Turkey to join hands with Syria in fight against IS

Turkiye, Syria, Iraq and Jordan will come together to fight the remnants of the Islamic State group, a move that would allow the United States to cut ties with Kurdish militants in Syria, the Turkish foreign minister said Sunday.

Washington’s decade-long relationship with Kurdish-led forces in Syria is opposed by Turkiye. Ankara says the People’s Defence Units, or YPG, are tied to another Kurdish group listed as a terrorist organisation by Turkiye, the US and the European Union (EU).

The YPG, which spearheads the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, has played a central role in fighting IS alongside American special forces and now guards thousands of IS prisoners in northeast Syria.

“The basic problem is that the YPG has been guarding Daesh inmates and keeping them in prison … they’re not doing anything else,” Turkish foreign minister Hakan Fidan said Sunday.

“So Turkiye, Iraq, Syria and Jordan need to come together to fight Daesh. We are capable of doing that and God willing this is the step we will be taking as four countries in the near future. We have already done the preliminary talks for that process.” Fidan, who was speaking at a news conference in Doha, Qatar, alongside Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, said that the new Syrian government had indicated it will take responsibility for IS prisoners. On Sunday, the Defence Ministry said Turkish troops killed 23 “PKK/YPG terrorists” in northern Syria.

Source » millenniumpost.in