We are working with #Turkey and our SDF partners to come up with a #gameplan for #Raqqa
— OIR Spokesman (@OIRSpox) September 8, 2016
But the US has an uphill battle to get its two allies to work together.
Turkey’s Defense Minister, Fikri Isik, said that his country supported a plan to retake Raqqa from the Islamic State but that Kurdish forces should not be central to it. The Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG) are the dominant force within the SDF.
"What Turkey focuses and insists on is that instead of solely the YPG forces, the operations must be conducted, as the core of the operatives, by the local people of the region, instead of the YPG," Isik said in an interview with Reuters after a meeting with US Defense Minister Ash Carter.
"Turkey will not allow YPG forces to extend their territory and gain power by using the Daesh [ISIS] operations as an excuse."
Turkey crossed its borders into Syria, launching its military operation Euphrates Shield on August 24 to clear ISIS and Kurdish “terrorists” along its border with Syria.
The YPG, calling Turkey an “occupying force,” condemned the Turkish forces, who have killed several YPG fighters and Kurdish civilians in clashes in Syria.
“The Turkish state does not intend to prevent the infiltration of terrorists as claimed, in fact, Turkey’s incursion is hampering the war against terrorist groups, attacks on Rojava [northern Syria] borders complicate concerted efforts in the fight against ISIS,” Redur Xelil, the YPG’s spokesperson said on Tuesday.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in a speech to provincial governors on Thursday, said that after Turkey’s success in Jarablus, it is “impossible” to carry out any operation in the region without Turkey’s involvement or consent.
“The fact that Turkey carried out its operation into Syria successfully and very rapidly has changed the world’s view of the region,” said Erdogan. “It is no longer possible to implement any scenario in the region that does not include Turkey or does not have Turkey’s consent.”
He added that the balance of power in the region as “drastically changed” now that Turkey is on the ground in Syria.
The US is aware of the tensions between the Kurdish and Turkish forces but is optimistic they can work together to combat ISIS.
“We want to work with both of them,” Carter said in a press briefing on Tuesday. “We know they have their difficulties with one another, but countering ISIL we think need to come first for all of us.”
“And so we're working with them to make sure that they can each do what they are trying to do without coming into a collision one with the other. So we've been doing that and we'll continue to do that.”
Since capturing Jarablus, Turkey and its allied militias fighting under the banner of the Free Syrian Army, have pushed south and west. On Thursday, Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, speaking at a press conference, said their forces would continue “north to south.”
Erdogan also insisted that Turkish forces would continue pushing its frontlines forward. “We’ll continue. Until when? There is no need to reveal this, but we have our own plan for securing the Turkish borders,” he said in his address to the provincial governors on Thursday.
He added that the aim was to turn the “terror corridor” along the border into a “peace corridor” and Turkey had no intent to seize any Syrian territory.
