The ceasefire is working and a federal future lies ahead for Syria. Sergey Riabkov, Russia's deputy foreign minister, admitted that Moscow would be ready to accept a division of the country into three parts. The borders between the different areas would be drawn on the basis of what was established with the Dayton agreements of 1995, which sanctioned the fragmentation of Syria along three ethnic-confessional lines.
If the idea of a federal republic is promoted by the participants at the negotiating table and guarantees "to maintain a united, independent and sovereign Syria, then who could object?" Riabkov said.
So far Russia has avoided such a hypothesis. Recently, the spokeswoman for the foreign minister, Maria Zakharova, said that the prerequisite for peace is "respect for the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Syria".
But the key is in the role of the Kurdish-Syrians, who are allies of both Russia and the US, because they fight against terrorists, but not because Assad remains in power. While rejecting the project for a "Greater Kurdistan", Zakharova declared that the desire for autonomy of the Syrian Kurds "must be taken into consideration".
The day following the beginning of the truce, Ilham Ahmed, a member of the Executive Council of the Democratic Society Movement of Syrian Kurdistan, said that the United States and Russia would be close to an agreement which would provide for the division of Syria into three zones: the North to Kurds, the Center for Sunnis and the South with Damascus as the capital which would host Alawites, Druze, Christians and others. Each area would have its own parliament and electoral system. According to sources close to Moscow, even Assad would agree, because he cannot do without the Kurds.
