© REUTERS/ Kevin Lamarque
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has announced that US President Donald Trump reassured his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan that he had ordered to cease supplies of the US armaments to the Syrian Kurds. However, no confirmation from Washington has followed so far.
"According to his [Trump's] words, it would have been better to put an end to this foolishness. We welcome this decision and will monitor its implementation," Cavusoglu told a press conference.
The reported decision by the US president comes after Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim has reiterated that Ankara expected the US to stop supplying Syria's YPG not only with weapons after Daesh's defeat.
At the same time, representatives of the YPG and Democratic Federation of Northern Syria said that Kurds "were determined to retaliate against Turkish invasion of Afrin" amid the recent military buildup on the Syrian-Turkish border near the Kurdish-controlled city.
Previously, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan explained the buildup by Ankara's desire to protect the country's southern border with Syria from terrorists, adding that a deal reached between Turkey and Russia on a joint plan of action in the city of Afrin "opened up new opportunities" for Turkey.
Ankara considers the YPG, which has been fighting against Daesh mostly as part of the Syrian Democratic Forces' (SDF) rebels, to be affiliated with the Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK) that is listed as a terrorist group in Turkey.
Comment: This is pretty big news if true. After Trump halted official CIA support for Syrian "moderate rebels", the war hawks have been banking on their support for the Kurds in northeastern Syria. But such a strategy is unsustainable. Maybe Trump has injected another dose of common sense into U.S. Syrian policy. We'll have to wait and see.