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NPR’s Leila Fadel asks former State Division official Wa’el Alzayat in regards to the prospects of Kurdish forces reaching an settlement to hitch the Syrian military forward of an end-of-year deadline.
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Syria has simply days to combine Kurdish militia forces into its nationwide navy. The Kurdish-led, U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces and the brand new Syrian authorities signed a peace deal in March with a deadline of the top of this yr. However that integration not solely hasn’t occurred but. Simply this week, the SDF and Syria’s nationwide forces fought one another within the metropolis of Aleppo. The 2 sides shortly agreed to cease taking pictures, nevertheless it’s not clear how lengthy that can final. So what does this all imply for the way forward for this new Syria’s safety and its nationwide unity? To debate that, we’re joined by Wa’el Alzayat. He’s a former Syria outreach coordinator on the State Division. Good morning, and thanks for being on this system.
WA’EL ALZAYAT: Good morning. Thanks for having me.
FADEL: Wa’el, the deadline is only a few days away. Is there a path that this integration can occur?
ALZAYAT: It is unclear. It doesn’t essentially imply that there might be an all-out conflict if this deadline comes and goes with that settlement, nevertheless it definitely raises the prospects of 1 or at the least continued skirmishes like we simply seen just a few days in the past.
FADEL: Yeah.
ALZAYAT: However undoubtedly, I feel each side do perceive, I feel, that the prospect of that all-out conflict is – can be devastating for all concerned. And the leaderships on each side try to keep away from it, however undoubtedly there’s an deadlock.
FADEL: What are the principle challenges right here, the principle sticking factors? Is it…
ALZAYAT: Yeah.
FADEL: …An absence of belief?
ALZAYAT: That, for certain. They merely not solely not know one another effectively, however they fought in opposition to one another earlier than the toppling of Assad, but additionally the mixing of the navy models of the Kurdish militias, the SDF, the Syrian Democratic Forces, into the broader nationwide military. Damascus desires them to be built-in as people, whereas the SDF desires them to be built-in as a complete unit. And that is a extremely massive sticking level for each side.
FADEL: Now, the SDF, the Kurdish-dominated forces, are U.S. backed. How concerned is the U.S. in these negotiations, and the way concerned ought to they be?
ALZAYAT: Very a lot on each side, from the March settlement until now, the U.S. – the Trump administration, Ambassador Tom Barrack – have been closely concerned, in addition to the Pentagon and CENTCOM in making an attempt to bridge these variations. The U.S. has personnel in that space. It has a stake in each side coming to settlement, given their mutual need to struggle and forestall the return of the Islamic State and different counterterrorism priorities. In order that they’re closely concerned in all features, and so they nonetheless are till this very second.
FADEL: I need to come again to that concern of belief. I imply, the brand new president of Syria, Ahmed Sharaa, was designated as a terrorist by the U.S. only a few months in the past, one thing like seven months in the past. And I’ve heard from lots of minorities in Syria trepidation about his historical past and about issues which have occurred since he took energy – Syrian forces killing minorities, Alawites, Druze. And now this Kurdish settlement appears to be falling by way of. Can a united, various Syria emerge in these situations after, you understand, so lengthy beneath dictatorship beneath the Assad regime?
ALZAYAT: It may if the Syrians need it to, and nearly all of Syrians need the nation to remain collectively and to maneuver on past its troubled historical past and to rebuild. You already know, I visited the nation 3 times for the reason that elimination of Assad. And there is pleasure. There’s hope.
FADEL: Yeah.
ALZAYAT: And there are these critical, critical challenges. You talked about the episodic violence that we noticed on the coast…
FADEL: Yeah.
ALZAYAT: …In Suwayda and the south. And, you understand, many of us thought that if and when Assad is defeated or is moved, it could be – and I hate to say it – a complete lot bloodier and lots messier, extra like Rwanda and Bosnia. And fortunately it hasn’t been, however there are these challenges. Now, I’d say that the – you understand, President Sharaa and his group have, clearly, I feel, an extended strategy to go by way of inclusive governance however have completed a reasonably good job in making certain that the violence that is occurred doesn’t spiral uncontrolled. And so they’ve been recommended for it, and I feel rightfully as a result of what we noticed on the coast in Suwayda, I feel, have been actually a prelude to an all-out civil conflict that on the finish, the federal government safety forces ended up intervening and placing an finish to.
FADEL: Now, this explicit second with the Kurds, you stated you are not anticipating an all-out conflict. What’s your hope within the subsequent few days? We simply have just a few seconds.
ALZAYAT: Yeah. I feel that they both attain an settlement or proceed to commit themselves to peaceable dialogue and a political course of. Even when it takes longer, it is a complete lot higher than an all-out conflict.
FADEL: Wa’el Alzayat is a former Syria outreach coordinator on the State Division. He is now the CEO of the Muslim American advocacy group Emgage. Thanks a lot in your time.
ALZAYAT: Thanks.
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