Kurdish-controlled areas of northern Syria are expected to declare a federal system imminently, a Kurdish official says, as peace negotiations continue to be held in Geneva about how to end the country's five-year war.
The step, which would combine three Kurdish-led autonomous areas of northern Syria into a federal system, is sure to alarm neighbouring Turkey, which fears growing Kurdish power in Syria is fuelling separatism among its own Kurdish minority.
Idris Nassan, a Syrian Kurdish official and former leader in the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), said the announcement would mean "widening the framework of self-administration" across northern Syria.
In an interview with Al Jazeera, Nassan said preparations for federalism have been ongoing for quite some time and an announcement would be made shortly.