BALADI NEWS
A Kurdish-led Syrian force said Friday it believes in dialogue with the government but warned a settlement on the future of territory it controls cannot arrive through a Damascus-prescribed "reconciliation" agreement.
"We are ready for dialogue with the Syrian regime, with the central government, in order to reach a democratic solution for all of Syria, including the north-east" said Mazloum Kobani, the chief of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
But "we cannot solve existing issues, and large problems in this region... through reconciliation deals", he said in a speech to Arab tribal leaders in Ain Issa.
"It is not possible, in any shape or form, for us to return to conditions (that existed) before 2011," Kobani said Friday.
Syria's Defence Minister Ali Abdullah Ayoub in March said that the SDF would have to strike a reconciliation agreement with Damascus or risk a regime-led military offensive in the third of the country that it controls.
With backing from a US-led coalition, Kurdish fighters have spearheaded the fight against Islamic State jihadists in parts of Syria that they control.
Victory was declared by the SDF in the territorial war against IS on March 23, after dislodging the jihadists from the village of Baghouz, their final stronghold.
Beyond battles against IS, the Kurds have largely stayed out of Syria's eight-year civil war, instead building their own institutions in areas under their control.
"It is not possible to reach a democratic and pluralistic Syria without full recognition of the rights of Syria's Kurds," he added.
The SDF chief said that Damascus would need to recognise the authority of the Kurdish administration in northeastern Syria as well as the "special status" of the Kurdish-Arab alliance and its role in defending the region.
Kobani also said that foreign forces need to remain in Syria until the jihadist threat in the country subsides.
"As long as terrorism remains... the role of the US-led coalition and Russian forces is still demanded and is still necessary," he said.
Source: Daily Mail Online.