BALADI NEWS
Russian military police started deploying on Syria’s northeast border on Wednesday under a deal with Turkey to drive Kurdish fighters from the region, and U.S. President Donald Trump said Turkey’s offensive against the Kurdish forces was over.
Just two weeks after Trump pulled out U.S. special forces from the region, allowing Turkish troops to sweep in and target Washington’s former Kurdish allies, Russia’s police deployment shows how swiftly the balance of power in the area has shifted.
Turkey ‘paused’ its offensive last week under a U.S.-brokered deal which called for Kurdish YPG fighters to withdraw, and then secured Russian support this week for a wider deal requiring the YPG’s removal from the whole northeast border.
In an address from the White House, Trump said Turkey had announced it was making last week’s ceasefire permanent, allowing the United States to immediately lift sanctions it had imposed on Turkish officials and ministries in response to the cross-border assault.
“Early this morning, the government of Turkey informed my administration that they would be stopping combat and their offensive in Syria, and making the ceasefire permanent,” Trump said, adding that he had given instructions to lift sanctions on Ankara “unless something happens that we are not happy with”.
The police arrival in Kobani marked the start of a mission by Russian and Syrian security forces to push the YPG at least 30 km (19 miles) into Syria under an accord reached on Tuesday by presidents Vladimir Putin and Tayyip Erdogan.
It also underlines Putin’s dominant influence in Syria and seals the return of his ally Bashar al-Assad’s forces along the northeastern border for the first time in years.
Kobani is of special significance to the Kurdish fighters, who fought off Islamic State militants trying to seize the city in 2014-15 in one of the fiercest battles of Syria’s conflict.
Source: Reuters.