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Any Turkish incursion into Syria ‘unacceptable,’ Pentagon chief warns
US Defense Secretary Mark Esper said on Tuesday any Turkish operation into northern Syria would be “unacceptable” and Washington would prevent unilateral incursions, Reuters reports.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday that Turkey, which already has a foothold in northwest Syria, will carry out a military operation in a Kurdish-controlled area east of the Euphrates in northern Syria.
“Clearly we believe any unilateral action by [Turkey] would be unacceptable,” Esper told reporters in Tokyo. “What we’re going to do is prevent unilateral incursions that would upset, again, these mutual interests… the US, Turkey and [the Syrian Democratic Forces] share with regard to northern Syria,” Esper said.
The SDF, which includes the Kurdish YPG militia, have taken control over the last four years much of northeastern Syria from Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) militants. Ankara sees the YPG as a terrorist organization.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has publicly announced the decision to launch a long-awaited military operation in Syria, east of the Euphrates River, and said that the United States (US) and Russia have been warned and provided with the information necessary. Speaking at an inauguration ceremony in the north-western city of Bursa yesterday, Erdogan stated that “We entered Afrin, Jarabulus, and Al-Bab, and now we’re going to enter east of the Euphrates,” adding that “We shared this with the US and Russia.”
Damascus said on Friday it would reject any agreement between Turkey and the US to establish a “security zone” in northern Syria as tantamount to a violation of its sovereignty. “Syria reiterates its categorical rejection of any American-Turkish agreement,” a Foreign Ministry source told state news agency SANA.
More than 100 people, including 26 children, have died in air strikes on hospitals, schools, markets and bakeries in north-west Syria in the past 10 days, a top UN official says. Human rights chief Michelle Bachelet blamed the attacks in rebel-held areas on the government and its allies. But the attacks were met with "apparent international indifference", she said. Syria and its ally Russia have both denied targeting civilians in air strikes in the Idlib region.
Syria’s Government is fighting hard against jihadist forces in Idlib who meet Turkey’s standard of being ‘moderate rebels’ against Syria’s Government, but unless Russian forces there — which were invited in by Syria’s Government, instead of being invaders there like Turkey and the United States are — will commit far more forces for the defense of Syria (which seems increasingly unlikely), Turkey will win Idlib as being a part of Turkey.
