On November 26, Hawas Akid, a member of the Syrian Kurdish National Council (KNC) and the Syrian High Negotiations Committee (HNC) told the Kurdish Rudaw TV that he suggested to Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir to increase the number of Syrian Kurds in the different committees of the Syrian opposition during a private meeting.
“We talked for a long time about the situation in the Kurdish areas in the Syrian Kurdistan, and about the structure of the KNC … I presented to the Saudi minister the KNC’s vision for a solution in Syria,” Akid told Rudaw TV.
Akid said that al-Jubier stressed the importance of the KNC and promised that Saudi Arabia will work assisting the Kurds to get their rights.
Saudi Arabia’s relations with the KNC is another threat to the future of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The KNC and SDF have been in a conflict since the SDF arrested dozens of KNC members and leaders during 2016 and accused them of “supporting terrorism” or “corruption”.
The Saudi move towards the KNC also proves that Saudi Arabia is not a direct supporter of the SDF as some Kurdish sources claimed in the past. In fact, some Syrian activists argue that weakening of the SDF is within the interest of Saudi Arabia because it is influential in most of the Arab tribes’ areas in eastern Syria. The Saudis will need this area if they want their allies in the Syrian opposition to win in any future elections in Syria.
The Saudi-backed Syrian opposition has also criticized the SDF on many occasions. On October 29, the head of the Saudi-backed Syrian National Coordination Committee for the Forces of Democratic Change (NCC) Hassan Abdel Azim criticized the SDF and emphasized that the Syrian opposition is against a federal system in Syria.
Based on the most optimistic estimates, Kurds are about %10 of Syria’s population. Now that Saudis are so fond of minorities’ rights, it’s high time to give rights to the Shi’a minority (%15-%20) of Saudi Arabia and Shi’a majority (%80) of Bahrain. Let’s see how they like it.
Saudis became smart. They learned to play Kurdish factions against one another after what happened in Iraq.
Quite right! There is no Kurdish Kurdistan,just syria in which some Kurds live in some areas.
Also i laughed when sauds say will help kurds have rights. Firstly, kurds already had a cornucopia of rights in assads syria and secondly sauds are not known for fostering anyone’s rights!
I guess being born into a saud ruling family and/or being a zionatoyanqyistani politician means you can talk shit and never have to say you are sorry.
When oh when, will saud family be overthrown and we get to see someone else take over ,possibly without being despots as well!
KSA supporting the KNC is supporting the kurdish parties that are separatist. KNC wants an independent Rojava. PYD wants a federal Syria where kurds have the same rights as arabs.
It sounds like the beginning of a Saudi miss-step sadly which will either go no where but bad with separatists; but may allow the KSA to evolve into the support of the SDF/YPG/YPJ as the most tolerantly inclusive group. The American Federal State System or the Canadian Federal Provincial system is something that both the Americans, Russians and International community can buy into, not a divided Syria. This progression would also mean that the KSA is not going against the long term interests of 23 million Syrians, just Assad, his Iranian backers and Erdogan who is in the process of destroying Turkish Foreign Policy and possibly Turkey itself?
I.m not sure if this is a good thing, or the proverbial kiss of death for this Kurdish opposition group. It’s not like the KSA has such a stellar track record in picking the right horses to win.
” It’s not like the KSA has such a stellar track record in picking the right horses to win. ”
Even when the KSA owns the only two horses in the race :)
Our attention should be on the other hand. The Evil US Government hand of Trump. One day Trump says no more funding of SDF the next day Saudi say they will fund. We are not stupid, The US is still causing death and destruction in Syria. The US has blood on its hands causing the death of 400,000 Syrians by funding this civil war. US out of Al Sham. Go home
Saudi Arabia is not part of the solution in Syria. As an obsessive enemy of Iran, SA does not participate in the peace talks initiated by Russia, which includes Iran as well as Turkey.
KNC are separatists they want to separate and join barzani and support FSA more..