WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 07th November, 2019) Kurdish militia have pulled out from most of the safe zone covered by the US-Turkey agreement on northern Syria, a senior State Department official said in a press briefing.
The official was asked to comment on Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's statement the United States was conducting joint patrols with Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) militia in the security zone in northern Syria, which contradicts the US-Turkish arrangements on the Kurdish forces' withdrawal from the area.
"First of all, the 'safe zone' is his term, and so we have to go back and figure out which of the two safe zones," the State Department official said on Wednesday. "Assuming there's no no-man's land out there - and I don't think so because the way we drafted it and the Russians drafted it, everything's covered either by the Sochi agreement or our agreement - the YPG and all armed forces have certainly withdrawn from the vast majority of our area."
However, the State Department official noted there is an area in dispute located to the southeast of Ras al-Ayn hitting toward but all the way to Tell Tamer.
"And that's where there's been some fighting," the official said. "Now, he [Erdogan] may be talking about that and referring to our agreement that we didn't get the YPG out of there. Our answer is: The Turks were not controlling that area before, although, as I said, they had some kind of spotty presence there. And so, it's kind of a debate, but it is not a major battle, it's not a major movement, so we're watching it more than blaming either side."
The official noted that Russia has said the YPG has left the areas as defined by the Sochi agreement. The official explained that that agreement concerned only the pullout of the YPG forces, while the US agreement "pulled everybody out who possessed a weapon."
"I wouldn't be surprised if Erdogan has a point that there are still some elements there,"
the official said, adding that "some elements" are certainly in the oil fields, but he is unaware who is guarding them.
"I just know that there are local people there and Erdogan is never all that specific in his broadside attacks on us or anybody else," the official said.
On October 17, days after the start of the Turkish military operation against Kurdish militia in northern Syria, the United States and Turkey reached an agreement on a 120-hour ceasefire to allow the withdrawal of Kurdish forces from the Syrian border area with Turkey.
As the five-day truce came to an end, Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a memorandum that would see the Kurdish fighters pull back from the border area. Turkey and Russia have since begun joint patrols along the border.
