Since its foundation, the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria has been working towards an intra-Syrian dialogue to find a lasting solution for the war-torn country. Numerous meetings and talks have taken place in this context. The Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister, Faisal al-Miqdad, made statements in a programme on the TV channel al-Mayadin last Friday that were far removed from dialogue and out of touch with reality.

The Foreign Affairs Department of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria released a statement on the remarks of Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister, criticising this attitude and stressing that these methods further exacerbate the existing crisis.

The statement includes the following:

“We have come close to entering the tenth year of the Syrian crisis and the chances of finding a solution to this tragedy are still absent. In addition to the tragedies and woes that resulted from this crisis, the efforts to find a solution have failed miserably and thus the years that have passed have proven that no solution can be formulated or produced by maintaining the causes of this crisis; mainly the intransigence of the regime that ignores the changes in Syria.

While the self-administration confirmed its readiness for dialogue with the regime within what serves the future of a Syrian national solution and some of the meetings that took place in order to achieve progress in this framework, we find that there are voices rising from within the system to act with the same mentality and approach that was the cause of aggravating and complicating matters in Syria. It also appeared in the last comment from Mr. Faisal al-Miqdad, the Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister.

These statements are totally incompatible with the stage in which Syria is going through and contribute to obstructing the efforts for Syrian national dialogue. We see and confirm that these attitudes and speeches cannot achieve any development because they have achieved nothing during the past years. Therefore, on the basis of our keenness on the necessity of dialogue, we confirm that the media discourse and positions of the officials of the Syrian regime should not be in this tone with the knowledge that self-administration is a national project and does not threaten the unity of Syria and its people, nor the future of the solution in it.”