Hezbollah leader claims that United States will ‘sell out’ Syrian Kurds

Lebanese Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has claimed that the United States intends to use the Kurds of Rojava before hanging them out to dry. Nasrallah addressed Kurdish officials staying the U.S. will “sell you out,” he claimed that their best option was to uphold negotiations with the Syrian regime and President Bashar al-Assad. On Sunday Nasrallah said that, “You do not know when and to whom the U.S. is going to sell you out,” during a broadcast over Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV channel. He cautioned that the United States would at some point abandon the Kurds as an ally in favor of Turkey.

The United States has relentlessly been critical of Iran and Hezbollah for their parts played in the Syrian civil war since the first bomb dropped. Nasrallah’s message came only a day after American Ambassador William Roebuck reassured that U.S. military forces operating in northern Syria had no plans to withdraw from the region in the near future. His claims are contrary to President Trump’s claims of pulling out of Syria soon. Ambassador Roebuck said that, “We are prepared to stay here, as the president has made clear, to ensure the enduring defeat of ISIS,” during a visit to the region. Nasrallah remarked on this claim by saying that, “The U.S. ambassador to Syria said the same thing a few years ago in Damascus — that relations between Kurds and America are symbolic.”

Since the war in Syria’s start, the Kurds situated in their respective pockets of the region have established self-governing bastions with their own militaries and governmental systems. Kurdish leaders are currently engaged in negotiations over future arrangements with the Syrian regime. It is the hope of Kurdish leaders that Rojava will be able to eventually draft a decentralized constitution while maintaining an anonymous state of existence. Nasrallah said that, “The Eastern Euphrates areas are under the control of Kurds. Kurds and Kurdish parties have chosen the right path to negotiate with the state of Syria. There should be no withdrawal from this choice.”