ROME (Sputnik) — Gatilov mentioned that both UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura and US partners recognize the need to include Kurds in the negotiations.
"The problem is when they [Kurds] are involved, but our partners keep silent about it. They say, it should happen at the next round of negotiations, but nobody mentions concrete dates, but none of the political issues can be tackled without Kurds," He said.
"The question we repeatedly pointed out is the absence of Kurds at the peace talks. Kurds are a real political and military force, they control a major part of the territory, they carry out operations against the Islamic State and other terrorist groups."
Kurds did not receive an official invitation either to the current or previous rounds of talks on Syrian reconciliation. The Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) claims that its participation in the intra-Syrian talks was blocked by Ankara.
Syria has been plagued with an armed conflict since 2011, with the Syrian army fighting opposition factions and Islamist extremists, such as the Islamic State and Nusra Front, both banned in Russia and many other countries.
