Syrian Kurdish groups say approve federal system blueprint

Syrian Kurdish groups and their allies said on Thursday they approved a blueprint for a system of federal government in northern Syria, reaffirming their plans for autonomy in areas they have controlled during the war.

The blueprint amounts to a constitution, known as the social contract, an official told Reuters this week.

It aims to cement the autonomy of areas of northern Syria where Kurdish groups have already carved out self-governing regions since the start of the war in 2011, though Kurdish leaders say an independent state is not the goal.

"The social contract draft was ratified," Mansour al-Salloum, joint head of the Founding Council of the Federal System, told Reuters in Rmeilan in northeast Syria.

"The executive committee will prepare for elections" first to regional administrations and later to a central body, he said, without giving a date for the votes.

Salloum said that for areas currently outside the control of the Kurds and their allies, such as Islamic State-held Raqqa, the local population would ultimately decide whether they wanted to be part of the federal system.