Kurds announces deal with Damascus
Kurds announces deal with Damascus on Syria troop deployment near Turkish border; US withdraws its troops from Syria.
The Kurdish administration in northern Syria on Sunday announced a deal with the Damascus government on a Syrian troop deployment near the border with Turkey to confront Ankara’s offensive.
The Kurdish administration said the deal struck with Damascus “paves the way to liberate the rest of the Syrian cities occupied by the Turkish army such as Afrin”.
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the aim of the operation which has sparked an international outcry was to establish a security zone that would extend 30 to 35 kilometers into Syria.
On Sunday Turkish forces and their proxies pushed deeper into Syria, on the fifth day of the offensive, as Washington announced it was withdrawing its 1,000 troops from the country’s north.
As options narrow on Syria, Trump’s administration is set to impose economic sanctions on Ankara, potentially as early as this week, for its incursion into northern Syria, one of the few levers the United States still has over NATO-ally Turkey.
