WASHINGTON – Syrian Kurds have urgently appealed to Washington for more direct U.S. military assistance to battle ISIS in northern Syria, but the U.S. State Department has not approved the request, according to a new report in Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.
In addition, the State Department has not committed to allowing the Kurds to be represented in Geneva at the peace talks to end the Syrian civil war, Syrian Kurdish officials tell G2 Bulletin.
"If the Kurds are not represented at the Geneva talks, there won't be peace," said Sinem Mohammed, who sits on the executive board of the Yekiti Star, the women's movement in Rojava, a self-governing region of Syrian Kurdistan in northern Syria.
Mohammed also is a member of the Kurdish High Council in Rojava and the representative of the Rojava Autonomous Region in Europe.
With the help of U.S. Special Operations Forces, Mohammed said the area is safe enough to bring in IDPs – internally displaced persons – from other parts of war-ravaged Syria.
"We welcome them all," she said, emphasizing the need for urgent humanitarian help from the United States and the United Nations to build camps and feed, clothe and provide medical assistance to an estimated 300,000 IDPs.
'More training, arms and bullets'
Mohammed was accompanied by Elham Ahmed, who is from Afrin in the Rojava portion of Syria.
For the rest of this report, and more, go to Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.
Ahmed has been working for Kurdish freedom since the 1990s, especially for women's rights. She is one of the founders of the Yekiti Star, or Star Union, of Kurdish women organizations in Rojava.
She said the Syrian Kurds need more military training and logistical support beyond what they're already receiving from the Special Forces.
"Training is good, because we have been able to defeat Daesh," Ahmed said, using the Arabic acronym for ISIS. "More training, arms and bullets are essential."
Both women were in Washington to meet with State Department officials not only to ask for direct military and humanitarian assistance but also to seek Washington's support for an autonomous Kurdish region in northern Syria.
The civil war in Syria has presented the Kurds with an opportunity to establish an autonomous region.
In Turkey, the Kurds comprise some 20 percent of some 80 million Turks. The Kurds in Syria occupy much of the northern portion of Syria, which borders Turkey's southeast, where the concentration of Kurds reside.
For the rest of this report, and more, go to Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.