LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Will a future Syria protect and empower its minorities? It's a question being asked as the U.S. lifts sanctions on Syria and this week revoked the terrorist designation for the rebel group once led by the country's new president. That new president has promised to serve all Syrians. The largest ethnic minority group in Syria are the Kurds, many of whom reside in the semi-autonomous northeast. And the Kurdish-led administration is negotiating with Damascus in hopes to unify Syria. To understand the status of those negotiations, I spoke to Mahmoud Meslat. He's an Arab Syrian who co-chairs the Syrian Democratic Council, which is the political wing of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces. I started by asking what guarantees the Kurds want from Damascus.
MAHMOUD MESLAT: They want to have their rights through the constitution, and they want uncentralized government, like our region in northeast Syria. But that has to come through negotiation. We try to see Syria unified again. They trying to distance themselves from their past - the new government. We are optimistic, but we would like to see result more than talk.
FADEL: What is the biggest sticking point around negotiations?
MESLAT: The challenge is if they want to be part of the Syrian army, but they want to be as SDF. Also in this negotiation, we don't want a one-color army or one-color constitution. Syria is very rich with our fabric. We have Druze, we have Alawite, we have Kurds, and they all need to be part of rebuilding Syria. The Kurds, they suffered a lot previously, and they need their language to be taught in our institution. The Druze, they want also to be part of this new government. We want a Syrian government which represent the Syriac, the Assyrian, the Muslims, the Sunni, the Alawite, all Syrians. We will prevail in the end, but we want our future without any foreign intervention.
FADEL: When you say without any foreign intervention, what do you mean? And also, what's the U.S. role been?
MESLAT: The problem is ISIS sleeper cells still around here, and Iranian - they are not going away from my country. So we want to make sure that American troops - they are not leaving because I look at them as the safety valve in my region. So I will do my best to keep American soldiers in Syria until Syria is stabilized and there is no threat from the radicals or ISIS.
FADEL: Do you have faith that this government under the leadership of Ahmed al-Sharaa wants the same things that you describe, these protections of minority rights, the teaching of diversity of Syria, the teaching of language, the integration of the SDF as a unit?
MESLAT: We faced a brutal regime in the past, and there was - you've seen. I don't have to explain to you or to the listeners what Assad regime and the Baath Party done.
FADEL: Yeah.
MESLAT: But we will face them if they don't deliver what they said. It's a new Syria, and we fought and we gave, like, blood for it. We don't want to fight nobody, and war is not an option for us.
FADEL: But it sounds like it is an option if this government doesn't, as you say, sort of see a united Syria in their future and respect the rights of minorities.
MESLAT: Leila, what worries me - the foreign fighter, they integrate to the Syrian army. I need to see a Syrian army from Syria, who defend and fight for Syria with their blood and soul. But they brought us some foreign fighter that used to be with Al-Nusra Front or al-Qaida.
FADEL: Which is the branch of al-Qaida in Syria.
MESLAT: The branch of - yes, HTS. They gave them citizenship, and they are part of the Syrian army. That worries me.
FADEL: What do you want and need from the international community as Syria writes its constitution, builds its institutions and works out how to bring together groups that had been fighting?
MESLAT: Syria needs the help of the international community, and especially the United States. We need them to come and invest in Syria. We want to make sure that they come, like, to an understanding with Turkey and with Iraq and with Iran that we don't want any foreign elements' involvement in our country. We want to build our own future by ourself. But also, we are reaching to the international community to help us. We would like to thank them for lifting the sanction on us and trying to give us another chance to rebuild Syria, to see Syria prosperous again.
FADEL: Mahmoud Meslat is co-chair of the Syrian Democratic Council. Thank you so much.
MESLAT: Thank you, Leila. I appreciate it. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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