Syria's Kurds hold conference on vision for country's future

QAMISHLI, Syria — Syria's Kurdish parties held a conference on Saturday aimed at presenting a unified vision for the country's future following the fall of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad, a high-ranking participant told AFP.

Eldar Khalil, an official in the Kurdish Democratic Union Party, said that since Kurds were a major component of the country, they "must present a solution and a project proposal for the future of Syria".

On the question of federalism, Khalil said it was "one of the proposals on the table".

More than 400 people, including representatives from major Kurdish parties in Syria, Iraq and Turkey, took part in the "Unity of the Kurdish Position and Ranks" conference in Qamishli, according to the Kurdish Anha news agency.

The Kurdish-led Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, which has controlled large swathes of Syria's northeast since the early years of the country's civil war, was represented at the gathering, as were groups opposed to it.

Last month, the Kurdish administration struck a deal to integrate into state institutions, with the new Islamist-led leadership seeking to unify the country following the December overthrow of Assad.

The agreement, however, has not prevented the Kurdish administration from criticising the new authorities, including over the formation of a new government and a recent constitutional declaration that concentrated executive power in the hands of interim President Ahmad Al Sharaa during the transition period.

Mazloum Abdi, head of the administration's armed wing, the Syrian Democratic Forces, said at the conference that "my message to all Syrian constituents and the Damascus government is that the conference does not aim, as some say, at division".

It was being held, he added, "for the unity of Syria".

Abdi included a call for "a new decentralised constitution that includes all components" of society.

"We support all Syrian components receiving their rights in the constitution to be able to build a decentralized democratic Syria that embraces everyone," he said.

Khalil said that the participants will also discuss ways to address the role of the Kurds in the new Syria.