BALADI NEWS
Foreign Islamic State suspects could be tried in Syrian courts, Bashar al-Assad has said, raising the prospect the regime could use them as leverage against the West.
More than 10,000 Islamic State fighters are currently in the detention of Western-backed Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in north-east Syria, including 2,000 foreigners and at least seven Britons.
Thousands more foreign women and their children are also being held in camps across north-east Syria.
Assad made his comments in an interview with Paris Match magazine when asked about a deal with the Kurds that would eventually bring their areas under government control.
Abandoned by their US allies last month and facing an onslaught by Turkey, the SDF was forced to turn to the Syrian regime and Russia for protection.
"Every terrorist in the areas controlled by the Syrian state will be subject to Syrian law and Syrian law is clear concerning terrorism,” Assad said in a rare interview with a European news outlet. “We have courts specialised in terrorism and they will be prosecuted."
The Kurds have begun hearing the cases of local suspects in their makeshift courts but say they will not try foreigners, urging governments to take responsibility for them.