WASHINGTON DC - As the death toll in Syria reaches 100,000 it is still unclear whether a proposed conference in Geneva, aimed at bringing the regime of Bashar al-Assad and his rebel enemies to the negotiating table, will go ahead as planned.
The UN special envoy to Syria Lakhdar Brahimi has already expressed doubts. Also, in a recent interview, the head of the Democratic Union Party (PYD) Salih Muslim said that he believes the so-called Geneva II conference will be postponed to September.
One of the main reasons for the delay is the disagreement among various groups over electing a new leader for the opposition and forming a transitional government to represent Syria.
Nevertheless, there have been some important developments recently, especially with regards to the Kurds of Syria.
Russia, a staunch ally of the Syrian regime, has officially invited the Supreme Kurdish Council (SKC) to Moscow and has publicly supported Kurds to attend the Geneva conference independently under the SKC, giving it a possible chance at gaining international recognition at the gathering.
Meanwhile, on June 19, the former president of the Syrian National Council (SNC) Abdulbaset Sieda, held a three-day meeting with representatives of the Syrian opposition in Erbil.
Speaking to the Turkish Anatolia news agency, he indicated that the Syrian opposition wanted to assure everyone that it would treat all ethnic and religious groups equally in a future Syria.
Kurdish groups have long feared that the Syrian Arab opposition led by the Muslim Brotherhood does not recognize Kurdish rights or their demand for autonomy in a post-Assad Syria.
Sieda also said that he was in Erbil to win the backing of Kurdistan Region President Massoud Barzani for the Syrian opposition.
Leaders of the Arab opposition have tried in the past two years to lure the Kurds into the fight against Assad’s regime. But Kurdish groups, mainly the PYD, fear brutal government retaliation against their areas that have so far escaped the violence raging in the rest of Syria.
Meanwhile, as Kurdish groups gear up for the proposed Geneva conference, a recent article in the Lebanese As-Safir newspaper says that the US ambassador in Syria, Robert Ford, is opposed to independent Kurdish representation at the proposed meeting.
According to the newspaper, Ford has said that someone like Sidea, a native Kurd who once headed the SNC, can speak on behalf of the Kurds.
But Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov has disagreed with this statement, saying, “Sieda is an individual and it is an unrealistic approach to say he represents the Kurds. The Kurds assigned by the SKC will participate in the Geneva conference on behalf of Kurds”.
The PYD’s Muslim also confirmed to Rudaw in a telephone interview that Moscow will not change its stance toward the Kurds’ independent participation at the conference.
On the other hand, leaders of Kurdish groups remain divided over who has the right to go to Geneva.
Abdulhakim Bashar, leader of the Kurdish Democratic Party of Syria told Rudaw that only the Kurdish National Council (KNC) can attend the conference. “They are prepared for it,” he said.
Bashar and other Kurdish politicians say that the SKC would not be accepted at the conference due to the PYD’s presence.
