“No Kurdish entity in Syria” is the title of the next Astana 

Written by Nasser Kandil,

The deal disclosed by the Russian Caliber missiles and the declarations of the Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov between ISIS and the armed Kurdish groups through a barter of peaceful handing over of Raqqa in exchange of ensuring secure withdrawal corridors to the Syrian Badia revealed the priority of the formation of a local Kurdish authority in the provinces of Raqqa, Deir Al Zour, and Hasaka according to these Kurdish groups to their belonging to Syrian national auspices, that includes the right of participation in making the form of the new regime and constitution based on the sticking to the unity of the Syrian territories. The threats issued by these groups to the Popular Crowd not to enter the Syrian territories in the provinces of Hasaka and Deir Al Zour even through an understanding with the Syrian state to fight ISIS emphasize this priority on one hand, and the exclusiveness of the US reference in formulating orientations of these groups on the other hand, even at the expense of their Syrian identity and the credibility of the war on ISIS at the same time.

During the war years, the Kurdish armed groups have got a special sponsorship and a distinctive treatment from the Syrian country and from Russia. Despite the special relationship with Washington which was apparent from a long time, the Syrian state did not hesitate to overlook the bloody events which affected it by these groups in the province of Hasaka, on the contrary it tried to protect them in Manbej against the Turkish threat at the moment of the apparent US abandonment, it facilitated opening the road Al Qamishli-Aleppo-Damascus-Beirut, while Russia has waged battles to impose the participation of these groups in the rounds of the negotiation in Geneva despite the absence of the US pressure on its allies to impose the Kurdish component and its presence, till the scandal of the deal with ISIS occurred, so it was as “the straw that broke the camel’s back”.

The deal with ISIS at the expense of the war with the organization which took the title of the Kurdish armed formations and the title of the American occupation of part of Syria is bigger than a tactical event or field performance, it is an expression of US strategy that accepted by the Kurds, and which draws the priorities according to the Russian and Syrian reading, it based on the priority of forming Kurdish military economic and political privacy inspired by the experience of Iraqi Kurdistan with which the efforts of the political solution have been disrupted, it expands the war on ISIS by transferring the organization from one place to another through which Washington gets a coverage for its occupation as an associate of a local group that has legitimacy, rights, and privacy. In the north east of Syria there are oil and agricultural wealth and a limited number of populations that will be reduced with the hegemony of one part of the region components. This makes it more attractive to the Americans as an alternative of the failure in having control over all of Syria. The unannounced Kurdish state in Syria is useful for the Americans through its connection with the project of the seeking to expand through other groups to complete having control of the Syrian-Iraqi borders even in a short depth of the Kurdish dominance areas, so what is the need of Washington for a political solution in Syria while the management of chaos seems more useful?

Strategic shifts will result from the Syrian, Russian, and Iranian clarity for what is going on, it is a clarity that seems Turkish as well, so this will make next Astana meeting more important than before with a priority entitled the prevention of turning the Kurdish privacy into a project of targeting the unity of Syria. This is the significance of the speech of the Russian President about the concern of the risks of dividing Syria, as it is the significance of using the strategic caliber missiles to send a message that the matter is a red Russian line.

The equation since Geneva I till Geneva XI was under the title of no political settlement except the priority of the war on terrorism. Today the equation became no credibility of the war on terrorism without sticking to the unity of Syria. As the seeking was for an alliance based on the partnership in the war on terrorism as an entrance for the partnership in the political solution in Syria, the seeking becomes for an alliance based on the sticking to the unity of Syria as a condition for the partnership in the alliance of the war on terrorism and the political solution in Syria, Astana seems a title that indicated to the next task.

Translated by Lina Shehadeh,