Al Assad quietly aids Kurds against Turkey

Syrian regime allows Kurdish supporters to go to Afrin in a bid to bog down Ankara’s forces

Syria’s US-backed Kurds are getting indirect help from an unlikely source in their war against Turkey in the northwestern region of Afrin: Bashar Al Assad.

Pro-regime forces and Kurdish-led forces have fought each other elsewhere in Syria and Damascus opposes the Kurds’ demands for autonomy. But in Afrin they have a common enemy and a mutual interest in blocking Turkish advances.

Turkey, which regards the Kurdish YPG militia in Afrin as a threat on its southern border, launched an assault on the region last month. Seeking to shield Afrin, the Kurds asked Turkey yesterday warned the United States it was time to either make or break ties between the Nato allies that have strained badly over the Turkish operation in Syria, days ahead of key talks with Washington’s top diplomat. US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is due in Ankara later this week for talks aimed at finding a way forward as Washington expresses severe alarm over the campaign against Kurdish militia.

“Our relations are at a very critical point. They will either be fixed or these ties will be completely damaged,” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said. Ankara last month launched a military operation against the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) militia in the western enclave of Afrin in northern Syria. Damascus to send forces into action to defend the border.

The government shows no sign of doing so, but it is providing indirect help by allowing Kurdish fighters, civilians and politicians to reach Afrin through territory it holds, representatives of both sides said.

Al Assad stands to gain while doing little. The arrival of reinforcements is likely to sustain Kurdish resistance, bog down the Turkish forces and prolong a conflict that is sapping the resources of military powers that rival Al Assad for control of Syrian territory.

For the United States, it is yet another complication in Syria’s seven-year-old war, and a reminder of how its Syrian Kurdish ally must at times make deals with Al Assad even as it builds military ties with the United States. Lacking international protection, the Kurdish-led forces in northern Syria say they have reached agreements with Damascus to allow reinforcements to be sent to Afrin from other Kurdish-dominated areas — Kobani and the Jazeera region.

“There are different ways to get reinforcements to Afrin but the fundamental route is via regime forces. There are understandings between the two forces... for the sake of delivering reinforcements to Afrin,” Kino Gabriel, spokesperson for the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), said.

While the Kurds depend on Al Assad to get to Afrin, Kurdish sources say they also enjoy leverage over Damascus because it needs their cooperation to source grain and oil from areas of the northeast under Kurdish control.