Turkiye refutes US claims of ceasefire with Syrian Kurdish fighters
Turkiye has hit back at claims by the United States that it agreed to a ceasefire with Kurdish fighters in northern Syria, and has vowed to continue working to clear them from the territory – a military operation that was launched after the fall of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
A senior Turkish defence official on Thursday rubbished claims made by US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller that a Washington-brokered ceasefire between Turkish-backed rebels and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) around the Syrian city of Manbij had been extended until the end of this week.
The SDF is supported by Washington in its fight against ISIL, but Ankara views it as a “terrorist organisation”, alleging links with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has waged a four-decade armed rebellion on Turkish soil.
On Thursday, the Turkish official described Miller’s statement as “a slip of the tongue”, saying it was “out of the question” for Turkiye to talk to the SDF, a group spearheaded by the People’s Protection Units (YPG), which is seen an extension of the PKK.
“Until the PKK/YPG terrorist organisation disarms and its foreign fighters leave Syria, our preparations and measures will continue within the scope of the fight against terrorism,” said the official.
Turkiye regards the PKK, YPG and SDF as “terrorist” groups. The US and Turkiye’s Western allies also list the PKK as “terrorist”, but not the YPG and the SDF.
Renewed fighting between Turkish-backed factions and Syrian Kurdish fighters comes more than a week after fighters led by opposition group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) toppled Syria’s longtime strongman Bashar al-Assad.
Reporting from Istanbul, Al Jazeera’s Sinem Koseoglu said that Turkiye believed it was up to the new Syrian administration to remove “foreign fighters” – an allusion to PKK members of the YPG – from its territory.
“Turkiye considers all those PKK ranks within the YPG as foreign fighters and the Turkish foreign minister said these foreign fighters … within the opposition factions should be out of Syria, especially as there is a new Syrian administration and a national army is expected to be established,” she said.
If the new administration was unable to remove foreign fighters from its territory, Turkiye could potentially intervene, she added.
The Turkish official’s comments came as concerns grew over a possible Turkish assault on the Kurdish-held Syrian border town of Kobane, also known as Ain al-Arab, some 50km (30 miles) northeast of Manbij.
Putin plans to meet Bashar al-Assad, says Russia not defeated in Syria
President Vladimir Putin says Russia has not been defeated in Syria after rebel groups ousted his ally and longtime leader, Bashar al-Assad, earlier this month.
In his first public comments on the subject on Thursday, Putin said he had not yet met the former Syrian ruler who fled to the Russian capital, but that he “will definitely talk to him” and planned to meet him in Moscow.
He mentioned he would ask al-Assad about the fate of missing United States reporter Austin Tice, whose release was described by the White House as a “top priority”.
Speaking at his annual end-of-the-year news conference, Putin also dismissed claims that Russia, which intervened in Syria in 2015 and turned the tide of the civil war there in al-Assad’s favour, had suffered a loss with the fall of the former regime.
“You want to present what is happening in Syria as a defeat for Russia,” Putin said. “I assure you it is not … we have achieved our goals.”
He said Russia intervened in Syria to “prevent a terrorist enclave from being created there” and that “it is not for nothing that today many European countries and the United States want to establish relations with them [Syria’s new rulers]”.
“We maintain relations with all the groups that control the situation there, with all the countries in the region,” Putin continued, adding that the “overwhelming majority of them tell us that they would be interested in our military bases remaining in Syria”.
Russia offered to maintain bases there “for humanitarian purposes”, he said. He also admitted to having evacuated 4,000 Iranian fighters in the aftermath of the fall of the al-Assad government.
Just get out of there. Wtf kinda humanitarian purpose do you have in Syria...
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