QAMISHLI, Syria — The Kurds will likely demand federal status in Syria — which would allow them to preserve more than a decade of regional self-governance — when a joint delegation of ruling and opposition parties eventually begins formal talks with Damascus. They are setting the bar high to persuade Syria’s new Islamist rulers to accept some form of decentralized rule, Syrian Kurdish officials have confirmed.  

But the officials acknowledged that Damascus is unlikely to accede to such demands. “They probably won’t accept even an autonomous entity, but there needs to be something in a final Syrian constitution that guarantees Kurdish rights,” Mohammed Ismail, the president of the Kurdistan National Council (KNC), which represents a group of Syrian Kurdish opposition parties, told Al-Monitor in an exclusive interview at the body’s headquarters last week. 

The Democratic Unity Party (PYD), which is part of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (DAANES), and the KNC are set to present their common vision at a national dialogue conference that is due to be held at the end of April in Qamishli. US State Department official Scott Bolz, charged with the northeast Syria file, and his French counterpart, Remy Drouin, are expected to take part in the conference, along with Hamid Darbandi, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) official who holds a similar portfolio. 

The United States, France and the KRG have played a pivotal role in getting the historically hostile parties to shelve their differences in the wake of the fall of former President Bashar al-Assad's regime and to present a united front in future negotiations with Damascus, which is now led by interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa.