Alwaght-The US must withdraw its troops from Syria’s northern Manbij region and put an end to its support for Kurdish militia in the area, Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Saturday.
“We want to see more concrete steps rather than words. The US must cut ties with the terrorist organization,” by stopping the supply of arms and also taking back arms previously given to the terror group, Cavusoglu told reporters before a meeting in the Mediterranean province of Antalya.
Cavusoglu’s remarks followed US National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster telling a Turkish presidential aide in a phone call on Friday night that no further weapons would be given to the PYD/YPG, which Cavusoglu called “a confirmation of [US President Donald] Trump’s word” to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Following on a similar pledge from last November, earlier this week Trump reportedly told Erdogan in a phone call that the US would stop supplying weapons to the terrorist group.
“The US should demonstrate these [words] concretely because there is a crisis of confidence,” Cavusoglu said.
“They have to make them [PKK/PYD] drop their weapons completely. They should take back the weapons they gave. They [the terrorist group] should immediately retreat from Manbij” in northern Iraq.
Also on Saturday, the Turkish General Staff said in a statement that at least 394 YPG militants had been killed since the beginning of Operation Olive Branch in Afrin on January 20.
The military said that only terrorists and their positions and shelters were being destroyed, and that “careful attention” was being paid not to harm any civilian.
The Syrian government has already condemned the “brutal Turkish aggression” against Afrin, rejecting Ankara’s claim about having informed Damascus of the operation.
