BALADI NEWS
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan acknowledged on Thursday for the first time that his country abandoned one of its fundamental conditions for a safe zone agreement in northeastern Syria with the US, the Middle East Eye reported.
Speaking to journalists, Erdogan said Donald Trump's team proposed a safe zone narrower than the previously declared Turkish red line, which was a 32km-deep area, and he had accepted it, according to the MEE.
“I told [Defence Minister Hulusi Akar and his team] that we should begin to work on this somehow. And we should continue to work on it. It isn’t as large as Trump himself proposed to me, a bit narrower. But we have made plans in accordance with that,” he said, the MEE added.
the US safe zone plan agreed by Turkey includes a 15km-deep safe area that meets some core Turkish demands, such as removal of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) militia from the area, a recollection of heavy weapons Washington supplied to the YPG, and destruction of its trenches and cement fortifications.
However, it wasn’t immediately clear whether the Turkish military would actually set up stations in the safe zone or would simply conduct joint patrols with US special forces to inspect and surveil the area.
Since the foundation of their joint operations centre in Sanliurfa on 12 August, Turkish and American soldiers have conducted aerial reconnaissance missions over the designated safe zone area and the US military has released images allegedly showing that YPG forces were retreating and destroying their positions. Earlier this week, the YPG also declared that it was pulling out of the area.
Source: Middle East Eye.