Erdogan says US not fulfilling Syria deal ahead of Trump talks

Erdogan says US not fulfilling Syria deal ahead of Trump talks
November 7, 2019, 10:42 am

Erdogan says US not fulfilling Syria deal ahead of Trump talks AFP

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday the United States was not fulfilling its pledge to remove Kurdish-led forces from a Syrian border region and he will raise the issue when he meets President Donald Trump next week.

A month ago, Turkey launched a cross-border offensive with allied Syrian forces against Kurdish-led forces after seizing control of a 120 km swathe of territory reached a deal with the United States to keep them out of that area.

Erdogan is set to discuss implementation of the agreement with Trump in Washington on Nov. 13 after confirming that the visit would go ahead following a phone call between the leaders overnight.

“While we hold these talks, those who promised us that the YPG...would withdraw from here within 120 hours have not achieved this,” he told a news conference, referring to a deadline set in last month’s agreement.

Turkish officials had previously said Erdogan might call off the US visit in protest at US House of Representatives’ votes to recognize mass killings of Armenians a century ago as genocide and to seek sanctions on Turkey.

After the deal with Washington, Ankara also reached an agreement with Moscow under which the Kurdish-led forces was to withdraw to a depth of 30 km along the entirety of the northeastern Syrian border with Turkey.

But Erdogan said this deal had also not been fulfilled, with Kurdish-led forces still in the border strip, adding that he would hold talks with Putin soon on the issue.

Clashes in Syria

Speaking to reporters before leaving on a visit to Hungary, Erdogan said clashes in Syria were continuing, with 11 fighters from the Turkey-backed rebel Syrian National Army (SNA) killed on Thursday.

“These terrorists are attacking the SNA, and the SNA is retaliating in kind. There are 11 martyrs from the SNA this morning. Many more were killed on the other side,” he said.

Under the two bilateral deals, Ankara stopped its offensive in return for the withdrawal of the YPG. Turkish and Russian soldiers have so far held two joint patrols near the border to monitor implementation of their agreement.

Ankara considers the Kurdish-led forces a terrorist group because of its ties to militants who have fought an insurgency in southeast Turkey since 1984. US support for the YPG, which was a main ally in the fight against ISIS, has infuriated Turkey.

Ankara began its offensive against the YPG after Trump announced an abrupt withdrawal of 1,000 US troops from northern Syria in early October. The US president has since said that some troops will continue to operate there.

Late on Wednesday, the commander of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces said the group was resuming work with the US-led coalition against ISIS in Syria.

“As a result of series of meetings with Coalition leaders, SDF is resuming its joint program of work with the Coalition to combat ISIS and securing the infrastructure of NE Syria,” Mazloum Kobani wrote on Twitter.

SOURCE : Reuters, Istanbul

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