US makes way for Turkish push against Syria’s Kurds
TURNAROUND It’s a major shift in US policy as the Kurds were America’s wartime allies in the region
WASHINGTON: The US said it will stand aside when Turkey’s military launches an operation against America’s wartime Kurdish allies in Syria, a significant shift in American policy that raises questions over the fate of tens of thousands of Islamic State detainees.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces have been a close US ally in the fight to defeat Islamic State. But Turkey considers Syria’s Kurdish militants a threat to its national security and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said his forces were ready to begin a military operation against them in northeastern Syria imminently.
The decision represents a dramatic reversal for US policy, which in 2015 provided air support for Kurdish militias to retake t he crit i cal t own of Kobani from Islamic State and has since used Kurdish fighters as ground troops in the campaign to clear Syria of the group.
The shift could cast further doubt on the reliability of the U.S. as an ally in the region, in the wake of its abandonment of strongmen such as Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak during the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings.
As recently as January, US President Donald Trump had warned Turkey of economic devastation if it attacked Kurdish forces in Syria after a planned pullout of US forces. A month earlier, Trump had abruptly announced his intention to withdraw all American troops from Syria, sowing confusion among allies, though several hundred personnel have remained.
“United States Armed Forces will not support or be involved in the operation, and United States forces, having defeated the ISIS territorial Caliphate, will no longer be in the immediate area,” the White House said in the statement released late on Sunday after Trump spoke to Erdogan by phone.
The White House said Turkey would take responsibility for any Islamic State fighters captured in the area over the past two years.
It gave no details and it wasn’t immediately clear what, if any, plan the NATO allies had agreed to handle the detainees or how they would be transferred to Turkish custody.
Erdogan’s planned operation aims to claim areas from the Kurdish militant group YPG and create a buffer zone inside Syria where he aims to settle some of the 3.7 million Syrian refugees currently residing in Turkey.