A statement issued on Friday by office of the United Nations special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, says the United Nations was not consulted or involved in the negotiation of the deal reached between rebel factions and government forces in Daraya.
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The US has played a delicate balancing act with its partners in the fight against the Islamic State.
That’s because the USA refuses to extradite Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen without a evidentiary hearing despite Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan insistence that the elderly preacher was behind the July 15 failed coup attempt.
The preparation took several days. Kurdish forces will likely have little choice but to comply – or risk losing US military support.
It remained unclear whether Turkey-backed Syrian rebels would move against IS-held towns or nearby Kurdish-controlled areas, including the town of Manbij.
They are supporting a ground offensive by hundreds of Syrian rebels who on Wednesday marched into Jarabulus and a neighbouring village after meeting little resistance. “But we do not support Turkey against the Kurds, we act from a position of neutrality”.
The Kurdish forces’ withdrawal from Manbej, an Arab town near Turkey, came apparently against the backdrop of the recent American-Turkish reproachment, as Ankara has long expressed its deep opposition to the advance of Kurdish forces near its borders.
Osman, who defected from the Syrian military to join the uprising in 2012, said that for some operations, the number of rebel fighters may need to be increased from its current level of between 1,200 and 1,500. “We are now planning not to confront them, but if we have to confront them, we will”, Osman said.
The Russian Foreign Ministry expressed deep concern in connection with the Turkish operation in Syria.
Turkish tanks and opposition fighters drive the IS out of the key Syrian border town of Jarabulus. The first, in flawless accord with American policy, is to put the Islamic State out of business in general, and in particular along the 511-mile-long Turkish-Syrian border.
More Turkish tanks were seen rolling into Syria this morning as an operation to drive Isis and Kurdish rebel groups back from border regions entered its third day. “They can not, will not, under any circumstance get American support if they do not keep that commitment”, Biden said during his talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Some “influential” senior personnel within the military linked to the coup held up the operation by coming up with ‘excuses, ‘ the official said, pointing to Brigadier General Semih Terzi, a prominent alleged plotter who was shot dead on the night of putsch. “Such a scheme and model has been already used by the Turks”.
Today the Kurds of northern Iraq enjoy the kind of autonomy Syria’s Kurds crave.
“Whether it’s Daesh (Isis) or the YPG, they are all terrorist organisations”, he said on Wednesday.
But Ankara’s objective went beyond fighting extremists. As Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said Wednesday, Turkey will not accept a Kurdish entity on its border.
Ruslan Pukhov, director of the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies, a Moscow-based defense think tank, finds it very symbolic that the Euphrates Shield operation coincided with Biden’s visit to Ankara. That is a major reason why, observers say, Turkey sent its forces into Syria.
The report was confirmed by the spokesman for Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR) – also known as the US-led coalition against DAESH – John Dorian.
According to Kommersant’s information, in case of aggravation of the situation, the Russian military and diplomats are ready to employ bilateral channels of communication with their Turkish counterparts, as well as express their concerns to the USA if necessary.
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Russia, in a notably softer reaction, said it was “deeply concerned”.
