A few months ago, Damascus appeared to me like a devoted mother, gazing at her children with a look of both reproach and desperation, lamenting her wounds, humiliation, and suffering—bleeding but bearing the pain with resilience, on the verge of collapse, crying out: ‘Save your nation! Save it before the disgrace of nations befalls you!’

I believe the people of each country are more entitled to stay in their country. Why should people be displaced? Displacing people is such a big crime rejected by the law. In addition, Syria has just come out of war, and it is suffering big burdens. Syria should not be overwhelmed with new problems because we need long years to fix the sixty-year legacy of the regime, let alone having new problems added.

We addressed all the parties, and said that the problem is Syrian, and we should resolve it internally and try to find a proper solution in northeast Syria, according to some basic principles: There must not be any partition of Syria, and we should not cement the idea of partition in any way, shape, or form – not even in the form of a federation. Our society is still not ready to understand the nature of federations, and it will head for partition under the title of federation.

First, a federal system in Syria does not have popular acceptance, and I believe it is not in the best interest of Syria in the future because our communities are not used to practicing federacy, so people’s opinions would go to complete independence in the name of federacy.

I was certain that liberating Aleppo was the key to victory, we prepared and equipped the armies, and we had never fought a war like we did for Aleppo, with our trust in God and the beginning of our forces advancing toward its walls, the enemy’s fortresses began to collapsed.

The fallen regime has left deep wounds—social, economic, and political and other. Healing them requires a lot of wisdom, relentless effort, and tireless perseverance. Those who believe the time for struggle has passed and that comfort has arrived are deluded.

We will not be a pawn. Nor will we be a fortress. We will be a state that governs with legitimacy, not just control. We want the U.S. to partner with us in governance, in anti-corruption, in building institutions based on honesty and integrity.