Visiting French FM Calls For 'political Solution' With Syria Kurds

Sumaira FH Published January 03, 2025 | 10:31 PM

Visiting French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot called on Syria's new rulers Friday to reach a settlement with Kurdish authorities in the northeast

Damascus, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 3rd Jan, 2025) Visiting French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot called on Syria's new rulers Friday to reach a settlement with Kurdish authorities in the northeast.

Barrot and his German counterpart Annalena Baerbock met Syria's new ruler Ahmed al-Sharaa in Damascus, in the highest-level visit by major Western powers since Islamist-led rebels seized power last month.

"A political solution must be reached with France's allies, the Kurds, so that they are fully integrated into this political process that is beginning today," Jean-Noel Barrot said after meeting civil society representatives in Damascus.

On Thursday, Barrot spoke with the head of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), Mazloum Abdi, and discussed "the ongoing transition in Syria", the French foreign ministry said.

Kurds fear for the de facto autonomy their administration has enjoyed since early in the civil war, with Sharaa last week telling Al Arabiya television that the Kurdish-led forces should be integrated into the new national army.

Earlier this week, a Syrian official told AFP that Sharaa held "positive" talks with SDF representatives -- his first since seizing power.

Barrot also said he will call on the transitional authorities "to appeal to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons so that this organisation can quickly send a team to Syria and begin to assess and proceed with the destruction of chemical weapons stocks".