Commander of the Kurdish “People’s Protection Units”: the Syrian government’s position is positive and negotiations will start soon

“The negotiations with the Syrian government on the future of the north-west region will begin in the coming days after a positive reaction from Damascus”, said Siban Hamo, commander of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units.

“There are attempts to hold negotiations … the Syrian government’s position has been positive … We believe that our negotiations will begin in the coming days”, Hamo told Reuters in an interview on Thursday.

During his recent meetings with the Russians, who played the role of mediator in communications between the two sides, Hamo said that the Kurdish party had handed over proposals on the settlement of the issue to protect the rights of Kurds and minorities, including education and self-administration in the vast areas controlled by the People’s Protection Units And east of the country.

On the other hand, Hamo criticized in his remarks the decision of US President Donald Trump, the withdrawal of troops from Syria, pointing out that this step was very urgent and should not be taken in the context of continuing to fight the Islamic State,

The commander of the “People’s Protection Units” that the US envoy to Syria, James Jeffrey, spoke, during his last meeting, to satisfy Turkey and protect the north of Syria at the same time.

Talks between the Kurds and Damascus were renewed following Trump’s decision to withdraw his troops from the northeastern areas controlled by the People’s Protection Units, which came amid Turkish preparations for a large-scale military operation that would be the third in Syria and target Kurdish armed groups in the territories.

Meanwhile, the “SDF launched a campaign of arrests in the towns of Mansoura and Heneida in the western Raqqa countryside.

“The Kurdish factions of the Syria Democratic Forces deployed in the two towns mentioned thousands of fighters and launched a large campaign of arrests.

The campaign of arrests comes against the background of the great mobility witnessed by the towns of Mansoura and Hinaida last week, where the Arab tribes arose against the Kurdish factions and American patrol elements after the killing of a young man and stabbed three other tribes by Kurdish fighters, where tribesmen attacked the Kurdish headquarters and burned and expelled Kurdish and US soldiers who were in a state of panic and confusion and withdrew outside the two towns.

“The fighters of SDF raided more than 600 houses in the towns of Heneida, but the residents of the town brought men, boys, women and children in the face of the Kurdish forces and stood in front of dozens of SUVs equipped with machine guns and attacked the Kurdish forces with stones and sticks and prevented the arrest of any of the people, while the heavily armed forces fired at the residents without succeeding in intimidating them, pointing out that a young man in the third decade of age was shot in the shoulder, but in the end enabled the people to thwart the campaign of arrests and the expulsion of SDF, which hit a security cordon to encircle villages of Heneida, Mansoura and Al Safsaf after withdrawing from them”.