THE Democratic Union Party (PYD) declaration of a federal region in northern Syria was condemned yesterday by all other forces fighting the Syrian civil war.

The largely Kurdish PYD, famed for its heroic defence of the city of Kobane against Islamic State (Isis) in the teeth of Turkish opposition, approved a “democratic federal system for Rojava-Northern Syria.”

Participants at a conference in Rmeilan raised a banner declaring that a “federal and democratic Syria is a guarantee of co-existence and brotherly relations between people.”

But the Syrian Foreign Ministry denounced the declaration as “unconstitutional and worthless.” The Bashar al-Assad government fears federalism could be a pretext for dismembering the state.

The so-called Syrian National Coalition, an opposition alliance led by US-backed exiles based in Turkey, also rejected the announcement, saying the formation of autonomous regions “confiscates the will of the Syrian people.”

Neither Mr Assad nor the Kurds’ main enemy Isis commented, but they are unlikely to welcome the move.

The latter recognises no authority other than that of its self-declared caliphate.