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EXCLUSIVE: FAI RESPONDS TO CORONAVIRUS IN IRAQI KURDISTAN

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FAI Rawanduz Gateway Center leader Nathan James (far right) joins local mullahs in a joint prayer and training meeting to address the threat of coronavirus in Iraqi Kurdistan.

The Wire is receiving encouraging reports from FAI field teams near Rawanduz, Iraqi Kurdistan this weekend, as FAI medical staff and gateway leaders have been engaging with patients and local communities around the Iranian frontier to address the threat of coronavirus across the border. FAI has maintained a presence in Rawanduz and the Soran Valley for over four years now, positioning the organization to be a reliable and trustworthy resource for Kurdish officials and residents.

Dr. Jessica is an FAI field team member who has been working directly with a group of over 200 patients who have been quarantined at different facilities in eastern Kurdistan after they crossed the border from Iran. She reports that, although many of the patients are presenting symptoms related to cold, flu and hypertension, there are no suspected cases of coronavirus so far. Nonetheless, FAI medical teams are taking full advantage of the opportunity to treat, encourage and pray with quarantine patients during an anguishing time of isolation, separated from their family and friends. FAI field team member David spoke with a young man who has been unable to sleep well for a year. After praying over the young man, Dr. David spoke a word of encouragement to him, promising that he would have a good night’s sleep. The young man reported the next morning that he had slept soundly for 12 hours, after which he serenaded FAI staff and fellow patients in the clinic with his violin.

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FAI field teams working in and around the Rawanduz Gateway Center (near the Iranian border in Iraqi Kurdistan) are providing training and treatment programs to quarantine patients and needy communities which are under-served and highly vulnerable to coronavirus. This is a critical and timely effort with unique opportunities. Will you partner with us?

FAI field team leader Nathan James has been working with Rawanduz-based staff to coordinate training initiatives in border communities that are threatened by coronavirus. In a video dispatch published yesterday, he describes the unprecedented opportunity he had to lead a joint-prayer and training session with 16-18 local mullahs. Muslim leaders have direct contact and influence with the people in their communities, and can pass along the training they receive to their congregants at Friday prayer meetings. Nathan requested and was granted the privilege of praying before the group with the aid of a translator, in which he prayed life and unity over the clerics gathered there. “Today was a very unique day”, Nathan said after the event, “I’ve never had this opportunity before. I’ve never heard of anyone having this opportunity before.” Nathan reported that some mullahs in the group approached him after the training to thank him for opening the meeting with prayer.

FAI will continue to seize every opportunity to assist local Kurdish communities with addressing the coronavirus outbreak in the region, including initiatives to train religious leaders, government officials, and even local police. These initiatives become even more critical as newly-confirmed cases of the deadly disease are being reported in nearby Kirkuk, which is presently controlled by the central Iraqi government. At least 8 cases have also been confirmed in the southern city of Najaf, as Iraq continues to experience the fallout of the coronavirus epidemic in neighboring Iran, where the disease was allowed to spread unchecked for several weeks due to malfeasance by the Iranian government.

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EXCLUSIVE: SYRIAN KURDS TO SIT DOWN WITH ASSAD REGIME

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Head of the Syrian Democratic Council (SDC) Ilham Ahmed. (Credit: Reuters)

Co-chair of the Syrian Democratic Committee (SDC), Ilham Ahmed, announced yesterday that the democratic governing body of eastern Syria will sit down with the regime of Bashar al-Assad for peace negotiations soon. The arrangement was brokered by the government of Russia, which has taken an expanded role in Syrian Kurdistan since partial disengagement of US-led Coalition forces was ordered by the Trump Administration last October.

The Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (NES) is a decentralized representative government that encompasses the Kurdish, Arab and Assyrian tribes east of the Eurphrates River within the borders of Syria. As the Assad regime withdrew to fight rebel forces west of the Euphrates in 2012, the Kurdish YPG milita took up the fight against ISIS in 2014, halting the advance of the caliphate at Kobane. After the YPG formed the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) with like-minded Christian and Arab Sunni Muslim groups, they began to gradually take back their homeland from the terrorist army which had transplanted itself into Syria from Iraq.

