US urges allies to fight against PKK, despite supporting YPG

THE U.S. State Department’s coordinator for counterterrorism said Thursday that he has alerted his foreign counterparts to focus on the PKK terror group along with Daesh and Al-Qaeda.

“Every opportunity I have, I raise with foreign counterparts the need not just to focus on ISIS [Daesh] and Al-Qaeda but on the full spectrum of terrorist groups, including Iranbacked groups, Hezbollah and also the PKK,” Ambassador Nathan A. Sales said during a panel at Washington-based think tank the German Marshall Fund. Describing Washington’s stance on the PKK as “very clear,” Sales emphasized that the U.S. had designated the PKK as a terrorist organization way back in 1997. “It was actually one of the first organizations that we ever designated along with Hezbollah and Hamas. That’s the company the PKK keeps in the U.S.’s mind,” he added. The U.S. considers PKK’s Syrian affiliate, the People’s Protection Units (YPG), which functions under the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), as its main ally in Syria, despite Ankara’s warnings that the group is organically linked to the PKK, a group listed as a terrorist organization by the U.S., Turkey and the European Union.

Previously, Washington said that the weapons given to the YPG in Syria would be retrieved once the fight against Daesh is over. Yet, despite the weakening of Daesh in Syria, there have been no moves that suggest retrieval of the weapons from the YPG, a matter of concern for Turkey, which says the weapons are ultimately transferred to the PKK and used against Turkey. During his speech, Sales also drew attention to the PKK’s financing activities, saying the U.S. is doing its best to inhibit the terror group’s fundraising efforts in the country.