WASHINGTON, October 16. /TASS/. US Republican Senator Rand Paul (Kentucky) has put forward an idea on Wednesday that the US authorities hold talks between Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan to settle the issue of Kurds living in northern Syria.
"In Syria, we’ve been unwilling to negotiate in the sense that our goal has been [to] remove Assad, [to] replace Assad, so no one wants to negotiate with Assad. I think the one thing hasn’t been picked up on yet, and I think it’s going to be ironic because everyone seems to be concerned about the Kurds. I think the Kurds’ permanent solution is much more likely to come from Assad," the lawmaker said.
Paul underlined that the Syrian president "largely is going to stay" and will continue to stay in power. "The war is largely over, Assad stays," he stressed. "So really, if we are going to be realistic about this and we want to protect the Kurds, maybe the diplomatic arena has gotten simplified. Now essentially you have Turkey on one side and Syria on the other. <…> I think somebody from the State Department that’s involved with diplomacy are to be saying why aren’t we using our leverage to get Turkey and Assad to talk," he proposed.
He continued, saying that the US should "acknowledge that someone’s got to talk to Assad." "If we did, the goal would actually be to allow the Kurds to leave in northeastern Syria, similar to the way the Kurds live in Iraq. It’s not always easy there, it’s been very messy and there’ve been a lot of problems. But currently, the Iraqi Kurds trade with the Turks and have a fairly decent and robust trade. Over the last ten years, it’s actually increased," the senator underlined.
"I think we should look at it as an opportunity, as a breakthrough diplomatically," Paul emphasized, voicing hope that at least someone in the State Department will listen to him. Paul contemplated that Erdogan might withdraw Turkish forces from Syria if Assad provides certain guarantees to him, particularly regarding the Syrian-Turkish border. "This is a kind of conversation we’ve kind of prevented from happening," he added.
On October 9, Ankara launched a new military operation in northern Syria dubbed Peace Spring, which began with airstrikes on positions of Kurdish units. The objective is to create a buffer zone in northern Syria where Syrians refugees could return, Ankara claims. The buffer zone will also establish a security belt along the Turkish border. The Syrian SANA news agency branded the operation as aggression, while the international community condemned Ankara’s actions. On October 13, Damascus struck a deal with Kurds and sent troops to northern Syria to counteract the Turkish army.