ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A Syrian minister said on Tuesday that the relations between the interim government in Damascus and the Kurdistan Region are expected to “deepen,” highlighting the role of the Region’s leaders in the talks that led to the latest agreement between the Syrian government and Kurdish forces in the country.
“The understandings and agreements that took place between President Ahmed al-Sharaa and President Masoud Barzani played a genuine role in the recent agreement reached with the SDF. Therefore, we believe that relations with the Kurdistan Region will deepen, and God willing, it will play a meaningful role in the coming days,” Syria’s Minister of Administrative Development Mohammad Hassan al-Sakkaf told Rudaw on the sidelines of the World Governments Summit in Dubai.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and Damascus reached a comprehensive agreement late last month, which includes the integration of the civilian, security and military institutions of the Kurdish region in northeast Syria (Rojava) into state bodies.
The minister added that there are channels of communication between Erbil and Damascus, noting that “horizons are open before everyone for cooperation with the Syrian state to rescue it from this painful reality.”
He also described Syria’s relations with Iraq as “good.”
Regarding the integration of Rojava’s civilian institutions, the minister said that they need skilled people.
“We have received clear directives from the presidency regarding the integration of all employees of the Autonomous Administration into the civilian institutions of the Syrian government, and we are working within this framework. As a Syrian state emerging from war, we have a great need for all Syrian capacities, across all components and affiliations, in order to rebuild the Syrian reality in which we now live. We view every Syrian capacity as a genuine and essential asset, to become a key factor in advancing toward the new Syrian state,” he said.
Sangar Abdulrahman contributed to this article from Dubai.