US State Department officials went to Syria this weekend and met with “senior officials” from the Kurdish YPG and tribal leaders from the area around Raqqa. The focus, according to the State Department, was the ongoing US commitment to Syria.
This is noteworthy because the US seems to be trying to settle on the extent of this commitment, and has been for a few years. Not supporting the YPG against Turkey, in particular, led to accusations from the Kurds of the US having betrayed and abandoned them.
Claims of cutting ties were overstated, though, and joint operations continued, mostly to Turkey’s annoyance, as the Trump Administration’s plans to take Syrian oil continued. The new talks reflect the continued, albeit ill-defined, relationship.
In trying to justify this, the State Department talked of sending more aid to assure the “enduring defeat” of ISIS. The YPG indeed fought ISIS a lot when the US was more active in Syria, though not so much these days, with the YPG more confined to the northeast, and ISIS mostly fighting the Syrian military.
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