U.S. prepares to withdraw from northern Syria before Turkish operation – By Alex Johnson, Josh Lederman, Marc Smith and Yuliya Talmazan (NBC News) / Oct 7 2019
Mustafa Bali, the official SDF spokesperson, told NBC News the U.S. decision to stand aside as Turkey moves into Syria was “shocking and unexpected.”
The U.S. military has moved its forces away from the Turkish border with northern Syria, after the White House said Sunday night that Turkey would soon begin an operation in a part of northeastern Syria where it wants to resettle Syrian refugees — and that U.S. forces wouldn’t be there to help or stop them.
The U.S. has not received orders to commence a large-scale withdrawal from the region, remaining in a “wait and see” position, according to a U.S. official with direct knowledge of the situation.
In a statement issued late Sunday, the White House said Turkey would “soon be moving forward” with its “long-planned operation” in northern Syria and that the United States wouldn’t be involved.
The statement was issued after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke by phone with President Donald Trump earlier on Sunday.
A U.S. official with direct knowledge of the situation in northern Syria, who wanted to remain anonymous because they were not authorized to speak on record, confirmed to NBC News Monday that the U.S. military said this Turkish operation could be launched “at any time,” but American forces have currently cut all ties and coordination with the Turkish military, so they don’t expect any advanced warning from Turkey as to when or how this operation will begin.
‘A huge mistake’
The announcement is a major blow to the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF, which the United States relied upon heavily as the most effective fighting force against ISIS and the reaction from Kurds so far has been one of anger.
On Monday, Mustafa Bali, the official SDF spokesperson, told NBC News the U.S. decision to stand aside as Turkey moves into Syria was “shocking and unexpected.”
Bali called it “a huge mistake” that will allow ISIS to “reunite itself and appear again stronger than before.”
“We at the SDF believe that everything we achieved in the last five years, and all the sacrifices we made to defeat ISIS will all be destroyed with the latest American decision,” he said.
“It seems that the policy of the United States is to betray their friends and allies,” Bali added.
Erdogan’s spokesman Ibrahim Kalin tweeted Monday saying Turkey will continue to fight against ISIS and will not allow it to return “in any shape and form.”
The SDF concerns echo a warning issued last month in a bipartisan congressional report that urged the White House not to draw down troops in Syria.
The report by the 12-member Syria Study Group warned that the war in Syria is far from over and that ISIS is still a threat, contradicting the White House’s claim on Sunday night that ISIS had been defeated.
In its most recent quarterly annual report on U.S. operations in Syria, released in August, the Defense Department’s inspector general also said that “ISIS remains a threat in Iraq and Syria.”
A member of the Kurdish Internal Security Forces stands guard in the town of Ras al-Ain in Syria’s Hasakeh province near the Turkish border on Sunday. Delil Souleiman / AFP – Getty Images
On Saturday, Turkey signaled its intention to begin operations, saying an incursion was “imminent” in the region, where U.S. troops have been seeking to broker an agreement between Turkey and the Syrian Kurds.
The U.S. statement made it clear that when and if Turkey takes action, U.S. forces “will not support or be involved in the operation,” and “will no longer be in the immediate area.”
The White House said it was now up to Turkey to figure out what to do with Islamic State fighters who have been captured in the area. Many of those fighters had been held by Kurdish-led forces, but Turkey considers the Kurds an enemy, and Erdogan has previously criticized U.S. support for Kurdish groups in Syria.
The United States has struggled for years with how to reconcile its support for the SDF and its Kurdish component with its delicate relationship with Turkey, a NATO ally. Turkey considers the Kurdish fighters in Syria to be inseparably linked to the PKK, a Kurdish group inside Turkey that has waged a decades-long insurgence against Turkey’s government and is considered a terrorist group by the United States.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/u-s-says-it-will-stand-aside-turkey-moves-syria-n1063106
