which have been subjected to sectarian violence in recent months.
The event called for a decentralized state — a move repeatedly rejected by Syria's new authorities — and was effectively the first meeting to bring together representatives of several communities opposed to the approach and vision of governance of Syria's new authorities.
Elham Ahmad, a senior official in the Kurdish administration in Syria's northeast, met Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Al-Shaibani 'on Monday evening upon the request of the Damascus government,' a Kurdish official told AFP, requesting anonymity.
A Syrian government source, also requesting anonymity, confirmed to AFP that the Damascus meeting took place, without providing further details.
The Kurds and Damascus have been holding talks on the implementation of a March 10 deal between Mazloum Abdi, head of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), and President Ahmed Al-Sharaa on integrating the Kurds' semi-autonomous civil and military institutions into the state.
Implementation has been held up by differences between the two parties.
Monday's talks sought to affirm 'the continuation of the negotiating process via intra-Syrian committees under international supervision,' the Kurdish official said, adding that the sides agreed 'there was no place for a military option.'
'Discussions focused on finding an appropriate formula for decentralization, without specifying a timeframe,' the Kurdish official added.
Late last month, Syria, France and the United States said they agreed to convene talks in Paris 'as soon as possible' on implementing the March 10 agreement.
Abdi said in a televised interview in July that the Paris meeting was set to discuss the mechanism for integrating his forces, which he said numbered around 100,000 personnel, into the country's defense ministry.
Several rounds of talks have been held but the process has largely stalled, with Kurdish officials criticizing a constitutional declaration announced by the new authorities, saying it failed to reflect Syria's diversity.