The United States’ help for the PKK terrorist group and its Syrian offshoot, the YPG, in Syria prevails as a significant irritant in Turkish-U.S. relations. The final U.S. ambassador to serve in Syria, Robert Ford, says Washington doesn’t perceive Türkiye’s safety issues in Syria’s north, the place the terrorist group holds swathes of land. Ford says Washington considers the scenario a “security problem” when it is actually a “political downside.”
“I think Washington in general, and also many analysts in Washington, do not understand the extent of anger which American relations with the YPG causes generates in Türkiye,” Ford, who was the U.S. ambassador to Syria between 2011 and 2014, told Anadolu Agency (AA) in an interview. “They suppose it is only a trivial matter, and it’s a necessity due to Daesh, and the Turks ought to cease worrying about it. And it is a type of an American ignoring a significant Turkish concern,” he continued.
The U.S. coverage on Syria has been one of the vital difficult points between the 2 NATO allies. Türkiye has by no means accepted the U.S. backing for the YPG due to its ties to the PKK, which is acknowledged as a terrorist group by each Türkiye and the U.S. The U.S., however, sees the YPG as a accomplice within the combat towards Daesh in Syria and doesn’t acknowledge it as a terrorist group.
The PKK has waged a marketing campaign of terror towards Türkiye for greater than 35 years and has been accountable for the deaths of greater than 40,000 folks.
Asked concerning the U.S. technique of defeating Daesh in Syria, Ford, a veteran U.S. diplomat who’s at the moment a fellow at Yale University’s Jackson Institute for Global Affairs, mentioned: “I feel the mission is not possible. And the truth that they’ve been there 4 years after the seize of Baghuz and nonetheless there’s a Daesh insurgency tells me the mission can’t be achieved … They can keep in jap Syria, however they can not fully remove Daesh. It’s only a actuality.”
According to Ford, the Sunni Arabs in Syria’s Hassakeh and Deir el-Zour provinces may remove Daesh, however they don’t have the “incentives” and “means” to do this. “Americans need to think about how to de-radicalize fighters instead of just imprisoning them in remote prison camps, which we know from experience doesn’t work,” he stressed. On U.S. support for the YPG to defeat Daesh, Ford said it had an “quick short-term profit” between 2015-2019. “Like now, in 2023, can the YPG stop recruitment of unhappy young people that join Daesh in places like Deir el-Zour or Hassakeh? They can’t. If anything, there’s a lot of resentment among local Arab communities towards the YPG,” he said. “This is a query of empowering the native communities to do extra,” he added.
YPG-PKK ties
In response to a query concerning the YPG’s hyperlink with the PKK, Ford mentioned, “We have to be honest, there is not a big difference between YPG fighters and the PKK.” “And in truth, individuals who go to Qamishli and the autonomous administration inform me that they typically hear Qandil accents among the many folks there. So we all know they arrive from Qandil,” he mentioned. The PKK makes use of the Qandil Mountains in northern Iraq as its stronghold and is lively in lots of cities and cities in and across the area.
“The Americans can deny it, but that would be naive. And I think, frankly, the Americans have stopped denying it. Now they simply say it’s a practical measure, a kind of cooperation,” he said. “I simply suppose the Americans do not take Turkish issues very significantly. And they have an inclination to consider this as a safety downside when it is a political downside,” he famous.
U.S.-Iran tensions
The latest tensions in Syria after an Iranian-backed group’s drone assault on a U.S. base and the U.S. concentrating on them with airstrikes put the highlight on the continued presence of U.S. troops. The U.S. troops, who quantity almost 1,000, will proceed to remain in Syria, White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby mentioned final week, including, “The mission towards Daesh just isn’t going to alter.”
Asked concerning the latest tensions, Ford mentioned they “will continue.” “There will likely be extra Iranian assaults, and when there’s a dying, in all probability the Americans will reply sharply. I do not see an finish to it,” he mentioned. Neither aspect needs a “big war,” Ford noted, adding that it was “uncommon” that President Joe Biden publicly said the U.S. does not seek conflict with Iran, which he thinks is a sign that “they didn’t wish to provoke that escalation.”
According to Ford, the American mission in jap Syria will proceed “indefinitely,” and he sees “no clear finish to it.” “The last Daesh stronghold in Baghuz fell more than four years ago. The Americans are still there. The Americans don’t have a clear idea what they need to withdraw,” he said, adding public support in the U.S. is also “thus far okay.” Earlier this month, the U.S. House of Representatives voted towards a decision directing the Biden administration to withdraw all U.S. troops from Syria in a 103-321 vote. “There is no critical majority in Washington yet that supports withdrawing troops from eastern Syria, or that supports withdrawing aid from the Syrian Democratic Forces,” he said. Ford said he believes the American troops in Syria “ought to come dwelling.” “I really feel horrible that an American citizen died a few days in the past for a mission which can by no means be achieved, and we must be sincere about it,” he mentioned concerning the airstrike by Iranian-backed teams towards a U.S. base in Syria, which resulted within the dying of an American contractor and wounded a number of U.S. troops.
Source: www.dailysabah.com
