America’s top anti-Islamic State general is putting operations to retake ISIS’s capital city of Raqqa on hold because Turkey is wrangling with US -backed forces inside Syria.
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Turkey’s Anadolu news agency said Erdogan told Putin that it was essential to agree to a ceasefire in Aleppo “as soon as possible”.
But it remains unclear if the Syrian rebels backed by Turkey will proceed further south to take Al-Bab from IS jihadists and then Raqa itself, or to what extent the operation has USA support.
To encourage returnees, Deputy Prime Minister Nurettin Canikli said Turkey would supply mains power to Jarablus on Saturday, followed by water supplies two days later.
The operation by Free Syrian Army rebels and Turkish armour has since expanded to clear IS from other border areas it controlled.
Turkish troops drive their tanks on September 4, 2016 on a road near the Syrian village of al-Waqf and some 3km south of al-Rai, the small border town with Turkey.
“Obama wants to do some things jointly concerning Raqqa”, Erdogan told journalists on his way back from a meeting with President Barack Obama on Tuesday.
Despite Washington having not confirmed the alliance, Turkey, the latest big military player in embattled Syria, will be pleased that the United States have acknowledged their strategic interest in Syria.
“I said: ‘Our soldiers should come together and discuss, then what is necessary will be done, ‘” the Turkish president said, without adding further details on when further talks would occur.
Turkey, which is battling a Kurdish insurgency at home, launched an incursion into northern Syria last month with the stated aims of clearing Islamic State from its border and preventing the Kurdish YPG militia expanding into new territory.
Turkish Army soldiers walking by tanks near Turkish Syrian border of Karkamis. The U.S. considers the YPG as its ally in the war against ISIS, and Washington had previously asked Ankara to collaborate with the group in its operations against ISIS.
“We do not have the chance to take a backward step”.
Meanwhile, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Friday that he welcomed Turkey’s efforts against ISIL in northern Syria without mentioning its clashes with Kurdish fighters in the same region.
His comments came after two volatile weeks around the Syrian-Turkish border.
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Erdogan said any Turkish role would have to be worked out separately.
