HTS-led Syria will not tolerate a second authority: Spox

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A spokesperson for Syria’s transitional government said on Wednesday that no authority other than the central government in Damascus will be recognized while affirming that Kurds are equal partners in rebuilding the nation.

“We will not accept any part of Syrian territory to remain outside the control of the current government in Damascus,” Obeida Arnaout, spokesperson for the new Syrian administration’s political affairs office, told Rudaw’s Nalin Hassan.

Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) led a lightning blitz rebel on Damascus in recent weeks that toppled Bashar al-Assad.

Arnaout did not mention the Kurdish enclave in Syria by name but emphasized the territorial integrity of the new Syria.

The HTS has avoided armed clashes with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) - the de facto army of northeast Syria (Rojava).

Rojava authorities have expressed their readiness to sit down with HTS leadership to determine the future of Kurds in Syria, ordering its institutions to raise the new flag of Syria as a gesture of goodwill.

During more than a dozen years of civil war, Kurds were able to control most parts of Rojava and some Arab-majority towns. However, they lost some areas to Turkey and Syrian militias it supports in 2018 and 2019. The SDF also withdrew from Tal Rifaat and Manbij after Ankara and the militants launched attacks against them while the HTS-led groups were fighting the toppled regime.

“We view every component of the Syrian people as a partner in the nation... but we are talking about a stage of specific requirements,” Arnout said.

Turkey-backed militants, who call themselves the Syrian National Army (SNA), control swathes of territory in northern Syria. It is not clear how the new government in Damascus will deal with these areas.

United Nations Special Envoy to Syria Geir Pedersen said on Tuesday that while much of Syria appears stable the situation remains “fragile,” with ongoing violence and displacement in Rojava threatening the country's peace.

Syria’s caretaker prime minister, Mohammed al-Bashir, told Italian daily Corriere della Sera this week that the new Syrian state will “guarantee the rights of all people and all communities in Syria.”

“Under Assad’s regime, the Kurds were deprived of most of their rights. However, we view them as entitled to rights that must be restored to them, just like any other component of the Syrian community,” the spokesperson said.

Kurds in Syria have long faced systemic repression and discrimination from the Syrian government, including attacks on peaceful gatherings, arrests of political activists, and bans on cultural celebrations. Kurds have been detained, tortured, and denied basic political and cultural rights.

Thousands of Kurds have also been denied access to full citizenship rights, with many being rendered stateless due to exclusionary policies. These policies date back decades and disproportionately targeted Kurds, stripping them of their nationality and relegating them to second-class status, denying education, employment opportunities, and political representation, leaving them more vulnerable to poverty and marginalization. While there were reforms in 2011, the process was limited and disrupted by ongoing conflict.

On Tuesday, residents of the Kurdish neighborhood of Rukn al-Din, often called the neighborhood of the Kurds, told Rudaw’s Halkawt Azees that they want to have an effective participation in the political process and be provided with Kurdish education while having an independent administration.

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