Featured image: Riad Darar, co-chairman of Syrian Democratic Council
On November 25, Co-chairman of the Syrian Democratic Council (SDC) Riad Darar told the pro-Kurdish media network Rudaw that the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) will join the “Syrian Army” if a political solution is reached in Syria.
The SDC is the political wing of the US-backed SDF and it is dominated by the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD).
“If we are going to a united Syria with a federal system, we believe that there will be no need for the weapons or the forces, because these forces will join the Syrian Army and because the important ministries like the defense and forgiven affairs will be in the center [capital], the SDF is a Syrian force not a local force,” Darar said, according to Rudaw TV.
Some news outlets took Darar statement out of context and reported that the SDF will join the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) once a political solution is reached in Syria without providing further details.
Darar told the Syrian opposition news outlet Enab Baladi that his words were manipulated and that the SDF would only join the “new” Syrian Army that could be formed if Syria becomes a federal country, not the SAA. Darar went further and called the SAA the “regime army”.
“I didn’t mean that the regime army [SAA] is the Syrian Army, I meant the Army of Syria after establishing the federalism,” Darar told Enab Baladi.
While some Arab and international news agencies promoted the manipulated version of Darar’s statement as a positive development, the real statement follows the general policy of the SDF, which is aimed at overthrowing not only Damascus government, but also at changing the Syrian constitution.
The Damascus government, the Syrian opposition and regionals powers like Turkey and Iran have stressed on many occasions that they will not accept a federal system in Syria.
