US demands security guarantee for Kurdish fighters from Turkey

The protection of allied forces who fought and died battling Daesh in Syria must be guaranteed, the US secretary of state told his Turkish counterpart in a phone conversation.

Mike Pompeo and Mevlut Cavusoglu talked on Monday as the NATO allies try to reach an agreement over the fate of Washington-backed, Kurdish-led fighters who fought against Daesh following the planned withdrawal of US troops from Northern Syria, Al-Jazeera reported.

The US State Department said Pompeo also reiterated Washington's commitment to addressing Turkey's security concerns along the Turkish-Syrian border.

In the phone conversation, Pompeo emphasized "the importance that the United States places on the protection of forces that worked with the United States and the global coalition to defeat Daesh", Spokesman Robert Palladino said in a press release.

The US-backed Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), which spearhead the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) operations, played a role in the removal of Daesh after the armed terrorist group captured vast territory in Syria and Iraq in 2014.

Ankara considers the YPG a "terrorist" group with ties to the armed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has waged a bloody war in Turkey since the 1980s demanding Kurdish autonomy.

The US demand for the YPG militias’ safety has been a source of growing tensions between the NATO allies, which led to President Donald Trump threatening Turkey with economic "devastation" if it hits the armed group in Northern Syria.

In a surprise move, Trump announced on December 19 that the United States would pull its 2,000 soldiers out of Northeastern Syria quickly, declaring Daesh had been defeated - a view not shared by many security experts and policy advisers.

US officials have since been walking back Trump's timeline, suggesting conditions for any such withdrawal would be finishing off Daesh - and Turkey assuring the safety of its allied Kurdish fighters.

EA