ISTANBUL — Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Jordan will come collectively to struggle the remnants of the Islamic State group, a transfer that will enable the USA to chop ties with Kurdish militants in Syria, the Turkish international minister mentioned Sunday.
Washington’s decadelong relationship with Kurdish-led forces in Syria is opposed by Turkey. Ankara says the Folks’s Protection Models, or YPG, are tied to a different Kurdish group listed as a terrorist group by Turkey, the U.S. and the European Union.
The YPG, which spearheads the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, has performed a central function in preventing IS alongside American particular forces and now guards 1000’s of IS prisoners in northeast Syria.
“The essential downside is that the YPG has been guarding Daesh inmates and conserving them in jail … they’re not doing anything,” Turkish International Minister Hakan Fidan mentioned Sunday, utilizing the Arabic time period for IS.
“So Turkey, Iraq, Syria and Jordan want to come back collectively to struggle Daesh. We’re able to doing that and God prepared that is the step we will probably be taking as 4 nations within the close to future. We now have already executed the preliminary talks for that course of.”
Fidan, who was talking at a information convention in Doha, Qatar, alongside Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, mentioned that the brand new Syrian authorities had indicated it is going to take accountability for IS prisoners.
Turkey desires U.S. President Donald Trump to step again from supporting the Kurdish fighters, who Ankara regards as terrorists resulting from their hyperlinks to the Kurdistan Staff’ Celebration, or PKK, which has waged battle towards Turkey since 1984.
“We hope that President Trump will make the appropriate determination and proper this flawed … it’s an open wound that must be closed as quickly as potential,” Fidan added.
Since Syrian rebels launched an offensive to take the nation in November, Turkish-backed fighters have focused Kurdish forces, taking numerous cities. In the meantime, the Turkish navy has maintained stress on Kurdish fighters in each Syria and northern Iraq. On Sunday, the Protection Ministry mentioned Turkish troops killed 23 “PKK/YPG terrorists” in northern Syria with out offering additional particulars.
Ankara has known as for the Syrian Democratic Forces to be purged of parts linked to the PKK and be absorbed right into a future Syrian navy.
The U.S. at present has round 2,000 troops in northeast Syria. Throughout his first time period in workplace, Trump mentioned he would withdraw all American forces from Syria, which triggered a Turkish offensive towards the YPG in 2019.
His seemingly heat relationship with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has led to hypothesis that Trump will once more search to take away the U.S. navy presence.
