Paris (AFP)

Foreign jihadists, particularly French jihadists, detained by the Kurds in Syria and whom their countries do not want to take back will not be able to be tried in Iraq, as had been envisaged, and their fate will depend on the process of political settlement in Syria under the aegis of the UN, said Sunday the head of French diplomacy.

"We thought it was possible to open a specific jurisdictional system in relation to the Iraqi authorities," said Jean-Yves Le Drian during the program "Questions politiques" on France Inter radio.

The French Minister of Foreign Affairs went to Badgad on October 17 to discuss with the Iraqi authorities the establishment of such a device to try foreign jihadists, including 60 French.

"Today given the situation in Iraq, this assumption is not feasible in the short term", he conceded, in reference to the revolt which is shaking this country and which led to the resignation of Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi.

"Well in the medium term, it will have to be settled within the framework of the global political settlement which started very slowly in Geneva since the implementation of the Consultative Committee intended to modify the Syrian Constitution to lead to a peace roadmap in this country ", noted Jean-Yves Le Drian.

The Syrian Constitutional Committee, tasked with reforming the 2012 Constitution for the next election, was inaugurated on October 30 at the UN in Geneva in the presence of 150 people representing, equally, the government of Damascus, the opposition and Syrian civil society.

About 12,000 jihadists, the vast majority Iraqi and Syrians, are detained by the Syrian Kurds.

"At the time of political settlement, the question of their judgment will inevitably be asked," insisted the French minister.

In the meantime, "all of these groups are in secure places in Syria by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF, predominantly Kurdish) and by American elements and we are contributing in our own way to ensure that it is completely secure over time, "he added without further details.

In November, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres considered that the question of foreign members of the jihadist Islamic State (IS) group captured in Syria was a "common international responsibility" and that "Iraq could not be asked" or Syria to solve the problem for everyone. "

Le Drian recalled France's intangible position regarding the fate of its IS member nationals - their judgment in the theater where they fought - and stressed that it was shared by many European countries.

"French fighters, French fighters must be judged where they committed their crimes," he said. "It is true for our position but it is true for the position of other Europeans," he added.

The minister also stressed that IS was not dead and questioned its possible link with the current political unrest in Iraq.

"Daesh (Arab acronym of IS) exists clandestinely in Iraq, hence the questions about the unstable situation that exists today in this country," he pointed out.

© 2019 AFP