Syria rushes its troops to back Kurds

beirut — Syrian forces took rapid advantage of an abrupt US retreat from Syria on Monday, deploying deep inside Kurdish-held territory south of the Turkish frontier less than 24 hours after Washington announced a full withdrawal.

Washington’s Kurdish former allies said they invited in the government troops as an emergency step to help fend off an assault by Turkey, launched last week after President Donald Trump moved his troops aside in what the Kurds call a betrayal.

Washington’s decision to abandon a policy it had pursued for five years gives Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan a free hand to shape the battlefield of the world’s deadliest ongoing war.

The Syrian army deployment is also a victory for President Bashar Al Assad, giving him a foothold in the biggest remaining swathe of the country that had been beyond his grasp.

It will now face Turkish armed forces along a new front line hundreds of miles long.

Syrian state media reported the army entered Manbij, a town near the Turkish border in northeast Syria that had been controlled by a militia allied to USbacked Kurdish forces. Earlier it pushed into Tel Tamer, a town on the strategically important M4 highway that runs east-west around 30km south of the frontier with Turkey.

State television later showed residents welcoming Syrian forces into the town of Ain Issa, which lies on another part of the highway, hundreds of miles away.

Ain Issa commands the northern approaches to Raqqa, former capital of the Daesh “caliphate”, which Kurdish fighters recaptured from the militants two years ago in one of the biggest victories of a US-led campaign.

Much of the M4 skirts the southern fringe of territory where Turkey aims to set up a “safe zone” inside Syria.

Turkey said it had seized part of the highway. An official of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces said clashes were ongoing. —

luxembourg — The EU on Monday condemned Turkey’s assault on Kurdish forces in northern Syria but stopped short of imposing the formal arms embargo some countries have urged.

Several European states including Germany and France have already halted arms exports to Turkey and there were calls for an official EU-wide ban.

But senior diplomats said that Turkey’s membership of Nato made such an embargo extremely difficult. Instead,

EU member states agreed to the “strict application” of their existing common policy on arms exports, which includes a provision that they should not be approved where they may

“contribute to regional instability”.

EU diplomatic chief Federica

Mogherini said the commitment, agreed by all 28 foreign ministers at talks in Luxembourg, would have the “same effect” as an arms embargo but was quicker and easier to implement.

But after repeated EU calls for Ankara to halt its operation went ignored, she was downbeat about the chances that the latest move would convince Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to change course. “I’m glad that on this occasion the European Union and member states were not only able to speak with one voice but also to act in unison and we take a further step. Will that be enough? We’ll see,” she told reporters.

Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn was even more pessimistic, saying Erdogan was not counting on Europe to supply his forces.

Turkey quickly hit back on Monday — the sixth day of the assault — accusing Brussels of protecting “terror elements”.

“It is unacceptable for the EU to display an approach that protects terror elements,” Ankara’s foreign ministry said in a statement. “We totally reject and condemn the decisions and calls made to our country,” it added

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said EU countries had agreed “that they will no longer authorise arms exports to Turkey”. But when asked whether this would apply to existing contracts to supply Turkey or only to new business, he said “every country will have to clarify this for itself ”.

Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Borrell, who will soon replace Mogherini at the EU, said Monday’s decision would only apply to new contracts, noting arms sales were a matter for member states. —

I’m glad that on this occasion the European Union and member states were not only able to speak with one voice but also to act in unison and we take a further step. Will that be enough? We’ll see Federica Mogherini EU diplomatic chief

AFP