Syrian Kurds Ready for Dialogue with Damascus

Syrian Kurds celebrate Nowruz in Al-Hasakah Governorate on March 21 (AFP)
Syrian Kurds celebrate Nowruz in Al-Hasakah Governorate on March 21 (AFP)
TT

Syrian Kurds Ready for Dialogue with Damascus

Syrian Kurds celebrate Nowruz in Al-Hasakah Governorate on March 21 (AFP)
Syrian Kurds celebrate Nowruz in Al-Hasakah Governorate on March 21 (AFP)

The Kurdish Autonomous Administration, which controls large areas in northern and northeastern Syria, has expressed its willingness to meet with the Syrian government, in a move that comes in parallel with an accelerating Arab openness towards Damascus.

In a statement distributed on Tuesday night and reported by AFP, the Administration said: “We affirm our readiness to meet and talk with the Syrian government and with all Syrian parties to hold discussions and present initiatives for a solution.”

It also urged “Arab countries, the United Nations and international forces... to play an active and positive role in searching for a common solution.”

Since 2018, the Autonomous Administration has engaged in several rounds of talks with Damascus, without achieving any results.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has repeatedly accused the Kurds - who spearheaded the confrontation against ISIS and managed to defeat it in large areas in north and northeastern Syria, with American support - of “collaborating” with Washington, which is leading an international coalition against the extremist organization.

In an interview during his recent visit to Moscow, last month, Assad responded to a question about the Kurdish units, saying that any party or individual “working for a foreign power is simply a traitor and a collaborator.”

Underlining Syria’s “territorial integrity”, the Kurdish Autonomous Administration called for the country’s resources to be shared “fairly”, including oil and gas fields, which are mostly located in the areas under its control.

The Kurdish authorities noted that they were ready to share resources including oil and gas “through an agreement with the Syrian government” following “dialogue and negotiation”.

The Kurds are afraid of losing the gains they made during the first years of the conflict, after they suffered for decades from a policy of marginalization imposed on them by the successive Syrian governments.

They were also excluded from several rounds of negotiation, including the UN-led talks in Geneva between representatives of the government and the opposition.



Netanyahu Denounces Tactical Pauses in Gaza Fighting to Get in Aid

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (C) attends the Knesset plenum vote on the ultra-Orthodox conscription to military service law, in the Knesset, Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, 10 June 2024. (EPA)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (C) attends the Knesset plenum vote on the ultra-Orthodox conscription to military service law, in the Knesset, Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, 10 June 2024. (EPA)
TT

Netanyahu Denounces Tactical Pauses in Gaza Fighting to Get in Aid

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (C) attends the Knesset plenum vote on the ultra-Orthodox conscription to military service law, in the Knesset, Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, 10 June 2024. (EPA)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (C) attends the Knesset plenum vote on the ultra-Orthodox conscription to military service law, in the Knesset, Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, 10 June 2024. (EPA)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticized plans announced by the military on Sunday to hold daily tactical pauses in fighting along one of the main roads into Gaza to facilitate aid delivery into the Palestinian enclave.

The military had announced the daily pauses from 0500 GMT until 1600 GMT in the area from the Kerem Shalom Crossing to the Salah al-Din Road and then northwards.

"When the prime minister heard the reports of an 11-hour humanitarian pause in the morning, he turned to his military secretary and made it clear that this was unacceptable to him," an Israeli official said.

The military clarified that normal operations would continue in Rafah, the main focus of its operation in southern Gaza, where eight soldiers were killed on Saturday.

The reaction from Netanyahu underlined political tensions over the issue of aid coming into Gaza, where international organizations have warned of a growing humanitarian crisis.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who leads one of the nationalist religious parties in Netanyahu's ruling coalition, denounced the idea of a tactical pause, saying whoever decided it was a "fool" who should lose their job.

DIVISIONS BETWEEN COALITION, ARMY

The spat was the latest in a series of clashes between members of the coalition and the military over the conduct of the war, now in its ninth month.

It came a week after centrist former general Benny Gantz quit the government, accusing Netanyahu of having no effective strategy in Gaza.

The divisions were laid bare last week in a parliamentary vote on a law on conscripting ultra-Orthodox Jews into the military, with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant voting against it in defiance of party orders, saying it was insufficient for the needs of the military.

Religious parties in the coalition have strongly opposed conscription for the ultra-Orthodox, drawing widespread anger from many Israelis, which has deepened as the war has gone on.

Lieutenant-General Herzi Halevi, the head of the military, said on Sunday there was a "definite need" to recruit more soldiers from the fast-growing ultra-Orthodox community.

RESERVISTS UNDER STRAIN

Despite growing international pressure for a ceasefire, an agreement to halt the fighting still appears distant, more than eight months since the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas fighters on Israel triggered a ground assault on the enclave by Israeli forces.

Since the attack, which killed some 1,200 Israelis and foreigners in Israeli communities, Israel's military campaign has killed more than 37,000 Palestinians, according to Palestinian health ministry figures, and destroyed much of Gaza.

Although opinion polls suggest most Israelis support the government's aim of destroying Hamas, there have been widespread protests attacking the government for not doing more to bring home around 120 hostages who are still in Gaza after being taken hostage on Oct. 7.

Meanwhile, Palestinian health officials said seven Palestinians were killed in two air strikes on two houses in Al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza Strip.

As fighting in Gaza has continued, a lower level conflict across the Israel-Lebanon border is now threatening to spiral into a wider war as near-daily exchanges of fire between Israeli forces and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia have escalated.

In a further sign that fighting in Gaza could drag on, Netanyahu's government said on Sunday it was extending until Aug. 15 the period it would fund hotels and guest houses for residents evacuated from southern Israeli border towns.