The Syrian Democratic Forces’ (SDF) political wing, the Syrian Democratic Council held a series of talks in Damascus throughout the week to determine a list of priorities and compare them with those of the regime.
The SDC delegation, chaired by Elham Ahmed, had arrived in Damascus on Wednesday and on Thursday held individual meetings with top regime figures. After concluding one-on-one talks, the delegation held the first official meeting with a regime delegation, which included government, military and security representatives, sources told Asharq Al-Awsat.
The Kurdish Council had also met with Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter ISIS Brett McGurk and informed him of their intention to “negotiate” with the Bashar Assad regime.
McGurk did not oppose the talks, but suggested that they currently focus on restoring services.
A member of the SDC said that talks focused on restoring services, such as water, electricity, health and education. The Euphrates dam will also be renovated.
Such measures would help build trust with the regime that could pave the way for a second phase of talks that would cover the hand over of border crossings and tackle security forces on the ground, he revealed.
Salih Muslim, former co-chairman of the Democratic Union Party, told Asharq Al-Awsat that the SDC visit was based on Damascus’ request and aimed at determining whether there was any room to hold negotiations with the regime.
If so, then serious negotiations over Syria’s future could be held, he added.
“We currently have a model that is based on local administrations. We would like to negotiate over other available models, such the federation, local administrations, decentralization and the new constitution,” he continued.
“Any agreement must have international guarantees because the regime wants to manipulate and maneuver and force a surrender similar to what happened in Daraa and other regions. This will not take place with us because we are strong and rely on ourselves and experience,” he stressed.
The SDF controls about one-third of the country's 185,000 square kilometers, making it the second most dominant force on the ground just after the regime.
This week’s talks in Damascus reflected Kurdish intentions to seek a deal with Assad to preserve their autonomy and gains made on the ground in areas east of the Euphrates.
After decades of marginalization, Kurdish power increased with the gradual withdrawal of regime forces from their regions in 2012. They later declared autonomous rule and then a federal state in 2016.
SDC control extends across western Kurdistan and encompasses Al-Hasakah governorate and northern Euphrates region, which also includes parts of Aleppo and Raqqa.
The Kurdish power was later scaled down to a “northern federalism” that included regions that were liberated from the ISIS terrorists.
Limited confrontations pitted regime forces against the Kurdish fighters and Damascus rejects the SDC’s pursuit of autonomous rule. It instead proposes a model of decentralization according to law 107.
In May, Assad spoke of two options when dealing with SDF territory.
“The first is opening the door to negotiations. If that does not happen, we will resort to the liberation of those areas by force ... with or without the American presence,” he said.
According to the vision of the Council, the next phase of negotiations will deal with the future of Syria and its political system where, under American-Russian pressure, it will accept the renunciation of its central powers to the parties to the model of federalism or local administrations.
