Turkey agreed on Thursday to pause its offensive in Syria for five days to let Kurdish forces withdraw from a \u201csafe zone\u201d Ankara had sought to capture, in a deal hailed by Washington but which Turkish leaders cast as a complete victory.<\/p>\n
The truce was announced by U.S. Vice President Mike Pence after talks in Ankara with Turkey\u2019s President Tayyip Erdogan, and was swiftly hailed by President Donald Trump, who said it would save \u201cmillions of lives\u201d.<\/p>\n
But if implemented it would achieve all the main objectives Turkey announced when it launched the assault eight days ago: control of a strip of Syria more than 30 km (20 miles) deep, with the Kurdish YPG militia, formerly close U.S. allies, obliged to pull out.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe safe zone will be primarily enforced by the Turkish Armed Forces,\u201d a joint U.S.-Turkish statement released after the talks said.<\/p>\n
A Turkish official told Reuters Ankara got \u201cexactly what we wanted\u201d from the talks with the United States. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu described it as a pause, solely to allow the Kurdish fighters to withdraw.<\/p>\n
Kurdish fighters would be forced to give up their heavy weapons and their positions would be destroyed, Cavusoglu said. He declined to call the agreement a \u201cceasefire\u201d, saying ceasefires could be agreed only by legitimate sides, and not by the Kurds that Turkey considers terrorists.<\/p>\n
Pence said Washington had already been in contact with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which had agreed to withdraw and were already pulling out.<\/p>\n
Trump tweeted: \u201cGreat news out of Turkey\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThank you to Erdogan,\u201d Trump said. \u201cMillions of lives will be saved!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cToday the United States and Turkey have agreed to a ceasefire in Syria,\u201d Pence told a news conference after more than four hours of talks at the presidential palace in Ankara.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Turkish side will pause Operation Peace Spring in order to allow for the withdrawal of YPG forces from the safe zone for 120 hours,\u201d Pence said. \u201cAll military operations under Operation Peace Spring will be paused, and Operation Peace Spring will be halted entirely on completion of the withdrawal.\u201d<\/p>\n
The deal struck with Erdogan also provided for Turkey not to engage in military operations in the flashpoint Syrian border town of Kobani, Pence said. Cavusoglu said Turkey had given no commitments about Kobani.<\/p>\n
Pence added that he had spoken to Trump after the talks and that Trump had expressed his gratitude for the ceasefire accord. Washington\u2019s main goal had been to halt the violence, and it had succeeded, Pence said.<\/p>\n
The Turkish assault has created a new humanitarian crisis in Syria with 200,000 civilians taking flight, a security alert over thousands of Islamic State fighters abandoned in Kurdish jails, and a political maelstrom at home for Trump.<\/p>\n
Trump has been accused of abandoning Kurdish-led fighters, Washington\u2019s main partners in the battle to dismantle Islamic State\u2019s self-declared caliphate in Syria, by withdrawing troops from the border as Ankara launched its offensive on Oct. 9.<\/p>\n
Trump had defended his move on Wednesday as \u201cstrategically brilliant\u201d. He said he thought Pence and Erdogan would have a successful meeting, but warned of sanctions and tariffs that \u201cwill be devastating to Turkey\u2019s economy\u201d otherwise.<\/p>\n
Egypt Today<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Turkey agreed on Thursday to pause its offensive in Syria for five days to let Kurdish forces withdraw from a \u201csafe zone\u201d Ankara had sought to capture, in a deal hailed by Washington but which Turkish leaders cast as a complete victory. The truce was announced by U.S. Vice President Mike Pence after talks in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":147959,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7863],"tags":[2484,50922,41537,50921,11550,47778,25395,39778],"class_list":["post-147958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english-section","tag-egypt","tag-kurdish-ypg-militia","tag-mevlut-cavusoglu","tag-sdf","tag-syria","tag-tayyip-erdogan","tag-turkey","tag-u-s"],"yoast_head":"\n