He also said that the Kurdish groups in Rojava, northern Syria are “an offshoot” of the PKK, the first time a member of the Trump administration has publicly stated as such, but gave no indication that would affect US support for them.
Jeffrey, who is the State Department’s special representative for Syria, was speaking at a conference organized by Defense One on Thursday.
He described the challenges of fighting ISIS while working with competing allies.
“The mission will be finished… if you turn your back either on the Turks or on our allies in the northeast, which is the SDF,” he said.
He described the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) – a Kurdish-led multi-ethnic military alliance in northern Syria – as an “evolution” of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), the largest Kurdish political party in Rojava.
And the PYD, he said, “is in its own sense an offshoot of the PKK.”
The US has been backing the SDF in the war against ISIS despite constant objections from fellow NATO member Turkey. Ankara has frequently accused Washington of supporting terrorists through its relationship with the SDF and PYD.
The PYD, while it is inspired by the political thinking of PKK founder Abdullah Ocalan, insists it is a separate entity.
Washington has routinely responded to Ankara’s concerns by maintaining that the Kurds in Syria are distinct from the PKK.
Jeffrey explained that the PYD is a strong ally with a common objective in Syria – opposed to the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, against Iranian presence in the country, and eager to see ISIS defeated.
“The problem is, once again, the Turks, for understandable reasons, do not want to see a group of people allied with the PKK along their southern border,” he said.
To deal with this situation, the US has committed to working with Turkey in Manbij, where they are conducting joint patrols in the area and the PYD have withdrawn from the city under an agreement between the US and Turkey.
The US has also limited the military equipment they provided the Kurdish forces, only giving them light weaponry.
“We’re doing all of that to signal to the Turks, and believe me, that comes at a cost on the battlefield,” said Jeffrey.
“It means we’ve had to deploy forward American artillery, American mortar teams, more attack helicopters, and other things to give them more fire support because they don’t have very much themselves. And they don’t have armoured support to maneuver against the enemy. They can drive up and down the roads in these vehicles – I’ve been out there driving up and down the roads with them – but to maneuver across country you need track vehicles. They don’t have them.”
