Russian military units patrol northeastern Syria in agreement with Turkey
"Trump’s Syria retreat blamed for murder of pro-democracy leader "Does Donald Trump Know What His Syria Policy Is? "How Trump just destroyed his own Syria strategy"" "
U.S. Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper, left, and Iraqi Defense Minister Najah al-Shammari, right, stand for their countries’ national anthems during a welcome ceremony at the Defense Ministry in Baghdad, Oct. 23, 2019. (Hadi Mizban/AP)
ByErin Cunningham Oct. 24, 2019 at 2:53 a.m. GMT+11
ISTANBUL — Russian military police began patrolling parts of northeastern Syria on Wednesday as part of an agreement with Turkey that cemented Russia’s commanding role in the Syrian conflict as U.S. forces withdraw.
A column of Russian military vehicles arrived in the city of Kobane, once home to a U.S. military base, to assist in the withdrawal of Kurdish forces, according to Russia’s Defense Ministry and local news reports. The maneuvers would eventually lead to joint Turkish-Russian patrols of the border region, the ministry said in a statement, the Tass news agency reported.
“Big success on the Turkey/Syria Border. Safe Zone created!” President Trump wrote Wednesday on Twitter.
But even as Trump declared success in Syria, U.S. policy appeared to be in disarray.
Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper was in the Iraqi capital to discuss the redeployment of hundreds of U.S. troops, after Iraq’s military announced its opposition to allowing American forces to stay in the country.
Iraqi Defense Minister Najah al-Shammari told the Associated Press on Wednesday that U.S. forces were only “transiting” through Iraqi territory and would depart within four weeks. The Pentagon chief had said earlier this week that U.S. troops departing Syria would redeploy to western Iraq to continue fighting the Islamic State, also known as ISIS.
“The government has confirmed that it will not grant permission for U.S. forces retreating from Syrian territory to remain in Iraqi territory,” Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi said in a statement after a meeting with Esper.
He said Iraq was “taking all international legal measures” over the deployment of U.S. troops.
Also this week, Trump announced an apparent U.S. plan to secure lucrative oil fields in northern and eastern Syria. Esper told reporters Monday that a force of about 200 U.S. troops would be stationed near the oil fields “to deny access, specifically revenue to ISIS and any other groups that may want to seek that revenue to enable their own malign activities.”
But on Wednesday, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said the Syrian government should retain control of all the oil facilities in northeastern Syria, Reuters reported, quoting Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency.
The Kremlin also said Wednesday that the United States had betrayed and abandoned the Kurds in Syria.
“The United States was the closest ally of the Kurds over the past few years. But in the end, the U.S. abandoned the Kurds, actually betraying them,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, according to Tass.
Peskov added that if the SDF did not withdraw from the border, Syrian government forces and Russian military police would have to depart, leaving the Kurdish fighters exposed to the Turkish army. Russia, Turkey agree to joint patrols on Syria border
VIDEO Russia and Turkey's leaders agreed Oct. 22 to terms that would allow Ankara's military operation in Syria to continue after a U.S.-brokered cease-fire expired. (Reuters)
Turkey’s Defense Ministry said Wednesday that the withdrawal of Kurdish fighters following the agreements with the United States and Russia meant that there was “no further need to conduct a new operation.”
The Turkish campaign displaced nearly 180,000 people and prompted the SDF to strike a bargain with the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, allowing for the return of some pro-Assad forces to areas once under Kurdish control.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told the state-owned Anadolu News agency, however, that Turkish forces would “clear” any “terrorist remnants” from areas now under Turkish control in northeastern Syria.
Trump says a limited number of troops will remain in Syria after ordering a complete withdrawal - https://tinyurl.com/yxvj8fpj
For Syrian Kurds, a leader's killing deepens sense of U.S. betrayal
Tom Perry, Ellen Francis
October 23, 2019 / 12:02 AM / 2 months ago
Trump’s Syria retreat blamed for murder of pro-democracy leader "Does Donald Trump Know What His Syria Policy Is? "How Trump just destroyed his own Syria strategy""
6 Min Read
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Kurdish politician Hevrin Khalaf spent the final months of her life building a political party that she hoped would help shape Syria’s future, drawing the attention of U.S. officials who said it would have a say in what happened once the war ended.