The triumph of the SDF alliance in northeast Syria between 2015-2019 facilitated the formation of the Syrian Democratic Committee, a loosely-knit body of regional and tribal governments who each have democratic representation in a federal body. The autonomous region, which has operated independently of Damascus on domestic issues for years, also drafted and ratified a constitution which enshrines many of the democratic and individualistic values shared by Western nations.

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The United States was the primary foreign backer of the SDF between 2015 and 2019, until the Turkish invasion and establishment the so-called ‘Safe Zone” between Tel Abyad and Ras al-Ayn along the border in October, 2019. President Trump ordered the partial withdrawal of US forces from Syria in an attempt to appease his ally in Ankara. Since then, the SDF has begrudgingly agreed to the reintroduction of Syrian regime forces in Northeast Syria, and Russia has stepped into the vacuum to play the role of neutral arbiter between the SDF and Assad’s government.

The SDC is co-chaired by Ilham Ahmed, a native of Afrin, Syria, where Turkish-aligned jihadist militias committed documented war crimes against Kurdish civilians in 2018. She rose to prominence in the formation of the SDC and has been acting as its ambassadorial face across the western world in recent months, including a keynote address at FAI’s recent “Night of Prayer for the Kurds” in Washington, DC. Ms. Ahmed is optimistic about the prospect of Russian-brokered talks with the Syrian regime, calling Russia’s effort “serious” and emphasizing the Russian pledge to “exert pressure on the regime to accept a comprehensive settlement.” which would ostensibly include the recognition of the SDC and it's autonomy in some form, similar to the arrangement between the central Iraqi government of Baghdad and the autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan.

However, Ms. Ahmed’s optimism was tempered by a personal knowledge of the Syrian negotiating partners who will sit across the table from her, who have heretofore ignored the SDC in previous UN-brokered peace talks. “Moving forward from dialogue to serious discussions requires an agenda and plan that would be addressed through dedicated committees”, she stated, emphasizing the importance of a practical framework to measure tangible progress towards a lasting settlement with a regime that has a 50 year history of Kurdish disenfranchisement and persecution.

Nonetheless, in the face of a Turkish onslaught and a diminishing US Coalition commitment, Ilham and her colleagues in the SDC are prepared to move forward and turn over a new leaf with Assad’s government. Russia’s mixed success in negotiating other ceasefires and peace agreements in Syria near the Golan Heights and in Idlib province will undoubtedly be tested in the coming months, but it is still the best prospect for normalization between the regime and the SDC.

An FAI source who works with Ilham Ahmed commented cautiously but positively on the new Russian peace initiative, saying, “Despite their problematic role, especially [in] siding with Assad completely, the Russians can sill guarantee a deal that could help Syria to transition. The Russians are not as friendly as the the U.S. to the Kurds but they are better than the Iranians and of course the Turks. They do not seek to change the Syrian demographic like Iran and Turkey. The best solution will be if the U.S. and Russia sit together and come up with a deal between SDF and Damascus. Unfortunately, the U.S [diplomats] still see the Syrian Islamist rebels as an alternative to Assad while there is no U.S. plan to change the regime. It's time now that real players sit together and negotiate rather than relying on changing the behavior of the Syrian regime through the Turkish supported Syrian opposition that does not have any constituency on the ground.”

Our source’s assessment was confirmed today in comments made by US State Dept Envoy for Syria, James Jeffrey, who described Turkish soldiers killed-in-action in Syria as “martyrs” and offered to provide Turkey “any support possible.” As long as the United States and other NATO stated legitimize Turkey’s criminal aggression in Syria, Russia will remain as the best, neutral alternative in Syrian peace talks.

Sources:

https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/2122816/ilham-ahmed-asharq-al-awsat-damascus-agreed-political-dialogue-guarantee-moscow

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-02-11/putin-has-painted-russia-into-a-syrian-corner

https://twitter.com/WyvernReports/status/1227287779006005248