US leaders toughen Turkey talks
Biden administration officials are toughening their language toward Nato ally Turkey as they try to talk Turkish President Recep Erdogan out of launching a bloody and destabilising ground offensive against American-allied Kurdish forces in neighbouring Syria.
Since November 20 — after six people died in an Istanbul bombing that Turkey blamed, without evidence, on the US and its Kurdish allies in Syria — Turkey has launched crossborder airstrikes, rockets and shells into US- and Kurdish-patrolled areas of Syria, leaving Kurdish funeral corteges burying scores of dead.
Some criticised the initial muted US response to the near-daily Turkish bombardment as a green light for more.
With Erdogan not backing down on his threat to escalate, the US has begun speaking more forcefully.
US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin called his Turkish counterpart last week to express “strong opposition” to Turkey launching a new military operation in northern Syria.
And National Security Council spokesman John Kirby on Saturday
made one of the administration’s first specific mentions of the impact of the Turkish strikes on the Kurdish militia, known as the Syrian Democratic Forces, that works with the United States against Islamic State militants bottled up in northern Syria.
How successfully the United States manages Erdogan’s threat to send troops in against America’s Kurdish partners over coming weeks will affect global security concerns far from that isolated corner of Syria.
That’s especially true for the Ukraine conflict. The Biden administration is eager for Erdogan’s cooperation with other Nato partners in
countering Russia, particularly when it comes to persuading Turkey to drop its objections to Finland and Sweden joining Nato.
But giving Turkey free rein in attacks on the Syrian Kurds in hopes of securing Erdogan’s co-operation within Nato would have big security implications of its own.
US forces have stopped joint military patrols with the Kurdish forces in northern Syria to counter Islamic State extremists, as the Kurds concentrate on defending themselves from the Turkish air and artillery attacks and a possible ground invasion.