MESOP REPORT : According to Naqshbandi, some 200 Kurds had left the Kurdistan region separately to join radical anti-regime militant groups in Syria

BAGHDAD 10-3-2014 – englishnews tr  – A Kurdistan regional administration official expressed hope on Monday that a recent Saudi ban on groups fighting the Syrian regime would convince 200 Kurds currently fighting alongside the Syrian opposition to return home.

“The Saudi decision is good; it can contribute to the return of many people from Syria to their homes,” Mariwan Naqshbandi, spokesman for the Kurdistan Regional Administration’s Endowments Ministry, told Anadolu Agency.  On Friday, Saudi Arabia officially designated Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood and eight other groups “terrorist” organizations.

Along with the Brotherhood, Saudi’s terror blacklist now includes the Al-Qaeda network, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, Al-Qaeda in Yemen, Al-Qaeda in Iraq, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the Al-Nusra Front, “Hezbollah in the kingdom” and the Houthis in Yemen. Saudi Arabia also offered an amnesty to 1,200 Saudi nationals currently fighting the Syrian regime. According to Naqshbandi, some 200 Kurds had left the Kurdistan region separately to join radical anti-regime militant groups in Syria.He expected other countries to follow suit by bringing nationals currently fighting in Syria back home. Naqshbandi said his ministry had asked relevant agencies in the Kurdish Regional Administration to pardon the 200 Kurds currently fighting in Syria in hopes of persuading them to return home permanently. englishnews@aa.com.tr