Interesting Developments Expected on Syria Issue: Karen Hovanisyan

The expert on Kurdish and Turkish studies, Karen Hovanisyan, wrote on his Facebook page: “Interesting developments are expected on the Syria issue. As the Russians make no concessions to the Turks at the negotiation table, the U.S. has activated another factor. On February 18, U.S. Special Representative for Syria James Jeffrey met with Mazloum Abdi, the commander of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), in northeastern Syria. Information about the meeting's location and duration is lacking, and there are several fragmented details regarding the topics discussed. It is only known that they also talked about the recent developments in the fight against ISIS.

Interestingly, before meeting with the Kurdish commander, James Jeffrey had meetings with officials from the Iraqi Kurdistan, including President Nechirvan Barzani. The topic of discussion was the issue of Syrian Kurds. Since 2014, the Americans have been actively cooperating with the Syrian Kurds, arming them in their fight against ISIS. Despite the U.S. decision in 2019 to withdraw its troops from areas controlled by Syrian Kurds, the Kurds and Americans still maintain normal relations.