SYRIA ‘CEASEFIRE’
Turkey says it will suspend offensive for five days to allow Kurds to pull out of ‘safe zone’
TURKEY last night gave Kurdish forces five days to withdraw from the border area in Syria as part of a negotiated ceasefire with the US.
After four hours of talks in Ankara with Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, US vice president Mike Pence said the YPG Kurdish fighters who helped defeat Islamic State had 120 hours to leave a 20 mile-deep ‘safe zone’.
General Mazlum Abdi, commander of the Kurdish- led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), said they had accepted the ceasefire after the US gave them ‘guarantees’.
However, other Kurdish leaders were less impressed. The deal would see them give up land they fought for in their bloody victory against IS. It would also leave towns, where tens of thousands of Kurds live, defenceless and at risk of ethnic cleansing.
Syrian-Kurdish official Aldar Khalil said: ‘Erdogan wants to penetrate 32km deep and we have already rejected these conditions.’ The deal was also seen as America doing Turkey’s bidding, with Donald Trump’s former anti-IS envoy Brett McGurk tweeting: ‘ The US just ratified Turkey’s plan to effectively extend its border 30km into Syria with no ability to meaningfully influence facts on the ground.’
Samantha Power, former US ambassador to the UN under Barack Obama, tweeted: ‘The President of the United States has endorsed ethnic cleansing.’
However, Mr Trump welcomed the agreement, tweeting: ‘ Great news out of Turkey... Millions of lives with be saved.’ He added: ‘This deal could NEVER have been made 3 days ago. There needed to be some “tough” love in order to get it done. Great for everybody. Proud of all!’
It emerged on Wednesday that Mr Trump had written a bizarre letter to Mr Erdogan before his military offensive into Syria began, urging: ‘Let’s work out a good deal! You don’t want to be responsible for slaughtering thousands of people, and I don’t want to be responsible for destroying the Turkish economy – and I will.’
It was signed off: ‘Don’t be a tough guy. Don’t be a fool!’ The letter was written in such a way that even the Kremlin pointed out its ‘unusual’ nature, saying it was ‘not often that such language is found in exchanges between leaders’.
Turkish officials said Mr Erdogan simply threw the letter in the bin and ordered the attack to begin.
Mr Pence was subject to further humiliation at a Press conference before yesterday’s talks.
There was only a small US flag on the table, in contrast to the huge Russian one laid out for President Vladimir Putin on a previous visit.
Syrian-Kurds do not want to give up key towns such as Kobane and Manbij, which sit inside the Turkish ‘safe zone’.
If they are driven over the Euphrates river, they would be heading towards the Assad regime, which they have been fighting since the 1970s.
The agreement also stated that the Kurdish militants would have their heavy weapons collected and their fortifications and fighting positions disabled.
‘There needed to be some tough love’