FILE IMAGE: sdf-press.com
In the first Kurdish respond to the U.S. decision to withdraw its troops from Syria, Aldar Khalil, co-president of the executive body of the Movement for a Democratic Society (TEV-DEM), said that the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) never pinned their hopes on foreign forces.
“We never said that we will protect ourselves with foreign forces or that we will achieve our revolution with the support of foreign forces, we rely on our own power,” Khalil said commenting on the withdrawal of U.S. forces from northeastern Syria, according to the Syrian-Kurdish Hawar News Agency (ANHA).
The TEV-DEM is a coalition of several Kurdish parties in northeastern Syria, including the Democratic Union Party (PYD). Together these parties lead the Syrian Democratic Council (SDC), which is the political wing of the SDF.
Earlier, a US official told the Reuters news agency that the time-frame for U.S. troop pullout from Syria is expected to be between 60 to 100 days. However, Khalil said that no time-frame for the withdrawal has not been set yet.
“If they stayed we can benefit from their presence, and if they left, the resistance of our people is more important,” Khalil added.
The TEV-DEM co-president also warned from Turkey’s planned attack against the SDF in northeastern Syria and called on the international community to support the group
“We call upon all democratic forces, the international community and the international countries to stand by the people of northern and eastern Syria,” said Khalil.
An earlier report by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said that the SDF’s leadership was “shocked” by the U.S. decision and saw it as “a stab in the back.” The Kurdish-dominated group is yet to release an official statement on the matter.
