The Phnom Penh Post

US Syria exit: ‘Way could be found to protect Kurds’

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WASHINGTON’S top diplomat said on Saturday he was “optimistic” a way could be found to protect Syrian Kurds while allowing Turks to “defend their country from terrorists” following a US pullout from Syria.

“We are confident we can achieve an outcome that achieves both of those,” US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told journalist­s in Abu Dhabi.

The Gulf emirate is his latest stop in a regional tour aimed at reassuring allies after a shock December announceme­nt by President Donald Trump that US troops would be withdrawn from Syria.

Pompeo’s remarks follow tensions between the US and Turkey over the fate of Washington’s Syrian Kurdish allies in the fight against Islamic State (IS) group jihadists.

Turkey had reacted angrily to suggestion­s that Trump’s plan to withdraw troops was conditiona­l on the safety of the US-backed Kurdish fighters, seen by the Turkish government as terrorists.

US-led operations against IS in Syria have been spearheade­d on the ground by the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces.

Ankara sees the backbone of that alliance, the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), as a terrorist group linked to the Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) which has fought a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state.

Pompeo said Washington recognised “the Turkish people’s right and [Turkish President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan’s right to defend their country from terrorists”.

But, he added: “we also know that those fighting alongside of us for all this time deserve to be protected as well.”

Pompeosaid­hehadspoke­ntoTurkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu.

“Many details [are] still to be worked out but I’m optimistic that we can achieve a good outcome,” he said.

Threatened assault

Multiple operations including USbacked assaults have ousted IS jihadists from most of the swathes of Syria and Iraq they captured in 2014.

But Trump’s announceme­nt raised fears of a long-threatened Turkish assault against the Kurds.

On Thursday, Cavusoglu repeated that threat, telling NTV television: “If the [pullout] is put off with ridiculous excuses like Turks are massacring Kurds, which do not reflect the reality, we will implement this decision.”

That came after a tense meeting between Turkish officials and Trump’s national security adviser John Bolton in Ankara, aimed at coordinati­ng the pullout process after Bolton set conditions that appeared to postpone it indefinite­ly.

The terms included the total defeat of IS – still active in some parts of Syria – and ensuring protection for Kurdish fighters.

The US-led coalition launched operations against IS in September 2014, forming the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in 2015 with some 25,000 Kurdish fighters and 5,000 Arabs – all Syrian.

Backed by US arms and air support, the YPG-dominated group has overrun the de facto Syrian capital of IS, Raqa, and a large part of Deir Ezzor province.

But that stirred Turkish fears of a breakaway Kurdish state on its border.

As well as fighting IS, the YPG has also battled pro-Ankara forces in northweste­rn Syria, pulling SDF forces away from the battle against jihadists in the east of the country.

Trump’s announceme­nt last month prompted the YPG to call on Syrian government troops to deploy alongside their own forces in the north to help counter a potential Turkish offensive.

A US military spokesman said on Friday it had begun “the process of our deliberate withdrawal from Syria”.

But US defence officials quickly sought to clarify that while gear was being pulled out, “we are not withdrawin­g troops at this stage”.

In an interview with US broadcaste­r CBS on Saturday, Pompeo said “the president’s guidance is incredibly clear” on the withdrawal.

Syria’s devastatin­g conflict began in 2011 with anti-government demonstrat­ions that were brutally crushed, sparking a complex war involving multiple foreign militias and jihadist groups, as well as regional and internatio­nal powers including the US.

The withdrawal announceme­nt had also sparked concerns among Arab states and Israel that it could open the way to growing Iranian influence.

Pompeo has pledged to “expel every last Iranian boot” from Syria, and on Saturday sought to downplay the impact of the US pullout on this goal.

“The fact that a couple of thousands of uniformed personnel in Syria will be withdrawin­g is a tactical change,” he said.

“It doesn’t materially alter our capacity to continue to perform the military actions that we need to perform.”

The US is looking to create an antiIran front – the Middle East Strategic Alliance – bringing together Gulf countries as well as Egypt and Jordan.

Washington is set to convene an internatio­nal summit in Poland next month focusing on stability in the Middle East, including Iran’s influence.

 ??  ?? A Syrian government forces’ tank is seen at a position in the village of Qart Saghir northwest of the northern town of Manbij, near the frontline with forces from the Turkey-backed Euphrates Shield alliance, on Saturday.
A Syrian government forces’ tank is seen at a position in the village of Qart Saghir northwest of the northern town of Manbij, near the frontline with forces from the Turkey-backed Euphrates Shield alliance, on Saturday.

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