ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) chief Mazloum Abdi on Friday indicated that his historic meeting with Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) leader Masoud Barzani went very well and said they discussed Kurdish unity in Syria.
“Our meeting with President Masoud Barzani was a source of joy,” said Abdi in a post on X.
“We discussed the process of change that Syria is going through and together we confirmed that the position of the Kurds in Syria must be unified and that the dialogue with Damascus must peacefully protect the rights of the Kurdish people,” the SDF commander added.
On Thursday, Barzani’s office also said they emphasized the need for Kurdish unity.
According to Abdi, they discussed the shared responsibility for the stability of the region as a whole.
Abdi’s visit was facilitated by the Americans, who provided a helicopter for transportation, Rudaw has learned.
This was not Abdi’s first visit to the Kurdistan Region. He visited Erbil twice and Sulaimani several times since 2014.
This meeting was pivotal as Syria navigates a transitional phase following the collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s regime and Kurdish parties in the country are looking to lay to rest their long standing grievances with each other.
Masoud Barzani has played a key role in efforts to unite Syrian Kurdish ruling and opposition parties in the past.
The ruling Democratic Union Party (PYD) and the opposition Kurdish National Council (ENKS) signed a historic agreement, mediated by Masoud Barzani, in Kurdistan Region’s Duhok province in 2015 to end tensions and share power in northeast Syria (Rojava), but the deal was never implemented. Each side blamed the other for its failure.
