U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Turkey was a front-line state for NATO and its legitimate interests needed to be addressed, referring to recent talks between both countries regarding Syria's northern Manbij.
"We are working out, how do we take -- again, Turkey, a NATO ally -- how do we take Turkey's legitimate security interests and enhance their security? They are the only NATO nation with an active insurgency inside its borders," Mattis told reporters during his flight to Brussels, according to a transcript made available by the Department of Defense.
The Manbij roadmap was announced after a meeting in Washington on Monday between Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoglu and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. The deal focuses on the withdrawal of the Kurdish YPG militants from the northern Syrian city.
"How do we take Turkey’s legitimate security concerns and enhance their security... at the same time, the SDF was the only organization at the time that was able to throw ISIS off the track and defeat them in the field in very, very tough fighting and we will not simply cast that organization aside," Mattis said.
"We are working with Turkey for how we work this issue, and we will continue to work it forward," Mattis added.
SDF made up mainly of Kurdish YPG -YPJ militants, jihadist groups, smaller groups of Arab, Turkmen and controls parts of northern Syria.
"It's a complex issue. It's the most complex battlespace I've seen. But there's no doubt that we are working with Turkey to try and address their concerns -- at the same time, defeat ISIS. And it's a very difficult job, I'll be the first to admit. But we're doing it. We're working it, and we're ranking it with Turkey, not against Turkey," Mattis said.
