A Baath party delegeation consisting of major party officials has arrived for a visit to the province of Hassakeh.
The delegration includes the Assistant National Secretary of Baath Party, Hilal Hilal, the member in the National Leadership of the party and the head of the National Office, Yousef al-Ahmad, the member in the National Leadership and the head of Work Office, Shaaban Azzouz, the head of the General Union of Farmers in Syria, Hammd as-Soud.
The visit comes less than a week after a delegation from the office of Kurdish self-administration visited Damascus to meet Bashar Assad and ask him to personally to officially recognize the administration.
The Baath delegation met the secretary of the party in Hassakeh, Khalaf al-Mihasham, and the governor, Muhammad Zaal al-Ali, to discuss the developments in the governorate before they meet the representatives of the office of self-administration.
A source within the Baath leadership confirmed to All4syria that the regime has threatened the Kurds that he will give up the city of Hassakeh to the Islamic State if they insist on their demand to recognize the self-administration.
The source said recent clashes between Kurdish People Protection Units and the armed groups in Ghweran neighborhood were a result of these warnings, but the clashes were delayed because many Christian families have left Hassakeh for Qamishli after they heard that the regime will leave the city to the IS. Christians fear that their fate will be similar to the fate of Christians in Mosul.
As for the people of the governorate inhabited by a majority of Kurds, they doubt that the Democratic Union Party (PYD) governs the city on behalf of the regime according to an agreement between them. In a meeting two years ago with Baath party leaders Hilal Hilal said: "We have already agreed with the People protection Units on everything, whenever time comes, we will retake the governorate, so don’t worry about losing Hassakeh".
Translated and edited by The Syrian Observer
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