Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said talks between Damascus and the Kurdish administrations in the north and east of the country has come to an end, Gazete Duvar news site reported on Wednesday.
The dialogue between the Syrian government and Kurds intensified ahead of Turkey’s latest offensive in northern Syria. And, Syrian government forces have been deployed along the Turkish border in the Kurdish-controlled northeast of the country in early November.
“However, the negotiations with our Kurdish brothers and sisters did not reach the desired political level due to fluctuations in relations between the United States and the Kurds,’ Muallem said in an interview with Russia Today.
“Because the Americans one day say that they will get rid of the Kurdish forces and the next day they say they will not. Therefore, dialogue with Kurdish forces was ended,” he said.
Since the United States announced in October that it would withdraw its troops from Syria, the Syrian Kurdish forces, namely People’s Protection Units (YPG), have been looking to cooperate with Russia and the Syrian government.
Following the U.S. withdrawal, Turkey launched an offensive in northeast Syria, targeting Syrian Kurdish forces.
Turkey sees the YPG and its affiliate predominantly-Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), as an existential threat due to their links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and has launched three major military offensives against the Syrian Kurdish forces which control some enclaves in northeast Syria along the Turkish border.
Syrian foreign minister said Damascus rejected any excuses for intervention in the country by foreign countries.
“We reject all justifications. Just as Turkey does regarding the Kurds, as well as the United States regarding ISIS… These are all fabricated pretexts to justify their aggression against Syria,” Muallem said.