The Vatican's Secretary for Relations with States, Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, received in Rome, the capital of Italy, a delegation from the Syrian Democratic Council (MSD) to discuss the Syrian crisis and the Turkish aggression on North and East Syria.

The meeting that took place in Vatican between the delegation of the Syrian Democratic Council, which included the co-president Riad Darar, and the president of the Executive Committee, Ilham Ahmed, and the Vatican Secretary for Relations with States, dealt with the humanitarian crisis caused by the Turkish aggression on the regions of North-East Syria.

According to the press office of the MSD, Derar and Ehmed conveyed the situation in which the peoples of the region and its components live amid the Turkish occupation and the brutal practices perpetrated by the Turkish state, including demographic change, genocide against the indigenous people of the region and the suffering of the displaced persons in NE Syria.

The bilateral meeting also discussed the course of the political process in Syria and the prospects for comprehensive solutions and settlement, where the delegation of the Syrian Democratic Council discussed the need to include representatives of Self-Administration for North-East Syria in the international efforts aimed at ending the Syrian crisis, whether in the Constitutional Committee or the Geneva meetings as a necessity for success and a real breakthrough in the path of final solution.

The delegation of the Syrian Democratic Council spoke to Mr. Gallagher about the experience of Self-Management and its model for protecting minorities by involving all components of the region in managing their affairs within the bodies and structures of Self-Administration, in addition to talking about the mechanism of Self-Administration and its democratic experience in Syria.

For his part, the Holy See official expressed his happiness and promised to provide the necessary support to the demands of the delegation of the Syrian Democratic Council.

The Syrian Democratic Council (MSD), founded in 2015, is a political umbrella organization that provides the political framework for resolving the Syrian conflict through intra-Syrian talks and diplomatic work. The MSD includes representatives of political parties, civil society, the autonomous administration and individuals. While the autonomous administration is responsible for the administration of the seven regions in northern and eastern Syria through elected bodies, the MSD represents the political parties and civil society. It is designed to unite all of Syria into a federal, democratic, gender-equal and multicultural political entity.