IMAGE Kurds living in Lebanon hold Hevrin Khalaf's picture, a Kurdish politician who was killed in Syria, during a protest against Turkey's military action in northeastern Syria, in Beirut, Lebanon October 13, 2019. REUTERS/Aziz Taher
To her colleagues in the Future Syria Party and Kurdish communities in Syria’s northeast more broadly, her killing became a symbol of betrayal by the United States.
As recently as Oct. 3, State Department officials reassured her at a meeting that Washington would safeguard northern Syria from a threatened Turkish assault by mediating between Kurdish-led forces and Ankara, according to a colleague who was present.
A state department official said the U.S. message to Syrian partners had been consistent: that American forces would be withdrawing from the country.
Days after the meeting, President Donald Trump announced U.S. forces would quit the region, leaving it vulnerable to attack by Turkey.
Kurdish fighters in northeast Syria, key allies in the U.S. battle against Islamic State, said rebels fighting on the Turkish side murdered Khalaf. She was 34.
She was slain on Oct. 12 along with a driver and aide when Turkey-backed fighters stopped their SUV on the M4 highway in northern Syria, according to the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and officials in her party.
The spokesman for the Turkey-backed Syrian rebel force, the National Army, at the time denied its fighters killed her, saying they had not advanced as far as the M4.
Last week, the spokesman, Youssef Hammoud, said the incident was being investigated among other “breaches”.
“If America hadn’t decided to withdraw, these factions ... would not have dared to carry out their operations in that area,” said Moaz Abdul Karim, a Future Syria Party leader.
The U.S. State Department has said it was looking into reports of Khalaf’s death apparently while in the hands of Turkey-backed forces, calling the reports “extremely troubling”.
An autopsy report circulated by the SDF said Khalaf’s body had been riddled with bullets.
AMERICAN ASSURANCES
On Oct. 3, U.S. State Department representatives visited the Future Syria Party’s headquarters in the Syrian city of Raqqa and told Khalaf and party president Ibrahim al-Kaftan that American efforts in the region were aimed at mediation.
Since the party was founded in 2018, its leaders say U.S. officials have voiced their support. The party aims to attract members from across the ethnic spectrum in a region where critics said the Kurdish YPG militia had become too powerful.
“Yes, there was encouragement from the Americans to set up a party,” Kaftan said.
“The party was already being worked on by a team who believes in Syrian democracy. It was a Syrian idea, not an American one, but I repeat they were in favor of this idea,” he told Reuters in written answers to questions.
U.S. forces withdrew from a section of the border on Oct. 7, and soon afterwards Turkish troops mounted their third incursion into northern Syria since 2016.
Ankara views the YPG as a terrorist threat due to their links to a Kurdish insurgency at home. It has also said its operation in Syria was designed to create a buffer where some of the 3.6 million refugees who fled the Syrian conflict into Turkey could be re-settled.
DEEPLY INVOLVED
A civil engineer by training, Khalaf was deeply involved in the politics of northeast Syria from the earliest days of the war, now in its eighth year.
After leaving her job as a state employee, she helped to set up the Kurdish-led administration whose influence would eventually stretch over one third of Syria including predominantly Arab areas.
Slideshow (2 Images)
In 2018, she was elected secretary general of the Future Syria Party, which was launched from Raqqa, a predominantly Arab city where the SDF defeated IS in 2017 with U.S. backing.
Kaftan, an Arab architect from Manbij, was elected its leader, and he said that U.S. and French officials attended the ceremony.
The United States has long adopted a cautious political approach toward northern Syria, even as it backed the SDF militarily in the fight against IS.
Washington opposed the emergence of the Kurdish-led autonomous region and the main Kurdish groups were always kept out of the U.N. political process for Syria, despite their huge influence on the ground.
But according to Kaftan, U.S. officials including the envoy for Syria James Jeffrey told members of his party that it would have a role in international talks over Syria’s future.
The State Department official said the United States wanted a political solution to Syria’s conflict that included “full representation for all Syrians.
“U.S. officials, including Ambassador Jeffrey, made clear that this included the populations of northeast Syria and intervened repeatedly with the UN to this end.”
The fate of Kurds in northern Syria is now more uncertain than it has been for years. Stripped of U.S. protection, the SDF struck a deal for Syrian government forces to deploy into the region it controlled.
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