Intel: SDF commander reports progress on Kurdish reconciliation talks in Syria

Mazlum Kobani, commander of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, announced Friday that the first stage of reconciliation talks with rival Kurdish National Council has “gone well” and that “the second phase has begun.”

Kobani tweeted just as president of the Syrian Democratic Council’s executive committee Ilham Ahmed, who also hails from Mazlum’s Democratic Union Party/People's Protection Units (PYD/YPG), spoke via teleconference from northeast Syria.

Ahmed said, “So far we have only discussed political aspects. Issues such as their participation in the self-administration system or any possibility of a military integration have not been discussed so far.”

“We have realized that actually we don’t have that many major differences politically between us,” she said. Ahmed said the PYD does not demand that KNC give up its affiliation with the wider Turkey-backed Syrian opposition.