SDC Demands Damascus Recognizes the Autonomous Administration of North, East Syria

Fighters of Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) are seen in Deir al-Zor, Syria May 1, 2018. REUTERS/Rodi Said
Fighters of Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) are seen in Deir al-Zor, Syria May 1, 2018. REUTERS/Rodi Said
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SDC Demands Damascus Recognizes the Autonomous Administration of North, East Syria

Fighters of Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) are seen in Deir al-Zor, Syria May 1, 2018. REUTERS/Rodi Said
Fighters of Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) are seen in Deir al-Zor, Syria May 1, 2018. REUTERS/Rodi Said

The Syrian Democratic Council (SDC), the political arm of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), held Damascus liable for its failures and demanded moving towards decentralization of power as step towards sustainable peace.

The SDC’s statements follow accusations by the Syrian foreign ministry on it, alongside the US, looking to divide Syria.

Syria’s foreign ministry labeled the SDF as “separatist terrorist militias” in a letter to United Nations Secretary-General.

The letter accuses the SDF of operating in line with “schemes” by the US and Israel and says the Syrian government will “liberate” territories captured by the militias, state news agency SANA reported.

According to SANA, the letter claims the SDF has moved on from taking part in “committing crimes of the “International Coalition” against the Syrian people,” accusing the SDF of now “kidnapping, torturing, killing and displacing civilians.”

SDC co-chair Ilham Ahmed, in a statement to Asharq Al-Awsat, voiced total rejection to the accusations made and said they were aimed at pleasing Turkey for the sake of re-normalizing ties.

The SDC, according to Ahmed, was unrelenting in its invites to reboot talks with Damascus.

“We have consistently indicated through our statements, and we have repeatedly called on the Syrian government to begin engaging in a comprehensive political process to resolve the Syrian crisis, recognize the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria,” the co-chair said.

Targeting the accusations facing the SDF, Ahmed said: “This approach will not serve the political solution and the peace process—threatening with wars and battles to impose control over the entirety of Syrian territory only prolongs the conflict.”

Representatives of the SDC held joint talks back in mid-2017 with security officials from the Syrian regime. The talks followed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's threats of violence to the SDF.

Nevertheless, those talks ended in deadlock with no significant progress achieved.



Israeli Likud Party Ministers Urge Netanyahu to Annex West Bank

Israeli soldiers in Tubas in the north of the occupied West Bank on September 11, 2024. (AFP)
Israeli soldiers in Tubas in the north of the occupied West Bank on September 11, 2024. (AFP)
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Israeli Likud Party Ministers Urge Netanyahu to Annex West Bank

Israeli soldiers in Tubas in the north of the occupied West Bank on September 11, 2024. (AFP)
Israeli soldiers in Tubas in the north of the occupied West Bank on September 11, 2024. (AFP)

Cabinet ministers in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party called on Wednesday for Israel to annex the Israeli-occupied West Bank before the Knesset recesses at the end of the month.

They issued a petition ahead of Netanyahu's meeting next week with US President Donald Trump, where discussions are expected to center on a potential 60-day Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal with Hamas.

The petition was signed by 15 cabinet ministers and Amir Ohana, speaker of the Knesset, Israel's parliament.

There was no immediate response from the prime minister's office. Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, long a confidant of Netanyahu, did not sign the petition. He has been in Washington since Monday for talks on Iran and Gaza.

"We ministers and members of Knesset call for applying Israeli sovereignty and law immediately on Judea and Samaria," they wrote, using the biblical names for the West Bank captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war.

Their petition cited Israel's recent achievements against both Iran and Iran's allies and the opportunity afforded by the strategic partnership with the US and support of Trump.

It said the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Israel demonstrated that the concept of Jewish settlement blocs alongside the establishment of a Palestinian state poses an existential threat to Israel.

"The task must be completed, the existential threat removed from within, and another massacre in the heart of the country must be prevented," the petition stated.

Most countries regard Jewish settlements in the West Bank, many of which cut off Palestinian communities from one another, as a violation of international law.

With each advance of Israeli settlements and roads, the West Bank becomes more fractured, further undermining prospects for a contiguous land on which Palestinians could build a sovereign state long envisaged in Middle East peacemaking.

Israel's pro-settler politicians have been emboldened by the return to the White House of Trump, who has proposed Palestinians leave Gaza, a suggestion widely condemned across the Middle East and beyond.