The U.S. delegation, led by Deputy Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs Jonathan Cohen and officials from the Department of Defense, are in Ankara for talks as part of a joint working group that meets periodically.
They are meeting in the Foreign Ministry with their Turkish partners headed by Ahmet Muhtar Gün, deputy secretary of the ministry.
The working group’s agenda includes a number of issues that have led to tension in bilateral relations in recent months including the visa crisis and ongoing investigations of U.S. consular staff.
In another meeting in the afternoon, U.S. Department of Defense officials, headed by Cohen, will discuss the “struggle against terrorism” at the General Staff, where the Turkish side will brief them about the ongoing “Operation Olive Branch.”
Ankara has reacted angrily to a recent announcement that the U.S.-led coalition forces will establish a local “border force” composed of Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) fighters and Arab forces in Syria along the border with Turkey and Iraq. In Ankara, the U.S. delegation is expected to make a detailed presentation on their military plans for Syria.
[hurriyetdailynews.com]
23/1/18
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YPG elements who leave anti-Daesh operations and mobilize in Afrin, Syria, will lose backing from the U.S., the Pentagon told Anadolu Agency on Tuesday.
ReplyDelete"If they [U.S.-backed forces under the SDF] carry out military operations of any kind that are not specifically focused on ISIS they will not have coalition support," according to Pentagon spokesperson Adrian Rankine-Galloway in reference to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, another name for Daesh.
"Let’s say for example, a unit of YPG says, 'Hey, we'll no longer fight ISIS and we are going to support our brothers in Afrin.’” then they are on their own, he said. "They are not our partners anymore."
The remarks were in response to an Anadolu Agency's question regarding reports that PYD/PKK convoys from the Kamisli region in northeastern Syria were mobilizing to support the PYD/PKK militants in Afrin.
Media reports have stated the mobilization followed Turkey’s launch of Operation Olive Branch on Saturday to remove PYD/PKK terrorists from the northern Syrian city.
ANADOLU
The United States has a "moral responsibility" to stop Turkey's assault on the northern Syrian enclave of Afrin, the region's foreign representative said Tuesday.
DeleteSinam Mohammad, the chief envoy of the "Rojava self-ruled Democratic Administration" in the Kurdish-majority north of Syria, said she fears for her own family in Afrin.
Mohammad noted that Turkey is a NATO member and argued that the United States ought to be able to pressure its ally to halt an offensive that she said had so far mainly killed civilians.
"For us, the United States has a moral obligation to protect the democracy in this area, to protect the democratic system in this area," Mohammad told reporters in Washington.
For local leaders, the self-ruled area is an experiment in democratic federalism that could serve as an example for the rest of Syria as it emerges from an eight-year civil war....AFP