White House National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby made evaluations about the situation in Türkiye and Syria in the press briefing he held via teleconference.
“I WILL NOT GO INTO DETAILS”
In response to a question, Kirby argued that the main mission of their presence in Syria was “fighting DAESH” and stated that negotiations with Turkey on the PKK/YPG issue were continuing, but that he would not go into details.
Evaluating the meeting traffic on the Washington-Ankara line regarding the situation in Syria, Kirby stated that they understand Turkey’s security concerns regarding the north of Syria.
“WE UNDERSTAND TURKEY’S SECURITY CONCERNS”
“As I mentioned before, we understand their (Turks’) security concerns. To be honest, Turkey’s concerns are not invalid concerns,” Kirby said. he said.
Kirby stated that they cooperate with the terrorist organization PKK/YPG, which uses the name SDF, only within the scope of the fight against DAESH, and said:
“I would like to re-emphasize why we are in Syria. We are there because we are part of the coalition to fight ISIS. Although ISIS has been greatly weakened, it still remains an active threat. That is why our soldiers are cooperating with the SDF to take action against ISIS . That’s what we’re doing there. There’s no change in that mission.”
The US advisor stated that they understand Ankara’s security concerns arising from PKK/YPG, but they do not want to see any steps that would “make the situation more unstable than it already is”, especially in northern Syria.
Kirby added that they did not want the PKK/YPG elements’ “capacity to partner in anti-DAESH operations” to be negatively affected.
THE POSSIBILITY OF FRANCE SENDING SOLDIERS TO SYRIA
Asked for his opinion on the current debate about the possibility of sending French soldiers to Syria, Kirby stated that the issue was not related to the United States and therefore he would not make a comment, and that Ankara and Paris would express their own reactions on this issue on their own behalf.
Source: AA