A British delegation of Labour politicians and trade unionists met with officials of the Kurdish-led authority in Rojava, northern Syria, on Tuesday night to confirm their support to the Kurds who have fought ISIS and are now facing Turkish threats.
The visit comes at a time when Syrian Kurds are facing threats from Turkey and Syrian factions supporting them to launch new military attacks on their areas of control in the north and northeast of the country.
“We also bring, with a full heart, our solidarity with you," Lord Maurice Glasman, a Labour peer in the House of Lords, told reporters.
"So we are here for a long-term relationship with you where we can support you against all the people who are trying to destroy your liberty and your democracy," he added.
Glasman was accompanied by Labour MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle, who sits on a number of influential committees in the British parliament.
Abed Al-Karim Omar, a top member of the self-administration in the north, said the British group that arrived on Tuesday marked the first such public, high-level delegation.
"There were meetings previously not declared," he said. "But this is the first visit in this official way." The MPs would discuss Afrin and the tens of thousands of residents displaced there, Omar added.
Since the civil war swept across Syria, YPG and its allies have established autonomous cantons in the north, forming a federal system of government. Over the past few years, the Kurdish force has liberated large swaths of territory from ISIS with the support of the US-led international coalition.
