JERUSALEM — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan could be on the brink of engulfing Syria in a new war with his slated invasion of the country’s north in an effort to decimate the U.S.-allied Syrian Kurds who helped President-elect Trump defeat the Islamic State in 2019.
The White House-brokered cease-fire between Turkey and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) has been largely ignored by pro-Turkey forces and Erdoğan, according to Fox News information from northern Syria. The SDF, which lost 12,000 fighters in its campaign to aid the U.S. in the victory over the Islamic State, is faced with an existential crisis.
An SDF source in northern Syria told Fox News Digital that the Syrian Opposition and the Syrian National Army, both of whom are aligned with Erdoğan’s government, “are building up around Kobani from the east and west directions. Assaults on the Tishreen Dam are still taking place intermittently. SDF confront them and push them back continuously. Additionally, the Kobani frontlines are subjected constantly to Turkish armed drones and artillery targeting. No support from any nation. Just the U.S. helping with mediation between us and the Turks aims to have a permanent cease-fire.”
President Trump, left, talks with Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as they arrive at a summit of heads of state and government at NATO headquarters in Brussels on July 11, 2018. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)
Several requests for comment from Fox News Digital to President-elect Trump’s spokespeople and his incoming National Security Council adviser, Rep. Michael Waltz, R-Fla., were not immediately returned.
Shukriya Bradost, an expert on the Kurds, who was born and raised in the Kurdistan region of Iran, told Fox News Digital, “Turkey’s most pragmatic option is to engage in dialogue with the Kurdish administration in Syria, facilitated by the United States. A cooperative relationship could serve both Turkish and Kurdish interests, stabilizing the region while addressing Turkey’s security concerns and the experience that Turkey already has with the Kurdistan Region of Government in Iraq (KRG).”
She added, “Turkey has already shown that it can cooperate with a Kurdish administration in Syria. In the past, oil from northern Syria flowed through KRG into Turkey, demonstrating the potential for economic and political collaboration. This precedent proves that mutual interests can override historical hostilities.”
Bradost recommended that Washington “broker a historic agreement that addresses Turkey’s security concerns without dismantling Kurdish autonomy in Syria. Much like the Abraham Accords brought unprecedented diplomatic breakthroughs in the Middle East, a U.S.-facilitated deal between Turkey and the Syrian Kurds could offer a transformative path forward.”
On Friday, the State Department’s top diplomat for the Middle East, Barbara Leaf, met with representatives of the U.S.-designated terrorist organization Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) in Damascus. HTS and its Islamist allies ousted the regime of Syrian dictator Bashar Assad less than two weeks ago.
Leaf told reporters after the meeting that there is a cease-fire around Manbij and there are concerns about “the effects of fighting near the Tishreen Dam and damage to that dam, especially if it were significant structural damage.” She added the U.S. is working with Turkish authorities and the SDF for a cease-fire around Kobani.
