Mazloum Abdi (second from right), the commander-in-chief of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), and Hamid Darbandi (right), envoy for Iraqi Kurdish politician Masoud Barzani (head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party), attend the pan-Kurdish conference "Unity and Consensus" in Qamishli, northeastern Syria, on April 26, 2025. (Credit: AFP/Delil Souleiman.)
Several Kurdish parties met Saturday in northeastern Syria to adopt a unified position on their role in rebuilding the country after the fall of Bashar Assad, a participant told AFP.
Supported by Washington, the Kurds control vast territories in northern and eastern Syria, including major oil and gas fields.
The purpose of the meeting is to discuss "how to build and establish the Syria of tomorrow," of which "the Kurds are an essential component," said Eldar Khalil, a member of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), the main party of the Kurdish autonomous administration in Qamishli, to AFP.
"The Kurds must propose a roadmap and a project for Syria’s future," he added, noting that "the federal model" is "among the proposals on the table."
According to the Kurdish news agency Anha, more than 400 figures, including Kurdish representatives from Iraq and Turkey, are participating in this conference titled "Unity of Kurdish position and ranks."
The Kurds see the end of Bashar Assad's power, ousted by the new Islamist authorities on December 8, as an opportunity to be better represented in a multi-ethnic country and to contribute to building a new Syria that respects the rights of all its components.
The new authorities have rejected any attempt at division or separatism, implicitly targeting Kurdish aspirations to consolidate autonomy gained over the conflict since 2011.
President Ahmad Al-Sharaa and the commander of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), Mazloum Abdi, signed a bilateral agreement on March 11 to integrate the institutions of the Kurdish autonomous administration into the Syrian state.
The SDF, the armed wing of the autonomous administration, spearheaded the fight against the Islamic State group, which they territorially defeated in 2019.
"The conference is not aimed, as some claim, at dividing the country, but on the contrary, to promote the unity of Syria," Abdi said at the opening of the conference, which also includes rival Kurdish parties of the autonomous administration.
"We want all Syrian components to obtain their rights in the constitution so that we can build a democratic, decentralized, and inclusive Syria," he added.
The Kurds rejected the constitutional declaration adopted by Damascus, which grants full powers to Sharaa, believing it does not reflect Syrian diversity.
