Pentagon: We Continue to Provide Arms to SDF
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The US continues to provide arms and vehicles to the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), Pentagon's Defeat-ISIS Task Force Director said in a press briefing yesterday (September 18).
"We continue to provide very tailored arms and vehicles to the SDF," Maier said, adding that the SDF is committed to use these weapons against ISIS.
"We're very transparent about what those supplies are, we provide monthly to Turkey a report of what those arms and vehicles are."
Turkey considers the People's Protection Units (YPG), the dominant part of the SDF, as an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and has been pressuring the US to remove the group from areas near its border.
The Syrian government also sent a letter to the UN last week, calling the SDF a "separatist terrorist organization."
CLICK - SDF: We are Indirectly Present at Safe Zone Talks
Turkey and the US agreed on August 7 to establish a buffer area what Turkey calls a "safe zone" and a joint operations center in southeast Turkey.
Maier said the operations center has become fully operational and five joint flights have been conducted in the area since then.
When asked about the reports on the joint patrols of the US and the SDF, Maier said, "The degree to which those patrols continue is consistent with what we've been doing now for years."
The US is working with the SDF to remove the group's fortifications in the region, he added.
Resettlement of refugees
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said yesterday that they plan to resettle two to three million Syrian refugees in the safe zone, and added that Turkey will "initiate its own plans after two weeks if no results come from the deal with the US."
While Maier used the term "security mechanism" rather than "safe zone" because it is "more apt from a military perspective" and said both the US and the SDF support a "safe, voluntary and dignified" return of refugees, with the help of the UN and NGOs. Turkey currently hosts more than 3.5 million Syrian refugees, according to the Ministry of Interior.
High-level officials from Turkey told the state-run Anadolu Agency last week that they are "not totally on the same page with the USé regarding the "safe zone."
President Erdoğan will meet with his US counterpart Donald Trump at the UN General Assembly in New York next week where the two leaders are expected to go into the details of the planned safe zone. (PT/VK)