A powerful Syrian Kurdish faction announced plans on Wednesday to declare a federal region in northern Syria, a model it hopes can be applied to the entire country. The idea was promptly dismissed by Turkey and also the Syrian government team at UN-brokered peace talks underway in Geneva.
The development comes as the Damascus government and Western- and Saudi-backed rebels are holding peace talks with a U.N. envoy in Geneva on ways to resolve the country’s devastating civil war, which this week entered its sixth year.