US, Turkey strain for deal on key part of anti-IS fight

ANKARA, Turkey - The Trump administration and Turkey appeared no closer Thursday to resolving a dispute over the Kurds’ role in defeating the Islamic State group in Syria, as U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson visited America’s often nettlesome NATO ally for the first time.

Although the disagreement centers on tactics for a long-planned assault on IS’ self-declared capital, Raqqa, Turkey’s long-term security is also at stake. For decades, Turkey has battled Kurdish militants inside its own borders. So Turkey is loath to tolerate the U.S. partnering against IS with Syrian Kurdish fighters instead of Turkey’s own military and affiliated Syrian forces.

“Let me be very frank: These are not easy decisions,” Tillerson said after meeting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other Turkish officials.

The dispute has deepened a divide between the two allies that have agreed on little in recent years. The Obama administration long complained about Turkey’s inability to seal its frontier to prevent extremist recruits from reaching Middle East battlefields, and the frustration has carried over under President Donald Trump as the U.S. looks to deal IS death blows in Iraq and Syria.

Turkey accuses the Kurdish fighters known as the YPG of being an extension of a Kurdish insurgent force within Turkey that the U.S. also considers a terrorist organization. Turkey says the U.S. is backing one terror group to fight another, to the detriment of Turkish security, after spending years allowing Syria’s civil war to spiral out of control. But the U.S. considers Syrian Kurdish fighters the most effective force at fighting IS and critical to liberating Raqqa.

And despite Trump and Erdogan’s talk of improving U.S.-Turkish ties, the countries continue to clash over many matters, including the fate of a Pennsylvania-based cleric whom Turkey blames for a failed coup attempt last July.

Washington hasn’t announced which fighters will lead the Raqqa operation, though signs point to a prominent role for the Kurdish-led group, which also includes Arab fighters. The U.S. airlifted hundreds of so-called Syrian Democratic Forces behind enemy lines in Syria last week in what officials described as a key step toward Raqqa.

Tillerson said he and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu explored several ideas for the Raqqa operation, signaling no agreement.