Stratford57
Diamond Member
Nov 20, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov: Importantly, our Kurdish counterparts from the Syrian Democratic Forces need to act consistently. As I mentioned earlier, they supported the Russian-Turkish Memorandum and stated that they would cooperate, but then our US partners once again changed their approach to their presence in Syria. I won’t even go into the details of what they are doing there. First, they defeated ISIS and left on these grounds. Then, they returned to protect the Kurds. Then, they stopped protecting the Kurds and left again. Then, they remembered the oil and returned again. Following the zigzags of US politics, some leaders in the Syrian Democratic Forces bet on the assumption that the United States would support them indefinitely. This is a wrong choice. I believe that in the interest of ensuring the rights of the Kurds, there is no alternative to embarking on a course of a dialogue with the legitimate Syrian authorities as part of developing the approaches that ensure Syria’s stability and security through the efforts of the Syrian Constitutional Committee, where all ethnic and religious groups in Syria will be reliably protected and whose rights will be reliably guaranteed.
Instead, it has transpired that certain representatives of the Syrian Democratic Forces are hoping that the United States will provide them with quasi-state autonomy in Syria. To back this, the respected US National Interest magazine recently reported that the US Special Envoy for Syria, Joel Rayburn, spoke with the political leaders of the Syrian Democratic Forces and the leaders of the so-called Syrian Democratic Council trying to persuade the Kurds that their armed groups must cooperate with the anti-Assad groups, including the jihadists, and must adhere to the policy of opposing, as they say, the regime since it is in the interests of the United States.
I am not sure how the Kurds responded, but there are signs that some of them are willing to support such an idea, and this is causing concern. If they want to ensure US interests in Syria based on fairly vague and illegitimate promises, it is up to them.
I am convinced that the rights of the Kurds - and we always advocate for their rights along with the rights of other ethnic and religious groups - can only be upheld through a candid and open dialogue with the central Syrian authorities as part of the political process.
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s remarks and answers to media questions at a joint news conference with Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Bahrain Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa, Moscow, November 20, 2019
It's really time for the Kurds to make a decision.
Instead, it has transpired that certain representatives of the Syrian Democratic Forces are hoping that the United States will provide them with quasi-state autonomy in Syria. To back this, the respected US National Interest magazine recently reported that the US Special Envoy for Syria, Joel Rayburn, spoke with the political leaders of the Syrian Democratic Forces and the leaders of the so-called Syrian Democratic Council trying to persuade the Kurds that their armed groups must cooperate with the anti-Assad groups, including the jihadists, and must adhere to the policy of opposing, as they say, the regime since it is in the interests of the United States.
I am not sure how the Kurds responded, but there are signs that some of them are willing to support such an idea, and this is causing concern. If they want to ensure US interests in Syria based on fairly vague and illegitimate promises, it is up to them.
I am convinced that the rights of the Kurds - and we always advocate for their rights along with the rights of other ethnic and religious groups - can only be upheld through a candid and open dialogue with the central Syrian authorities as part of the political process.
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s remarks and answers to media questions at a joint news conference with Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Bahrain Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa, Moscow, November 20, 2019
It's really time for the Kurds to make a decision.
