Syria’s Kurds rejects ‘security zone’ under Turkish control

Syria’s Kurds on Wednesday rejected a United States (US) proposal for a “security zone” under Turkish control along the Syrian side of the two countries’ border.

Russia, meanwhile, said only its ally, the Syrian military, should police the war-torn country’s north.

Aldar Khalil, a senior political leader of the Syrian Kurdish alliance Movement for a Democratic Society, said the Kurds would accept the deployment of United Nations forces along the separation line between Kurdish fighters and Turkish troops to ward off a threatened offensive.

“Other choices are unacceptable as they infringe on the sovereignty of Syria and the sovereignty of our autonomous region,” Khalil told AFP news agency.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday that Ankara would set up a “security zone” in northern Syria after US President Donald Trump suggested it.

Erdogan’s comments came a day after he had a telephone conversation with Trump to ease tensions after the US leader threatened to “devastate” the Turkish economy if Ankara attacks Kurdish forces in Syria.

The Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) have been the key US ally in the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS), with an estimated 50,000 of its soldiers killed.

The anti-ISIL campaign is now nearing its conclusion with the group’s fighters confined to an ever-shrinking enclave of just 15 square kilometres in Syria.

Ankara regards the YPG as an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has waged a deadly war for autonomy in southeastern Turkey since 1984, and describes the armed group as “terrorists”.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Wednesday the Syrian government must take control of the country’s north.

“We are convinced that the 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,” Lavrov told reporters.

Russia is a long-time supporter of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Lavrov said the future of the Kurds could be secured under regime control.

-aljazeera

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