Syria says it won’t resume talks with US-backed Kurdish forces amid Turkish onslaught

A top Syrian official said Thursday that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government will not resume talks with U.S.-backed Kurdish forces amid a Turkish offensive against the Kurds in northern Syria, according to Reuters.

Syria’s deputy foreign minister Faisal Maqdad asserted that the U.S.-backed Kurdish forces “had betrayed their country and committed crimes against it,” according to the news service.

{mosads}“We won’t accept any dialogue or talk with those who had become hostages to foreign forces. … There won’t be any foothold for the agents of Washington on Syrian territory,” Maqdad told reporters.

The comment came days after a Syrian Kurdish official said that Kurdish-led authorities in the north may open talks with Russia and the Assad government following the U.S.’s withdrawal from the northeastern region near the border with Turkey.

A top commander said the Kurds returning territory to the Syrian government was also an option, Reuters reported.

President Trump’s decision to withdraw U.S. forces from the north of the country ahead of a Turkish onslaught has drawn sharp, bipartisan criticism from lawmakers accusing him of betraying the Kurds after they repelled Islamic State forces in the country.

Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.), who is retiring next year, said in a radio interview that he had “called my chief of staff in D.C., I said ‘pull my name off the “I support Donald Trump” list.’ We have just stabbed our allies in the back.”