Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says a deal has been reached with Russia for Kurdish fighters to withdraw from a Turkish-ruled “safe zone” in northeast Syria within 150 hours, after which Ankara and Moscow will run joint patrols around the area.
Turkey this month launched an offensive to drive out the Kurdish forces from their southern frontier and create a buffer zone.
Russia is an ally of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad and has raised concern about foreign interference in Syria.
According to the deal announced at a joint news conference in Sochi, Ankara will control a 32km-wide (20 miles) area between the towns of Tal Abyad and Ras al-Ain, which covers 120km (75 miles) of the Turkish-Syrian border.
Turkey and Russia will now conduct joint patrols on the border.
Hours after the deal was announced Turkey said there was no need to re-launch its offensive, which was on hold due to a ceasefire, as Kurdish fighters had withdrawn from the Turkish “safe zone”.
The deal cames after the US announced a sudden and unexpected withdrawal and analysts see it as cementing Turkish and Russian influence in the region.
Since last week’s truce deal, Ankara had repeatedly warned that the offensive would immediately restart if the SDF did not withdraw from the region
Syrian President bashar al- Assad thanked President Putin and “expressed his full support for the results of the work as well as the readiness of the Syrian border guards, together with the Russian military police, to reach the Syrian-Turkish border,” the Kremlin said.
Meanwhile, in a clear violation of the deal to pause hostilities in Syria, YPG/PKK terrorists on Tuesday martyred three soldiers of the Turkey-backed Syrian National Army (SNA).
Eighteen other SNA soldiers were injured despite the Turkey-U.S. deal on pausing Operation Peace Spring for 120 hours to allow terrorists to withdraw from the planned safe zone area. The pause ends Tuesday evening.
Ankara and the U.S. have agreed on a 20-miles (32-kilometers) safe zone south of the Turkish border in Syria, where Turkey wants to accommodate more than three million refugees it is currently hosting.
