Page 9 - ATODAY

WORLD NEWS 9
Thursday 17 March 2016

Kurds plan to declare a federal region in northern Syria

been an ardent supporter prior to a negotiated politi- unity and territorial integrity
of the Kurds in the region, cal resolution in Syria. of Syria.”
helping them in navigating “We’re focused on ad- However, if a resolution is
the delicate rivalries in Iraq vancing a negotiated po- reached by the Syrian peo-
after the 2003 invasion that litical transition toward an ple and their representa-
toppled Saddam Hussein. inclusive government that tive, and if it includes a fed-
U.S. State Department is capable of serving the in- eral system that allows for
spokesman Mark Toner terests of all the Syrian peo- limited or semi-autonomy
told reporters that the U.S. ple,” Toner said. “We’ve for different regions, Toner
opposes declarations of also been very clear that said Washington would not
autonomous federal zones we’re committed to the oppose it.

Kurdish female fighters of the YPG, carry their weapons as they
walk in the frontline of Kery Sabee village, northeast Syria. A
spokesman for a powerful Syrian Kurdish political party said
on Wednesday, March 16, 2016 that his faction is planning to
declare a federal region in northern Syria, a model it hopes can
be applied to the entire country.

(KPP via AP)

ZEINA KARAM which would effectively
PHILIP ISSA combine three Kurdish-
Associated Press led autonomous areas, is
BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian Kurds in fact meant to preserve
are preparing a plan to national unity and pre-
declare a federal region vent Syria from breaking up
in the area they control along sectarian lines.
across northern Syria, say- “After all the blood that
ing Wednesday it is a mod- has been spilled, Syrians
el for a more decentralized will not accept anything
government in which all less than decentralization,”
ethnic groups would be Araj said.
represented. By making the announce-
Although the idea might ment as U.N.-sponsored
seem like a way forward af- peace negotiations take
ter five years of civil war, it place in Geneva, Syr-
faces big obstacles: It was ia’s main Kurdish faction
promptly dismissed by the was trying to become
government of Syrian Presi- a major player in what-
dent Bashar Assad and the ever central government
rebels who oppose him, emerges from the war. The
both fearing it would lead faction has been excluded
to a partition of the coun- from the talks.
try. The idea of a federal region
Turkey also opposes it, wary appears to have gained
of the growing Kurdish influ- some traction lately as
ence in the border region world and regional powers
of northern Syria and its ef- grapple with ways to end
fect on its own Kurdish mi- the conflict. Russian For-
nority. eign Minister Sergey Lavrov
But Ahmad Araj, a Kurdish this week said such a fed-
official in northern Syria, in- eral system is one possible
sisted that a federal system option if the Syrian people
containing such a region, agree to it. The U.S. also has