Kurds agree to work with Syria on peace plan

BEIRUT — The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Council said Saturday that it has agreed to work with the Syrian government on ending seven years of violence in the country and setting up a road map for Syria’s future.

The council is the political wing of the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces that controls large areas of northeast Syria.

In May, Syrian President Bashar Assad threatened to attack areas held by the Syrian Democratic Forces. Assad’s comments came as his forces have been scoring major victories over the past two years with the help of Russia and Iran and now control much of Syria.

Assad said in late May that he has opened the door to negotiations with the Kurdish-run administration while also preparing to “liberate by force.”

Government forces and Syrian Kurds have clashed sporadically over the eastern oil province of Deir el-Zour. The Syrian army and the Syrian Democratic Forces have been the most effective in removing the Islamic State extremist group from most areas they controlled in Syria.

The United States, which supports the Syrian Democratic Forces, operates air bases and outposts in the Kurdish-administered region.

The Syrian Democratic Council said in a statement that during meetings with officials in the capital, Damascus, both sides agreed to form committees for further negotiations until they can put “an end to violence and war.”

It added that they also agreed on putting forth a road map that leads to a “democratic decentralized Syria.”

There was no immediate comment from the Syrian government. In southern Syria, troops pressed in their offensive against the Islamic State-linked fighters capturing the village of Jamila and entering the nearby village of Nafia, state TV said.

The broadcaster aired footage from the southern region showing Syrian snipers taking positions as artillery and rockets hit areas controlled by the extremists.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor, said some rebels based in southern Syria who recently decided to stop fighting the government are helping Syrian troops in the battle against Islamic State-linked fighters.

In western Syria, hundreds of Syrian refugees started returning home on Saturday.

Three buses carrying scores of people crossed the Lebanon-Syria border in the early afternoon, and more than 30 other buses were in Lebanon to carry more refugees later in the day.

Russia has put forward an initiative to return hundreds of thousands of refugees to Syria, and hundreds have returned from Lebanon over the past weeks.

The head of Lebanon’s security bureau, Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim, called on Syrian refugees to go to the agency’s offices to register their names to return home. He added that the move will eventually end up returning “hundreds of thousands” to their homes.

He said that some delays were caused by vetting those that are wanted back home. “We are insisting that no Syrian refugee returns home and then is detained,” Ibrahim told reporters at the border with Lebanon.

Syrian state TV said up to 1,200 Syrians were expected to end up returning on Saturday, adding that more than 30 Syrian buses crossed into Lebanon to take them back home.

“I have no words to express my feelings,” a Syrian woman told the channel while aboard a bus after she reached the Syrian side of the border. A teenager in the bus carried a poster of Assad with a caption that read: “Together on the roads of victory.”

Lebanon, a country of 4.5 million people, is home to some 1 million Syrian refugees.

The Russian initiative was proposed after the summit in Helsinki between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, although it was not clear whether the U.S. supported the proposal.