The United States' "real ally" in Syria is Turkey and not the People’s Protection Units (YPG), a senior U.S. official has said, Hürriyet Daily News reported.
"We are very careful not to use that word [alliance] for the YPG. We are not using the YPG as an ally of the U.S. Our ally is Turkey and that is something that the Secretary [of State Rex] Tillerson emphasized in his remarks in Ankara. We have a long-term, enduring, historic alliance and partnership with Turkey and that is not going to change,” a senior U.S. official told reporters in Ankara on March 1, as quoted by Hürriyet.
The remarks came a week before a joint Turkish-American mechanism is slated to meet in Washington to try to resolve existing problems between the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's AKP government and Washington, particularly on Syria. Turkish diplomatic sources have said the mechanism will first meet on March 8 but the U.S. official was not in a position to confirm this.
"The U.S. has made it clear from the beginning that our military cooperation with the YPG was a temporary, tactical arrangement aimed entirely at combating DAESH [an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant]. We have made it clear that once DAESH was defeated we would have no plans for an enduring military relationship with the YPG and certainly no plans for an enduring political relationship with the Democratic Union Party [PYD]. That has not changed," the official said as quoted by Hürriyet.
'COMMITTED TO FULFILLING PROMISES ON MANBIJ'
"I think that our goal is for the American and Turkish governments to reach an agreement on how security can be provided in Manbij. But I cannot preemptively say what the outcome of this discussions would be. We certainly recognize that Turkey has a legitimate interest in the security infrastructure in northern Syria, which includes Manbij," the official said.
"We remain committed to fulfilling our promises regarding the YPG presence in Manbij. It is a city with a lot of people and somebody has to provide security there but our intention is that will not be the YPG," he added.
'WE HOPE AFRIN OP ENDS QUICKLY'
On Turkish governments ongoing Afrin operation, the official repeated Washington's position that it respects Turkey’s right to secure its borders and citizens, but also stressed that "we hope the operation Afrin will end quickly and we have said that we know that Turkey makes every effort to limit civilian casualties. We do not have any doubt about efforts in that regard."
'NO PLANS FOR AUTONOMOUS KURDISH ZONE IN SYRIA'
"We have no ambitions to create any sort of autonomous zones within Syria. From time to time people suggest that we have some interest in creating a Syrian equivalent of the Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq. That is not our policy. We have no such interest," said the official.
