Syria Kurds expected to declare federal system: officials

Kurdish-led parties meeting in northern Syria today are expected to declare a new federal system in areas under their control, two Kurdish officials said.
The move, which would expand an already existing system of self-administration, is likely to anger Turkey which is wary of any bid by Syrian Kurds to solidify their autonomy and of their control of territory.
Kurdish groups, which hold large stretches of northern Syria, have been excluded from ongoing peace talks in Geneva aimed at ending the country's five-year conflict.
More than 150 delegates from Kurdish, Arab, Assyrian and other parties were meeting today in the town of Rmeilan, in Syria's northeastern Hasakeh province.

"The gathering will try to develop a new ruling system in northern Syria," said Sihanuk Dibo, a consultant to Syria's leading Kurdish political group, the Democratic Union Party (PYD).
"All the suggestions are now heading towards federalism," he told AFP from the conference.

Officials said the conference's final decision would be issued either today or tomorrow.
Kurdish parties already operate a system of three "autonomous administrations" in Syria's north, with independent police forces and schools.
The three cantons run along Syria's northern border with Turkey and are known as Afrin and Kobane, both in Aleppo province, and Jazire in Hasakeh province.

As well as three cantons, the plan would see the federal system expand to include additional areas recently seized from the Islamic State jihadist group in northern and northeastern Syria, Kurdish officials said.
Officials said the announcement was not intended as a first step towards independence.
"A federal state for ruling all of Syria is the best way to protect Syria from being divided up, because there is major distrust among the different sides," said Ibrahim Ibrahim, a PYD media official.
Washington-based analyst Mutlu Civiroglu said the announcement would be a political message "from Syrians on the ground, politically and militarily".

"Politically, it's also a message to the United Nations, the US, Russia, and especially to Geneva, that if you ignore us, we are going to determine our future by ourselves," he told AFP.
Despite deep divisions, the opposition High Negotiations Committee and the embattled government in Damascus have both categorically rejected a federal system in Syria.