“A large, separate Kurdish force might open the door for a new political struggle in the region”, SNC chief negotiator Nasr al-Hariri said.
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Syrian President Bashar al-Assad also vowed to crush the new border force and drive US troops from Syria, while Russian Federation charged that the plan showed the United States intends to partition Syria by allowing Kurdish forces to consolidate their hold on the approximately 25 percent of Syrian territory they now control after liberating it from IS.
Turkey says it is planning for military intervention in Syria’s Kurdish-controlled Afrin and Manbij regions in response to a “threat” posed by US -backed Kurdish militia fighters.
Turkish forces began a military fortification plan on their border with Syria on Monday, sending a convoy, including armed vehicles and soldiers.
The Kurdish-held area stretches south of the Turkish border to Raqqa, the former Islamic State “capital”, and east to the Euphrates river, and contains Syria’s major oil and gas fields and its main hydroelectricity plant.
As the U.S. has only 2,000-plus military personnel in Syria, it was announced that Washington intends to form a 30,000-strong mainly Kurdish border force to secure the 25 per cent of Syria now occupied by the US-sponsored Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
Turkey, a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation member and an increasingly hard Western ally, is talking tough about Syrian Kurds as border troops. Later, American authorities arrested in the United States Halbank-state bank manager Hakan Atilla, who was convicted of a violation of the embargo against Iran, with the result that Turkey may face USA sanction.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces and Washington hope to create a force of 30,000 fighters that will be deployed along the borders of the self-proclaimed Kurdish autonomous region in Syria.
Cavusoglu said Turkey wasn’t satisfied with the USA explanations, while adding that it has no interest in colliding with the US over the operation.
Erdogan, however was not convinced and vowed to “strangle the new Kurdish force before it’s even born” and called the new border guards a “terror army”.
Cavusoglu said Ankara wants to see “concrete steps” from the United States on ending cooperation with “terrorist groups”.
“The U.S. must stop cooperating with this terrorist group”, Cavusoglu said. Turkey says the weapons frequently end up in the hands of outlawed Kurdish rebels fighting Turkey.
“Turkey’s precautions against YPG/PKK can not be limited to only Afrin”.
The spokesman of the USA led coalition in Syria Col. Ryan Dillan later ended all speculation about US intentions in case Turkey would launch an assault on the Kurds in Afrin.
“We understand why they reacted the way they did”, he said, amid Turkish preparations to launch an operation against the YPG.
“No, it did not”, he told CNN-Turk television.
It ultimately doesn’t matter whether the Kurdish forces the U.S.is working within Syria are a border force or not, according to Meral.
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Mikdad told reporters Assad forces are “ready to destroy the Turkish air targets in the skies of the Syrian Arab Republic” if Turkey attempts any military action in Syria. The Russian military is believed to have a presence in Afrin.
