“We are not sure at this stage but it appears that the US may carry out this operation with the YPG, not Turkey. And at the same time the US is giving weapons to the YPG,” Reuters reported an unnamed senior Turkish official saying on Tuesday.
Ankara believes that the YPG (the Kurdish Peoples Protection Units) has ties to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), named a terrorist organization by Turkey, the US, and the EU.
For the US, however, the YPG and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a coalition of Syrian forces including the YPG, Arabs, and local minorities, are key allies fighting ISIS on the ground in Syria.
The SDF is currently conducting a military operation to isolate Raqqa, the self-declared capital of ISIS, and the US is preparing a plan for an assault on the city itself.
The Pentagon, after meetings with relevant partners including the SDF, Turkey, and member nations in the global coalition fighting ISIS, put together a number of proposals to defeat ISIS in both Iraq and Syria.
Of the proposals presented to US President Donald Trump, the Pentagon reportedly favours relying on Kurdish forces, providing them with more arms, as well as boosting US troop numbers on the ground in Syria.
“If this operation is carried out in this manner, there will be a cost for Turkey-US relations. Because the YPG is a terrorist organization and we are mentioning this at every platform,” Reuters reported the Turkish official saying.
Ankara had proposed to the US to work together to retake Raqqa, relying on the armed opposition forces of the Free Syrian Army.
Speaking at a news conference with Jordanian Prime Minister Hani al-Mulki on Tuesday, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said that no terrorist organization can be destroyed by using another terrorist organization, referring to the YPG’s fight against ISIS, state-run Anadolu Agency reported.
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