Syrian Kurdish leaders said on Monday they will insist on a decentralised system of government in upcoming talks with Damascus, challenging the centralising direction of Syria’s post-Assad authorities.
The Kurdish-led administration in northeastern Syria will send a delegation to the capital “soon”, following a March agreement with the new Syrian government to integrate its structures into national institutions, senior Kurdish official Bedran Çiya Kurd told AFP.
The delegation will demand “a decentralised, pluralistic, democratic Syria”, he said, warning that “the mosaic of Syrian society cannot be governed by a political system that monopolises all powers.”
Kurdish-led forces have controlled most of Syria’s northeast—including key oil fields—since the outbreak of the civil war in 2011. Backed by a US-led coalition, they were pivotal in defeating the Islamic State group’s territorial hold in 2019.
Although the March accord marked the first official step towards political reintegration, the Kurdish administration rejected a temporary constitutional declaration announced by Damascus that same month, arguing it failed to reflect Syria’s ethnic and regional diversity.
Despite Bashar al-Assad’s removal from power in December, new Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani recently asserted that the country’s territorial unity is “non-negotiable” and warned that any delay in implementing the deal “will prolong chaos”.
The talks come amid uncertainty over whether the post-Assad authorities will accept meaningful decentralisation—long a core demand of Syria’s marginalised Kurdish minority.
