US, Turkey agree Kurd pullout plan
ISTANBUL: The United States and Turkey agreed on Monday on a plan to withdraw Kurdish fighters from the northern Syrian city of Manbij as a step toward resolving one of the tensest disputes to erupt recently between the countries.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Turkey’s Foreign Minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, “endorsed a road map” to “ensure security and stability in Manbij”, according to a State Department statement issued after the two officials met in Washington on Monday.
Neither side released details of the plan, but Turkish and US officials confirmed that it called for the withdrawal of Kurdish forces from the city. The agreement hands a significant gain to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey just weeks before presidential elections.
Turkish officials said the road map calls for the Kurdish militia in Manbij — the People’s Protection Units — as well as Kurdish commanders and political leaders to withdraw from the town and be replaced by local leaders. The plan called for Turkish and US forces to jointly oversee stabilisation operations in the area.
Two US official who spoke on the condition of anonymity, did not confirm that there was a plan for the two countries to jointly oversee the city.
Manbij emerged as a potential flash point between the United States and Turkey, which are Nato allies, after Mr Erdogan sent Turkish forces to seize control of the Kurdish enclave of Afrin in January. Mr Erdogan vowed to continue on to Manbij and oust the Kurdish militias there. But those Kurdish militias are allied with US Special Forces, which said they would resist any attack. Turkey regards the Kurdish militia as an affiliate of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, which has been designated a terrorist group by both Turkey and the United States. Turkey has said that US support for the militia amounts to arming a group that has been fighting an insurgency in Turkey for 30 years.
But the Pentagon considers the militia its most reliable fighting partner in the region. The Kurdish fighters form the command component of US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, which is fighting the Islamic State.
The Pentagon is loath to abandon the Kurdish fighters once the war against the Islamic State is over. It says Turkish operations against the Syrian Kurds are undermining the fight against the Islamist extremists.