{"id":29540,"date":"2019-01-17T13:24:23","date_gmt":"2019-01-17T13:24:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=29540"},"modified":"2019-01-17T13:24:23","modified_gmt":"2019-01-17T13:24:23","slug":"us-backed-sdf-says-it-will-help-set-up-north-syria-safe-zone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=29540","title":{"rendered":"US-backed SDF says it will help set up north Syria safe zone"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nBEIRUT\/QAMISHLI, Lebanon: The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said on Wednesday it was ready to help create a safe zone suggested by US President Donald Trump in its region across north and east Syria.<\/p>\n

\nMeanwhile, a bomb attack claimed by Daesh killed US troops in northern Syria on Wednesday, weeks after Trump said group was defeated there.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nTurkish President Tayyip Erdogan said 20 people were killed in the bomb attack, including five US troops. The attack appears to be the deadliest on US forces in Syria since they deployed on the ground there in 2015.<\/p>\n

\nErdogan said he did not believe the attack in the Syrian town of Manbij would impact Trump\u2019s decision to withdraw from Syria.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nInternational guarantees<\/strong><\/p>\n

\nThe SDF, led by the Kurdish YPG militia, said the safe zone must have \u201cinternational guarantees … that would prevent foreign intervention,\u201d in an apparent reference to neighboring Turkey.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nThe SDF hoped to ensure stability at the border region by reaching agreements with Turkey, which has vowed to crush the YPG.\"\"<\/p>\n

\nTrump, who announced he was pulling US troops out of Syria last month, suggested in a tweet on Sunday creating a safe zone without elaborating. The SDF fears the US move to withdraw will give Turkey the opportunity to mount a new assault.<\/p>\n

\nErdogan said on Tuesday he had discussed a safe zone, which Turkey would set up inside Syria along the length of their border, during a phone call with Trump.<\/p>\n

\nWashington, which has relied heavily on the Kurds in its campaign against Daesh in Syria, has sought guarantees for their safety after President Donald Trump suddenly announced a US troop pullout last month.<\/p>\n

\nErdogan said he had a \u201cquite positive\u201d telephone conversation with Trump late on Monday in which he reaffirmed that \u201ca 20-mile security zone along the Syrian border… will be set up by us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nNorth Syria<\/strong><\/p>\n

\nRussian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the Syrian regime must take control of the north.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThe best and only solution is the transfer of these territories under the control of the Syrian government, and of Syrian security forces and administrative structures,\u201d Lavrov said.<\/p>\n

\nThe monitor said it was the first such suicide attack in the city against the US-led coalition fighting Daesh in 10 months.<\/p>\n

\nAlmost eight years into Syria\u2019s civil war, Turkey has repeatedly threatened to attack Syrian Kurdish fighters it views as \u201cterrorists\u201d on its southern flank.<\/p>\n

\nOn Tuesday, Turkey\u2019s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Ankara would set up a \u201csecurity zone\u201d in northern Syria following a suggestion by Trump.<\/p>\n

\nThe planned buffer would embrace a large swathe of the autonomous region the Kurds have established in northern and northeastern Syria.<\/p>\n

\nSenior Kurdish political leader Aldar Khalil said any Turkish deployment in Kurdish-held areas was \u201cunacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nHe said the Kurds would accept the deployment of UN forces along a separation line between Kurdish fighters and Turkish troops to ward off the threatened offensive.<\/p>\n

\nBut \u201cother choices are unacceptable as they infringe on the sovereignty of Syria and the sovereignty of our autonomous region,\u201d Khalil told AFP.<\/p>\n

\nAnkara has welcomed Washington\u2019s planned withdrawal of some 2,000 US troops from Syria but the future of US-backed Kurdish fighters has poisoned relations between the NATO allies.<\/p>\n

\nOn Monday, Erdogan had a telephone conversation with Trump to ease tensions after the US leader threatened to \u201cdevastate\u201d the Turkish economy if Ankara attacks Kurdish forces in Syria, and called for a \u201csafe zone.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nThe Kurdish People\u2019s Protection Units (YPG) have been the key US ally in the fight against Daesh.<\/p>\n

\nThey have taken heavy losses in a campaign now nearing its conclusion, with the militants confined to an ever-shrinking enclave of just 15 sq. kms.<\/p>\n

\nThe shock announcement of a US withdrawal has sent the Kurds scrambling to seek a new ally in Damascus, which has long rejected Kurdish self-rule.<\/p>\n

\nWith military backing from Russia since 2015, Syria\u2019s Bashar Assad government has made huge gains against the militants and opposition fighters, and now controls almost two-thirds of the country.<\/p>\n

\nA northwestern enclave held by militants and pockets held by Turkish troops and their allies remain beyond its reach, along with the much larger Kurdish region.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cTrump wants to implement these safe regions through cooperation with Turkey. But any role for Turkey will upset the balance and the region will not be safe,\u201d Khalil said.<\/p>\n

\nThe Turkish army has launched two major operations in Syria \u2014 in 2016 against Daesh militants and Syrian Kurdish fighters, and in 2018 targeting the Kurds.<\/p>\n

\nThe last offensive saw Turkish troops and their Syrian opposition allies overrun the Kurdish enclave of Afrin in the northwest, one of several the Kurds had governed since 2012.<\/p>\n

\nCritics have accused Turkish troops and their proxies of military occupation of Syrian sovereign territory.<\/p>\n

\nAnkara has spoken of a YPG-free \u201csecurity zone\u201d under its control, but it is not clear if Washington has the same details in mind.<\/p>\n

\nAnalyst Mutlu Civiroglu said it was not immediately clear what the US president meant by a \u201csafe zone,\u201d or who he thought would patrol it.<\/p>\n

\nAnalysts were \u201cwaiting for a clarification from Washington to see what the president really meant,\u201d he told AFP.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BEIRUT\/QAMISHLI, Lebanon: The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said on Wednesday it was ready to help create a safe zone suggested by US President Donald Trump in its region across north and east Syria. Meanwhile, a bomb attack claimed by Daesh killed US troops in northern Syria on Wednesday, weeks after Trump said group was…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":29541,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29540\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/29541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}