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Turkey proposes joint army post with US in Syria

February 16, 2018 at 9:19 am

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson (L) and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the Presidential Complex in Ankara, Turkey on 15 February 2018 [Kayhan Özer/Anadolu Agency]

Turkey has proposed to the United States that Kurdish YPG fighters withdraw to east of the Euphrates river in Syria and that Turkish and US troops be stationed together in the country’s Manbij area, Reuters reported a Turkish official saying today.

The official, who declined to be identified because the information had not been made public, said the United States was considering the proposal, which was made to US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson during his two-day visit to Ankara.

Tillerson arrived in Turkey yesterday for two days of what officials have said would likely be uncomfortable discussions between the allies, whose relations have frayed over a number of issues, particularly US support for the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, seen as terrorists by Turkey.

Read: Kurdish militia in Syria: We are working with Assad against Turkey

He and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had a “productive and open” discussion on improving ties yesterday, a US State Department spokesman travelling with Tillerson said.

Turkey launched an air and ground assault last month in Syria’s northwest Afrin region to drive the YPG from the area south of its border. Ankara considers the YPG to be an arm of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a banned group that has waged a decades-long insurgency in Turkey, but Washington sees it as a key component of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) battling Daesh in Syria.