Pompeo confident of deal with Turkey on Kurds
abu dhabi — Despite Turkey’s vows to the contrary, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Saturday he was confident the two nations can agree on a way to protect US-allied Kurdish rebels in Syria after American troops withdraw from the country.
After speaking to Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, Pompeo said an agreement was a work in progress but can be achieved in a way that allows the Turks to defend their country while leaving alone Kurds who do not pose a threat.
The top US diplomat said he was “optimistic” that Kurds who fought alongside US forces against the Daesh group in Syria are not threatened by pledges from Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to launch military operations against what he terms Kurdish “terrorists”.
“We recognise the Turkish people’s right and President Erdogan’s right to defend their country from terrorists and we also know that those who aren’t terrorists, those who were fighting alongside us all this time, deserve to be protected and we are confident that we can achieve an outcome that achieves both of those: protect the Turks from legitimate terror threats and prevent any substantial risks to folks who don’t present terror risks to Turkey,” Pompeo told reporters.
“We had this conversation, many details still to be worked out but I am optimistic we can achieve a good outcome,” Pompeo said of his call with Cavusoglu from Abu Dhabi, where he was on the fourth leg of a Picture courtesy Twitter
nine-nation Mideast trip. He offered no details, but said the US special envoy for Syria and the anti-Daesh coalition, Jim Jeffrey, had travelled to
northern Syria earlier this past week to work on the matter and would be returning to Turkey to continue the discussions. —