Syrian Kurds demand autonomy to merge with Assad’s army

Bloomberg

Syrian Kurds will merge their forces into President Bashar al-Assad’s military if he agrees to grant them some measure of political autonomy, an envoy in Moscow said.
The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces can incorporate their fighters into Assad’s army “if there is agreement on a new constitution guaranteeing the rights of all peoples in Syria rather than keeping central control,” Reshad Bienav said in an interview in the Russian capital.
But he also warned against any attempt by the Syrian government to use force in the Kurdish-controlled northeast. “If they attack us, we’ll fight back,” he said.
The alliance with the US has left the Kurds with the largest region outside of Syrian central government control following the defeat of IS.
President Donald Trump’s administration last month reversed course on plans to pull out all 2,000 American troops in Syria, committing to keep 400 soldiers in the country to prevent a resurgence of IS and protect the Kurds, the US’s wartime allies.
As the Syrian civil war winded down, Kurds have looked for American protection against a possible offensive by Turkey, which views the Kurdish forces as a terrorist organisation. The Syrian Democratic Forces are led by an affiliate of the PKK, which took up arms against the Turkish state in the 1970s and has been blamed for tens of thousands of deaths since.
Further complicating matters, the US also classifies the PKK as a terrorist organisation.
The US’s partnership with the group’s Syrian wing has brought ties with NATO ally Turkey to the breaking point.