Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps he plans to take help ensure that Kurdish authorities in northern Syria can participate in future peace talks.

Kurdish groups have been represented in Syrian peace negotiations in Geneva through the Kurdish National Council, as part of the opposition High Negotiations Committee. Invitations for any other groups to the Geneva peace negotiations are a matter for the UN Special Envoy for Syria. The UN Envoy has involved Kurdish and other minority groups in civil society discussions alongside formal negotiations in Geneva.

We maintain that any political settlement must be inclusive. All Syrian constituencies must ultimately be represented in discussion on Syria's future – this is a key principle in the 2012 Geneva communique and UNSCR 2254.