ANKARA, Turkey, July 25 (NNN-ANADOLU) – Turkey was not satisfied with a new proposal submitted by the United States, on the issue of establishing a safe zone in northern Syria, Turkish Foreign Minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu said.
“The new U.S. proposals are not satisfactory for us. We got the impression that they want to stall just like what happened with Manbij (deal),” Cavusoglu told reporters at a press conference, after talks between the American and Turkish delegations in the capital, Ankara.
“A deal on a safe zone has to be reached as soon as possible. Our patience has run out,” he said, warning of a possible Turkish invasion in the east of the Euphrates.
His remarks came after the two countries have held talks since Monday, to discuss Syria, including the possibility of setting up a safe zone along the border with Turkey, which aims at preventing clashes between Turkish and Kurdish forces.
Cavusoglu said, his American counterpart, Mike Pompeo asked him to wait for a military operation and offered to send a delegation with new proposals for the safe zone.
The proposal has “new ideas on who will be included in the safe zone and joint patrols between soldiers,” Cavusoglu said, but the offer failed short on the topics of the depth of the safe zone, the elimination of the People’s Protection Units (YPG) forces, which Ankara sees as the Syrian branch of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) group, and the control of the safe zone.
The U.S. provided extensive support to the YPG in Syria, since the group led the fight against the Daesh there.
The U.S. proposal on the safe zone is a process similar to the Manbij deal, whose phases will be extended overtime on a specified schedule, a Foreign Ministry official said. Therefore, Ankara regards this offer as an attempt to stall Turkey’s operation into Syria, the official added.
The U.S. proposal does not meet with the expectations of Turkey, as the new offer is far behind the 30-km-depth, which the U.S. President, Donald Trump, expressed earlier, said the official.
Ankara has often criticised Washington for the delay in the implementation of the road-map on Manbij and expected the town to be clear of the YPG.
The United States and Turkey are committed to “accelerated and concrete progress” on the road-map agreed upon for the northern Syrian town of Manbij, the U.S. Embassy in Ankara said on Wednesday.
This was the fifth meeting of a U.S.-Turkey joint working group, which aims to eliminate differences in Syria and to have progress on the issues of Manbij and a possible safe zone in northern Syria.
Turkey wants a 30-40 km depth of the safe zone under Turkish military control, so that no YPG troops can attack the Turkish border.
However, Washington proposed around 10 km-deep safe zone, with no permanent deployment of Turkish troops.– NNN-ANADOLU
