MESOP MIDEAST WATCH: LAVROV CONTRA PKK/PYD IN SYRIA & IRAQ

Russia’s foreign minister advises Rojava’s Kurds to emulate Iraqi Kurds

Rudaw 15-1-2022 – ERBIL- Russia’s foreign minister on Friday said that the negotiating committees in northern Syria (Rojava) “do not represent all the Kurdish components,”

describing the Kurdish capital’s role in Iraq as “unique,” and calling for an arrangement similar to Erbil-Baghdad relations to be established in Syria.

“The Kurds who are a part of Syria’s constitution-writing committee, don’t represent all the Kurds in Syria,” Sergey Lavrov told Rudaw’s Kamiz Shadadi in a press conference.

Russia is a key backer of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Turkey and its proxies control stretches to northern Syria, including parts of the provinces of Aleppo and Idlib, as well as areas around Sari Kani (Ras al-Ain) and Gire Spi (Tel Abyad) in the northeast, that Turkey seized from Kurdish forces in a 2019 offensive. Ceasefires were brokered by Moscow and Washington, but are frequently violated.

Speaking of Iraq and the Kurdistan Region, most notably Erbil, Lavrov said, “The experience of Iraqi Kurds should be passed to Syria.”

The Russian official noted that he has previously visited Erbil and Baghdad, meeting with Iraqi and Kurdish officials.

“Some parties [sides] want to make Syria and Iraq their field of conflict,” he said, emphasizing that Russia wants Iraqis to live in peace, as “it will be the infrastructure of our economic and political relations.”

Lavrov also commented on the ties America and the Kurds share, in both the Region and Rojava.

The Americans “will never find good solutions for Kurds,” he said, noting that when America withdrew from Syria, “Kurds asked Russia to help them.”