End of US weapons ‘no catastrophe’ to Kurds

The political arm of Syria’s main Kurdish militia yesterday said it would not be catastrophic if the US stopped supplying its fighters with weapons.

Democratic Union Party spokesman Ibrahim Ibrahim said he could not confirm that the US was stopping its supply of weapons, but there seemed to be no indications of an end to American support.

“It’s not possible to ignore the value of international support and it will have negative consequences, and we understand the game of international interests and have always acted on this basis,” Mr Ibrahim said.

“But when we started our campaign we acted on the basis of our own strength and so if the information is true it will not have catastrophic consequences.

“The facts on the ground don’t indicate an American withdrawal and the end of support to the Syrian Democratic Forces, because of the Iranian presence in Syria and the lack of trust in most regional and local powers in Syria.”

On Friday, Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said the US would stop providing weapons to the Kurdish People’s Protection Units, or YPG, fighting ISIL in Syria.

The move would be a key concession to Ankara as Washington revises its policy on Syria after a successful campaign to oust the extremists from Raqqa.

Mr Cavusoglu said US president Donald Trump made the pledge to Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday night.

“Mr Trump clearly stated that weapons will not be given to YPG any more and said that essentially this nonsense should have been ended before,” he said.

The YPG is the predominant faction in an alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias known as the Syrian Democratic Forces, which led the ground campaign against ISIL in northern Syria and was directly backed by the US-led coalition.

Turkey considers the YPG and its political wing, the Democratic Union Party, as indistinguishable from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, which is fighting an insurgency against the Turkish state and is designated a terrorist group by the US and Nato.

Ankara considers the expansion of the Kurdish fighters’ zone of control along its border with Syria as a key security threat, although Syrian Kurdish officials have insisted that they want only autonomy within a unified, federal Syria.

The YPG proved itself reliable in the campaign against ISIL, as the forces seized vast tracts of territory from the militants in a months-long assault that ended in the battle for Raqqa.

But as momentum gathers for peace talks, with disarray in the Syrian opposition and a tilt in the military balance towards Syrian president, Bashar Al Assad, the US is likely to reduce its support for its allies.

Analysts believe complete US withdrawal from Syria is unlikely if Washington hopes to maintain a role in the peace process and contain Iran’s aspirations in the country.

While Ankara has insisted in recent days that the Kurds would not be allowed to have a role in peace talks, Kurdish officials insist the campaign to root out ISIL extremists from their retreats will continue, even with a decline in international support.

Ending support for Syria’s Kurdish militias, meanwhile, has long been a point of contention between Washington and Ankara.

The Syrian peace talks have been brokered by Ankara, which has backed Syrian rebels, and Assad allies Moscow and Tehran.

“We see that the YPG is gaining more and more territory – almost 20 per cent of the territory of the country – which is a very dangerous development,” Mr Cavusoglu said last week.

“This is what we are trying to explain to our American allies. They made huge mistakes in Iraq. Unfortunately now they are repeating the worst of them in Syria.”

Analysts believe complete US withdrawal from Syria is unlikely if it hopes to have a role in the peace process