Kurd-backed council holds talks in Damascus

A Syrian Kurdish official is in Damascus this week for talks with Syrian regime officials at the head of a delegation including members of the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, an official said, their first declared visit to the capital. The visit points to moves by the Kurdish-led authorities who control roughly a quarter of Syria to open channels to President Bashar Assad’s administration as they seek to negotiate a political deal that preserves their autonomy.

The delegation in Damascus is headed by Ilham Ahmed, executive head of the Syrian Democratic Council, said Riad Darar, SDC co-chair, speaking by phone from Vienna. The delegation arrived two days ago.

The meetings were expected to primarily discuss matters of service provision in the areas controlled by the Kurdish-led authorities, but Darar said that there was no set agenda and the talks might widen to political and security matters. While the meetings did not mark the start of negotiations, Darar signaled that this was the aim, saying it was time to “solve our problems ourselves.”

“We have a basis for negotiations,” he added.

Any negotiations between Damascus and the SDF would raise new questions for U.S. policy in Syria, where the U.S. military has deployed into SDF-held territory during the campaign against Daesh (ISIS).

Talks recently began over a return of state employees and repairs to one of Syria’s most important pieces of infrastructure: the Tabqa dam, Syria’s largest, which the SDF took from Daesh (ISIS).

Darar said those talks had been held with delegations that had come from Damascus. Referring to the Damascus visit, he said: “This is certainly the first visit that happened.”

The Kurds have been consistently left out of U.N.-led diplomacy in line with the wishes of NATO member Turkey, which views Syria’s dominant Kurdish groups as an extension of the militant Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

Darar forecast the failure of U.N.-backed efforts currently focused on setting up a constitutional committee grouping the government, the opposition and independents. “I don’t think this committee will carry out its role,” he said.

“The door of Geneva will be shut.”

The Syrian opposition’s chief negotiator, Nasr al-Hariri, called for a renewal of U.N.-brokered peace talks while acknowledging “significant military losses” by rebel forces.

Syrian government officials and lawmakers celebrated with music and an official flag raising ceremony the recapture of Qunaitra.

The city is adjacent to the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights from armed groups that controlled it for more than four years. The ceremony was attended by hundreds of Syrians from nearby villages, who sang along to the national anthem.

Hundreds waved flags as they danced and cheered the Syrian army and affiliated militias.

The picture of Assad was hoisted on a partially destroyed monument in the town’s center, where his father more than four decades ago raised the Syrian flag after Israel withdrew.

The highly symbolic town has been abandoned since Israel destroyed it as it withdrew in 1974 following the Mideast war. But Israel continued to occupy the adjacent Golan Heights which it seized since 1967.

The celebrations took place as Syrian soldiers finalized their deployment to restore their positions along the demarcation line, for the first time since 2014.

The soldiers also deployed to the crossing that connects Qunaitra to the Golan. Even though the countries are at war, families from the local Druze community divided by the demarcation line use the crossing to exchange visits. Farmers also used to send apples over the frontier.

“We are happy to regain control of the crossing ... It was a dream to restore control,” said a field commander, speaking on condition of anonymity.