The Pentagon has reportedly threatened to sever all assistance to Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) that would move to support Kurdish militia in Syria’s northwest, as Turkey continues its offensive against the Kurdish forces there.
Pentagon spokesman Adrian Rankine-Galloway told the state-run Turkish news outlet Anadolu Agency on Wednesday that any element of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) that says “Hey, we’ll no longer fight ISIS and we are going to support our brothers in Afrin” would cease to be considered a coalition partner.
“If they [US-backed units operating under the SDF umbrella] carry out military operations of any kind that are not specifically focused on ISIL they will not have coalition support,” Rankine-Galloway said, referring to the Takfiri terrorist group.
According to him, if “a unit of YPG says ‘Hey, we’ll no longer fight ISIS and we are going to support our brothers in Afrin'”, it would cease to be a coalition partner.
Rankine-Galloway also pointed out that the US merely provides “training, advice and assistance” to forces that fight against ISIL, and does not issue direct orders to SDF forces on the ground.
He noted, however, that the US might stop supplying materiel to the forces that employ it for purposes other than battling ISIL.
“If we observe scenarios in which that equipment is used for other purposes, we are going to take appropriate action that could include cutting off military assistance to them,” Rankine-Galloway explained.
Meanwhile, a US delegation has visited Turkey for talks on its offensive in Afrin, Operation Olive Branch, which entered its 5th day on Wednesday.
The meeting between US officials, led by Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Jonathan Cohen, and a Turkish group, led by Deputy Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Ahmet Muhtar Gun, was held at the Foreign Ministry building and lasted for four-and-a-half hours on Tuesday, an anonymous Turkish diplomatic source told media.
Source: Sputnik
