Washington dispatched a top envoy to meet with allied Kurdish forces inside Syria last week, a State Department official said Monday, following tensions after Turkey began operations in the war-torn country.
Washington found itself trapped between two key allies who are bitter foes — NATO partner Turkey, and the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, also taking part in the war against ISIL terrorist group.
A State Department spokesman told AFP that Brett McGurk, the special presidential envoy to the US-led coalition fighting ISIL, met with forces from the Kurdish-Arab Syrian Democratic Forces alliance.
The alliance is led by the YPG, and recently captured the town of Manbij from ISIL, prompting alarm in Ankara and demands that Kurdish forces withdraw east of the Euphrates river.
Ankara fears the Kurds will create a contiguous autonomous zone in northern Syria, emboldening Kurdish separatists inside Turkey.
The spokesman said McGurk pledged “ongoing US support for the SDF in the fight against ISIL, while emphasizing the need for strict adherence to prior commitments”, a reference to demands the SDF withdraw east of the Euphrates.
“In all of his meetings, he encouraged unity of effort and de-confliction between all forces fighting ISIL in northern Syria,” the spokesman said.
Last week, the Pentagon was forced to call on Turkey and Kurdish forces to avoid fighting each other, after clashes in northern Syria following the launch of Ankara’s operation “Euphrates Shield”, which is targeting both ISIL and the YPG.
McGurk also held talks last week in Turkey, the spokesman said.
“He met with senior Turkish officials to discuss US support for efforts to clear ISIL entirely from the border region… (and) also discussed planning for the Mosul campaign in Iraq, and closer US and Turkish cooperation to accelerate ISIL’s ultimate defeat.”
On Sunday, Turkish forces and allied Syrian rebels expelled ISIL from the last part of the Syrian-Turkish border under their control.
But much of the earlier work to push ISIL back from the border was done by the YPG and its allies.
Source: AFP
