Damascus backs out of Paris talks with Kurds: official

DAMASCUS, Syria: A Syrian government official said Saturday that authorities would not participate in planned talks in Paris on integrating the Kurdish semi-autonomous administration into the Syrian state and demanded future negotiations be held in Damascus.

The move came a day after the Kurdish administration, which controls swathes of the north and northeast, held a conference involving several Syrian minority communities, the first such event since Islamists overthrew longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in December.

Participants included the head of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) Mazloum Abdi, who on March 10 signed a deal with President Ahmed al-Sharaa to integrate the Kurds’ civil and military institutions into the state.

The conference’s final statement called for “a democratic constitution that… establishes a decentralised state”, guaranteeing the participation of all components of Syrian society.

Damascus has previously rejected calls for decentralisation.

“This conference was a blow to current negotiating efforts, and based on this, (the government) will not participate in any meetings scheduled in Paris,” state news agency SANA quoted an unidentified government official as saying.

The government “calls on international mediators to move all negotiations to Damascus, as this is the legitimate, national location for dialogue among Syrians”, the official said.

Late last month, Syria, France and the United States said they agreed to convene talks in Paris “as soon as possible” on implementing the March 10 agreement.

Recent sectarian clashes in south Syria’s Druze-majority Sweida province and massacres of the Alawite community on Syria’s coast in March have deepened Kurdish concerns as progress on negotiations with Damascus has largely stalled.

The event also saw video addresses from an influential spiritual leader of Syria’s Druze community in the country’s south, Hikmat al-Hijri, and from prominent Alawite spiritual leader Ghazal Ghazal.

Damascus has strongly criticised Hijri after he called last month for international protection for the Druze and appealed to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for assistance during the sectarian clashes.

The government will not “sit at the negotiating table with any party that seeks to revive the era of the former regime under any cover”, the official told SANA, condemning the hosting of “separatist figures involved in hostile acts”.

“The government sees the conference as an attempt to internationalise Syrian affairs” and invite foreign interference, the official added.