US Officials Hold Talks With [Syrian Kurd] PYD In Paris

BasNews, Washington ^ | 17.10.2014

[GonzoII]

United State government said that it has met directly with a main Kurdish political party in Syria for first time since the Syrian crisis began more than three years ago.

The State Department has revealed that in the past week US officials in French Capital Paris have held talks with the Kurdish Democratic Union Party, known as the PYD.

This is the first time US government has met with PYD, which has been linked to Kurdish Worker’s Party (PKK), a guerrilla group considered by the U.S. and Turkey as a terrorist organization.

The reports of US meeting PYD official is likely to further complicate relations between Washington and Ankara. The two countries are negotiating over how much Turkey is willing to contribute to a global coalition that aims to defeat the Islamic State militant group in Syria and Iraq.

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the U.S. is ’certainly aware of the connection’ between the PKK and what she described as some members of the PYD.

She said the U.S. still considers the PKK as a terrorist group, and ’we have the same concerns we’ve had for a long time.’

It was the first time U.S. officials have met with the PYD, although the two sides have communicated in the past through intermediaries.

The meeting focused on the ongoing fight that Syrian Kurds have given Islamic State militants as they seek to overtake land near Turkey’s border. The PYD is running the Kurdish fighters’ front in the Syrian city of Kobani, a month-long battleground that has riveted much of the world and been the site of more than 100 U.S. airstrikes against the Islamic extremists, including 14 on Thursday.

Psaki also predicted the U.S. would continue to engage with the PYD, although she said it was too soon to consider whether the Kurdish fighters would be given foreign help to battle the Islamic State.

The meeting ’does not represent coordination, it represents one conversation,’ added Psaki.

Turkey also has accused the PYD of coordinating with Assad, and refusing to join the Arab Syrian rebels in exchange for an autonomous zone in Syria. The PYD has denied the accusations.

Meanwhile, in the past week, PYD leaders have visited Iraqi Kurdistan Region and met with Kurdistan Region President Massoud Barzani and hold talks with other Syrian Kurdish political parties in aim of reaching an agreement in Syrian Kurdistan and jointly fight the Islamic State militants in Syrian Kurdistan known as Rojava.

[GonzoII]

If I had ten divisions one division of those men
our troubles here would be over...

[SgtHooper]

Welll, it’s good that the nimrod told us Paris is the capital of France, despite the typos.