SDF Chief Says PKK Disarmament Call ‘Not Related to Us in Syria’

Commander of Syrian Kurdish-led forces Mazloum Abdi, attends an interview with Reuters in Hasakah, Syria December 19, 2024. (Reuters)
Commander of Syrian Kurdish-led forces Mazloum Abdi, attends an interview with Reuters in Hasakah, Syria December 19, 2024. (Reuters)
TT
20

SDF Chief Says PKK Disarmament Call ‘Not Related to Us in Syria’

Commander of Syrian Kurdish-led forces Mazloum Abdi, attends an interview with Reuters in Hasakah, Syria December 19, 2024. (Reuters)
Commander of Syrian Kurdish-led forces Mazloum Abdi, attends an interview with Reuters in Hasakah, Syria December 19, 2024. (Reuters)

The commander of the Kurdish-led forces that control northeastern Syria said that a call by the leader of the militant Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Türkiye for the PKK to dissolve did not apply to the group he leads.

Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) commander Mazloum Abdi said he welcomed the historic call by Abdullah Ocalan for the PKK to drop its decades-long armed struggle against the Turkish state, which he said would have positive consequences in the region.

But Abdi said the long-imprisoned Ocalan's announcement on Thursday applied only to the PKK and was "not related to us in Syria".

Abdi's comment signaled Ocalan's announcement would have no immediate impact on the SDF despite the affiliation of Syria’s main Kurdish groups at the core of the SDF - the People's Protection Units (YPG) - to the PKK.

Türkiye says the YPG is indistinguishable from the PKK and has along with Turkish-aligned Syrian armed factions battled the group.

"If there is peace in Türkiye, that means there is no excuse to keep attacking us here in Syria," Abdi said.

Abdi's group established control over Kurdish areas of northern Syria after the outbreak of the Syrian civil war in 2011 and later became a major US partner in the fight against ISIS, further expanding the area under its control.

The SDF had little conflict with the Syrian army under then-President Bashar al-Assad. Now, the SDF faces calls by the new Damascus administration that ousted Assad in December to merge into newly-minted state security forces.

Türkiye is one of the new Syrian administration's main supporters.

Abdi has expressed a willingness for his forces to be part of the new defense ministry, but said they should join as a bloc rather than individuals, an idea rejected by the new government.

Neither the SDF nor the Kurdish-led administration was invited to a national dialogue conference convened in Damascus on Feb. 25. The Kurdish-led administration said the conference did not represent Syrians.

Abdi said Syrian Kurdish authorities would be organizing their own local dialogue on the future of the northeastern region. 



Hamas Says No Point in Further Gaza Truce Talks

FILE PHOTO: A Palestinian man inspects the house where Palestinian newlywed Hala Zaarab was killed in an Israeli airstrike, in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, May 3, 2025. REUTERS/Hatem Khaled/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A Palestinian man inspects the house where Palestinian newlywed Hala Zaarab was killed in an Israeli airstrike, in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, May 3, 2025. REUTERS/Hatem Khaled/File Photo
TT
20

Hamas Says No Point in Further Gaza Truce Talks

FILE PHOTO: A Palestinian man inspects the house where Palestinian newlywed Hala Zaarab was killed in an Israeli airstrike, in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, May 3, 2025. REUTERS/Hatem Khaled/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A Palestinian man inspects the house where Palestinian newlywed Hala Zaarab was killed in an Israeli airstrike, in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, May 3, 2025. REUTERS/Hatem Khaled/File Photo

A senior Hamas official said Tuesday the group was no longer interested in truce talks with Israel and urged the international community to halt Israel's "hunger war" against Gaza.

"There is no sense in engaging in talks or considering new ceasefire proposals as long as the hunger war and extermination war continue in the Gaza Strip," Basem Naim told AFP.

He said the world must pressure the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to end the "crimes of hunger, thirst, and killings" in Gaza.

The comments by Naim, a Hamas political bureau member and former Gaza health minister, came a day after Israel's military said expanded operations in Gaza would include displacing "most" of its population.