US prohibiting Kurdish groups from negotiating with Syria: Bogdanov

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
21 Jun 2023 00:09
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Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov says the US is not interested in peace talks in Syria, and as such is prohibiting its Kurdish allies from solving their problems with the Syrian government through dialogue.

Syrian President Bashar Assad and Mikhail Bogdanov, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia and Special Representative of the President of Russia for the Middle East, review an honor guard during a welcome ceremony upon Assad's arrival at Vnukovo airport in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, March 14, 2023. (AP via SANA)

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov said the US has been preventing its Kurdish allies from negotiating with the Syrian government ahead of the 20th Astana meeting.

"Of course, the Americans support a number of Kurdish organizations that organize such a mini-quasi-state with their administration there. This is absolutely unacceptable. Of course, we are for solving the problems of the Kurds through dialogue. But, unfortunately, I think that the Americans are not interested in this, and their Kurdish allies are not allowed to have a dialogue with Damascus," Bogdanov told reporters.

Astana talks on Syria are due to be held in Kazakhstan's capital, Astana, on June 20-21.

Several delegations are expected to attend the talks -- including deputy foreign ministers from guarantor countries, namely Russia, Turkey, and Iran, members of the Syrian government and Syrian opposition, and observers - representatives of the UN, Jordan, Lebanon, and Iraq.

The last time a session was held was on November 22-23, 2022.

On April 4, during a quadripartite meeting in Moscow that involved assistant foreign ministers of Syria, Russia, Iran, and Turkey, Syria laid out three conditions for normalizing ties with Turkey.

These include "ending the illegal Turkish presence on Syrian territory, non-interference in the Syrian internal affairs, and combating terrorism in all its forms."

On June 14, Bogdanov said that “the normalization roadmap is ready,” adding that “our goal here is productive negotiation with our partners in this endeavor; we hope the new meeting in Astana will allow us to move forward with a satisfactory development.”