Turkey, US stage joint patrols in northeast Syria
The US and Turkey launched a second round of joint patrols in northeastern Syria on Tuesday as part of plans to create a “safe” buffer zone, the Turkish defense ministry said.
Four Turkish armored vehicles crossed the border to join US forces in Syria, state news agency Anadolu said, for patrols around the town of Tal Abyad.
The ministry said drones were also deployed.
Washington and Ankara reached a deal last month to establish a safe zone between the Turkish border and Syrian areas east of the Euphrates River controlled by the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG). The first joint patrols were conducted on Sept. 8.
The US views the YPG as a close ally in the fight against Daesh. But Ankara says the YPG is a terrorist militia linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has waged an insurgency inside Turkey since 1984. The PKK is blacklisted as a terrorist group by Ankara, the US and the EU.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has repeatedly threatened to launch a cross-border offensive against the YPG.
He said at the weekend that plans for a unilateral operation had been completed in case there was not adequate progress in establishing the buffer zone by the end of September.
Canada probes Syrian diplomat’s appointment
Separately, Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau’s government said Tuesday it is looking into how an unapologetic supporter of the Syrian regime could have been approved for a diplomatic posting in Canada. Canadian officials last month quietly signed off on Montreal businessman Waseem Ramli’s appointment as Syria’s honorary consul in Montreal, Macleans magazine reported. Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said in a Twitter message that she was “shocked” to learn of Ramli’s political leanings, and has “asked the department to look into (his appointment) right away.” A senior official said that vetting of the relatively low-level appointment — which comes with no pay — would have been handled by the department’s protocol office, adding that someone “dropped the ball” because Ramli has posted pro-Assad views online and rules bar diplomats from publicly espousing political opinions.