While US forces are largely out of Syria, they are still engaging in the
region, and US diplomats reportedly held a meeting with the president
of Syrian Kurdistan’s “Syrian Democratic Council.”
The discussion became quite heated, leading the US diplomats to angrily warn that they will “not allow” the Kurds to make any deals with the Syrian government or with Russia for protection against Turkey.
Kurdish officials are declining comment on the matter, but just hours
after the meeting, Turkey and Russia had announced their own deal which
is meant to prevent attacks against the Kurdish forces still in the safe
zone. Russia agreed to help remove remaining Kurdish forces.
This is the exact same deal the US made with Turkey last week, which
Turkish officials say did not pan out. Russia has said they will complete the Kurdish pullout within the next 150 hours, starting at noon on Wednesday.
The US has long objected to the Kurds talking to Russia or Syria, but
since the US talks with the Kurds are not getting the assurances that
the Kurds wanted, it is unsurprising that they moved on to someone else.
In ‘Heated’ Meeting, US Warned Kurds Not to Talk With Assad or Russia
Meeting happened hours before Russia-Turkey deal
Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.
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