President Donald Trump has given the orders to begin a "
deliberate withdrawal" of his troops and end the occupation of north-east Syria (NES). This is accelerating the race between the Turkish and the Syrian forces to control NES.
Turkey is in a rush to establish its 30-35km wide safe zone on the borders with Syria in the US-occupied north-east territory, currently under the control of the Syrian Kurdish separatists. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is aware of the pressure his US ally, President Donald Trump is under for approving this operation, an operation which has made Trump even more unpopular among the US and western élites.
Trump took it upon himself to unilaterally take control of an area in Syria bigger than Switzerland. Uninvited by the central government, he had established over a dozen military and air bases in the country and kept them there notwithstanding the defeat of ISIS. Trump has now agreed to pull back some US troops, allowing Turkey and its Syrian proxies to move into this part of Syrian territory. The US President and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin
blocked an EU-drafted resolution condemning the Turkish offensive.
Now, the winners in this operation are much more numerous than the losers and it would be a mistake to suppose that only Turkey is gaining from this operation. All winners have their own objectives and perspectives to assess how they can benefit from the Turkish invasion.
By deciding to pull out 1,000 men from NES, Trump is reshuffling the cards, moving the burden away from his administration and dropping it into the hands of Russia, Turkey and Syria (and their allies). There is a serious need for Russia to move fast and bring concerned players around the table to organise a situation that could turn more chaotic and lead to even more confrontation.
The biggest losers are the Kurds: the People's Protection Units (YPG), the armed wing of the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), the Syrian branch of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) -
which were classified as terrorist organisations by the US (since 1997), by the European Union (since 2002), and by NATO, Turkey, and some other countries.
Comment: Kurdish residents of Qamishli vented their feelings like this: But despite the withdrawal from the northeast, Trump is reportedly thinking of keeping around 200 US troops in eastern Syria to "fight Daesh": Russias Defense Minister Shoigu says that there's a risk many foreign terrorists will repatriate as a result of Turkey's incursion: He also made the following proposal: On a positive note, Turkish officials have confirmed that Kurdish militants have begun to leave the regions near the Turkish border. If they don't complete their withdrawal within the 35 hours left in the 5-day pause, Turkish forces will resume their operation. Lavrov says Russia will back a revised Adana Pact if both Ankara and Damascus deem it necessary: For previous updates, see: