Syrian Kurds, opposition take cases to Washington
Delegations from Kurdish-held northeast Syria and the Turkey-backed Syrian National Coalition will meet separately with US officials this week.
Two Syrian political movements that offer competing visions for the country’s future are paying official visits to Washington this week.
Both the US-backed Kurds and the Turkey-supported opposition are there to seek assurances from the Biden administration that Syria won’t be forgotten in the midst of what many in the region perceive as America’s gradual retreat from the Middle East.
In their highest-level visit since the pandemic began, political representatives for the Syrian groups — the National Coalition for Syrian Revolution and Opposition Forces (commonly known as the Syrian National Coalition) and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Council (SDC) — have a string of meetings planned, but not with each other.
Neither side views the other as a legitimate representative of the Syrian people. The mutual distrust was cemented by multiple Turkish military offensives in largely Kurdish areas of northern Syria that were carried out by Syrian opposition factions loyal to Ankara.
