Tom Brake – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Brake on 2016-03-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment the Government has made of the extent of Russian support for Kurdish forces in Syria and that support’s effect on the ceasefire and peace process in that country.

Mr Tobias Ellwood

We have recently seen a number of worrying patterns of behaviour that clearly suggest coordination between Kurdish forces in the Afrin region, the Asad regime and Russia. The expansion of Kurdish forces from Afrin just before the Cessation of Hostilities, supported by Russian airstrikes, directly targeted the moderate armed opposition and further complicated the situation in northern Syria. Further actions by Kurdish forces to take ground from the moderate opposition would risk undermining the Cessation of Hostilities, and in turn political negotiations in Geneva.