A delegation from the British Foreign Office recently visited northern and eastern Syria. It arrived in Syrian Kurdistan on Aug. 21 with the goal of removing obstacles to reconciliation between the Kurdish National Council (KNC) and the Democratic Union Party (PYD). According to news reports, the British move comes in coordination with the United States.

An informed Kurdish source told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity that the British delegation consisted of Emily Maltman, head of the UK Syria office representing the British government to Syrians, and Carla Thomas, in charge of the department of development organizations at the UK Foreign Office.

The British delegation held three meetings of about two hours each. It met with officials in the KNC, the Yekiti Kurdistan Party-Syria and then the autonomous administration, formed and led by the PYD.

“The British delegation did not visit Syria with the intention of holding dialogue sessions or a Kurdish-Kurdish rapprochement. The Kurdish media exaggerated,” the source noted, quoting the delegation as saying, “We support the French initiative and we do not aim to replace it; we simply came to listen to what you had to say.” The French initiative had not failed, said the source — its implementation was rather delayed.