U.S. Senior Representative to NE Syria Meets Kurdish National Council

Nikolas Granger also met the Department of Foreign Relations of the AANES, according to North Press.

US Senior Representative to Northeast Syria Nikolas Granger met on Wednesday with a delegation of the Kurdish National Council in Syria (ENKS).

This came during his first visit to the region, where he met on Wednesday the Department of Foreign Relations of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) in Qamishli.

His visit to the department came hours after another visit to the al-Hol Camp to check the ongoing security operation in the camp to pursue Islamic State Organization (ISIS) sleeper cells.

The AANES was first formed in 2014 in the Kurdish-majority regions of Afrin, Kobani and Jazira in northern Syria following the withdrawal of the government forces. Later, it was expanded to Manbij, Tabqa, Raqqa, Hassakeh and Deir ez-Zor after the SDF defeated ISIS militarily there.

Efforts to repatriate foreign nationals in Hol Camp, east of Hasakah Governorate were also discussed.

Hol Camp, 45 km east of the city of Hassakeh, is a house for 55.829 individuals, including 28.725 Iraqis, 18.850 Syrians and 8.254 of foreign nationalities, according to the latest statistics obtained by North Press.
Faisal Youssef, a member of the General Secretariat of ENKS, told North Press that Granger visited ENKS headquarters in Qamishli.

The U.S. Senior representative confirmed to ENKS that the U.S. would remain in northeast Syria and its efforts continue in the military and diplomatic fields to ensure the ultimate defeat of ISIS, reassuring his country’s support to areas in northeastern Syria, according to Youssef.

The ENKS is a bloc of Kurdish political parties affiliated with the Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq (KRG) and opposes the Democratic Union Party (PYD), which is the ruling party in areas held by the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria.

The Kurdish ENKS leader pointed out that Granger stressed his country’s commitment to a political solution in Syria in line with UN Resolution 2254, as well as the commitment to the unity of Syrian lands.
Youssef said the ENKS delegation expressed “their fears of the recent escalation on the Syrian-Turkish border, which destabilizes the region and causes more displacements.”

The ENKS delegation hoped that Ganger supports the “Kurdish issue, the Kurdish people and their rights.”
Youssef went further, saying that the U.S. representative will hold other meetings with ENKS during his next visits.